Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu; Erin Mcguire

Author:Anne Ursu; Erin Mcguire
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Young Adult.Fantasy
ISBN: 9780062015051
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Skins

Hazel scooted forward quickly, though her heart still tried to tug her back. She didn’t even know where she was going, or whether she could find her way back home, but the path belonged to the wolf now.

Maybe, when she had Jack, she could come back for the shoes.

The best she could do was move along the edge of the ravine. The path had been running parallel to it—logically it still would be—and at least that way she’d still be going in the direction the raven had told her to.

She trod along the unsteady ground, trying to move as soundlessly as possible. The sun was at its peak in the sky now. She’d been walking for at least half a day. Her body was wearing, and there was no sign of anything that would point her to Jack. She thought again of the woodsman, and what he might have told her, and hoped there were as many woodsmen here as wolves.

But she went on, following the ravine below, up a hill and then back down again, wondering if she was going in the right direction, or in any direction at all, accompanied all the while by the ticking of the great clock.

She came upon an area of flat ground, about the size of her school gym. And spread over much of it was the canopy of a tree that had a trunk the width of a minivan. This tree, unlike every other one she’d seen, still had its leaves—a massive cloud of green hanging low over the grassy land and supported by a mess of tangled branches. It looked like an entire world might live within those leaves.

Hazel could not help but stop and stare at it—this, the biggest tree in the world. There was flickering within the leaves, birds that made their universe inside the mammoth cloud of branches. She wondered if they even knew about the sky.

Her eyes traveled past the tree, and then her heart lifted. For, just when she needed it, the path had appeared again.

She moved toward the path, wondering at the massive tree as she passed around it. And then she noticed the three women who sat at its base.

These women had oddly smooth features and eyes that were mostly pupils. They wore cloaks of a soft gray with hoods that framed their faces in shadow. They each had dark brown hair, dark skin, and deep brown eyes, so they looked like sisters to the tree behind them. A string of gray yarn stretched across them, and the last woman was working on a large wooden spinning wheel.

And as one all three turned to look at her.

“Oh, hi!” shouted the first. “Come here!” She motioned Hazel over with a cheerful wave. Hazel glanced toward the path, then took a few steps toward them.

“What’s your name?” the woman asked brightly.

“Um”—Hazel pressed her shoe into the ground—“Hazel Anderson.”

“Oh,” said the first. “You don’t look like an Anderson.”

“That’s rude,” said the second.

“So sue me,” said the first.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.