ribbit. As soon as the lass collects her good luck kiss, that is.” Even in frog form, he managed a cackle.
The townsfolk groaned at the suggestion. But to everyone’s surprise, Jozlyn bent down and kissed the wrinkled old frog on the head.
Pa Gnobbles wheezed in delight.
“You’re still a frog!” someone shouted at Pa. “The kiss didn’t work.”
“He’s always been a frog,” Widow Marmelmaid countered.
“More like a toad,” someone else added. “Gives us good frogs a bad name.” This got everyone laughing, even Pa Gnobbles.
We said quick goodbyes from there. I don’t think Mom would have allowed us to leave if we’d wasted much more time.
She kept telling us how proud she was of us. For some reason, she cried harder every time she said it. I guess being proud of your children can be depressing.
Connor hopped down the street with us but his frog legs couldn’t keep up for long. When we turned north toward Craggerscraw Hill, he shouted “Good luck, peasants!” then turned back.
We rested a bit on the edge of town with our backs against a big oak tree. Craggerscraw Hill rose sharply in the distance. It stood alone in a wide green field that stretched as far as we could see.
The hill looked out of place, like a small mountain that had run away from its family. On top of the hill something sparkled in the sunlight.
It was Ninespire, Wizard Ast’s tower.
I sighed heavily and got to my feet. “Might as well get going,” I told Jozlyn, helping her up. “I’m sure we’ll have more adventures waiting for us when we get back.”
Jozlyn snorted. “You always wanted to have adventures. Quit whining.” She gave me another pinch.
“I know, I know,” I agreed. “But I still don’t have a sword. A hero is supposed to have a sword.”
I held up one finger. I wasn’t about to let her interrupt, and I could tell she wanted to. Her mouth was already open. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it,” I snapped.
Jozlyn clamped her jaw shut tight and I started walking toward the lonely hill straight ahead. I felt a little better knowing I’d finally won one. But I’d have felt even better with a sword.
When we reached Craggerscraw Hill, it looked more imposing than ever. It was huge and made up of sharp rocks and sheer cliffs, and the hill was much taller than the trees in the Everleaf Woods. A narrow path looped its way up the side of the hill like the painted stripe on a top.
I leaned against a big flat-sided rock next to the path. “Are you sure you can do this?” I teased my sister. I was feeling much better about adventures again now that I had won an argument with her.
She scowled at me. “Race you to the—” she started to say, then took a look at the path. It was uneven and covered with loose stones.
“Never mind,” she reconsidered. “We’d better take our time. Let’s just make it to the top, all right?”
“Whatever you say,” I said with a smirk. “You’re my big sister. You’d know better than me.”
Jozlyn sighed. “If that’s how you want to be, Josh, fine. But you’re still acting like a little kid.”
She took a few steps up the path without me but suddenly turned around. “Heroes might carry swords, but little kids don’t. That’s why you don’t have one.”
With that, she began trudging uphill again.
I watched her go feeling sorry for myself. She was right. I was acting like a baby by pouting over a sword, and I was being mean to her for no reason.
I was acting like a brat. We had more important things to worry about, like getting to the top of the hill and saving our town.
When would I learn? Jozlyn wasn’t that much older than I was, but she’d been behaving a whole lot more mature.
I scrambled up the slippery path as fast as I could. Jozlyn had already disappeared around the other side of the hill.
Rocks and dirt tumbled down beneath me and I slid backward. For every three steps I took, I stumbled down one or two.
When I rounded the first corner, I was surprised to find Jozlyn nowhere in sight. She was really moving fast. I needed to speed up or she’d be waiting at the top long before I arrived.
I’d never hear the end of that, especially after being such a brat.
I turned the second corner and still didn’t see her. There was a big boulder in my way instead. It sat right in the middle of the path with no way around it. The boulder was shaped something like a giant egg and had a big crack running up and down its center.
“Jozlyn?” I whispered, suddenly afraid. There was no way that I’d passed her because the path was only wide enough for one. And there was no way around the boulder.
“Look, I’m sorry. I know I’ve been acting like a baby. Please don’t play tricks right now.”
I waited but heard nothing. There was nothing but me, the path, and the dead end.
A gust of wind ruffled my hair and made me feel dizzy. The ground was far below, and I wanted nothing more than to race back down the path.
Hoping to calm my nerves, I reached out and rested one hand on the big boulder. I kept picturing myself falling off the edge of the hill. It was a straight drop to the ground. A long, straight drop.
Crrrrench! The boulder trembled under my hand.
Shouting in alarm, I tumbled backward, tripped, and thudded onto my backside. Loose ground gave way beneath me and I started to slide down the trail.
Rocks poked and scraped me as I slipped helplessly. The walls of the path raced by and I clawed desperately at them to try to stop my descent.
Crrrrench! The boulder shook again and groaned. Dust swelled up around it in a cloud, and it seemed to grow larger.
Then I realized that the boulder was opening. The crack in its center was spreading, and the point at the top was splitting apart.
“Jozlyn!” I screamed. The boulder was alive and I was falling fast.
16: FLOATING, FLYING, FALLING
ABOVE me, the boulder continued to split farther apart. It creaked and shook like a hatching egg. Its splitting halves looked like giant wings spreading open.
Sliding faster, I screamed. Falling from this height would mean certain death. But kicking my legs didn’t slow me. Neither did grasping at the ground and rocks.
The rough walls of the path hurtled past me in a blur, and the path turned sharply just ahead of me. Rolling and slipping along with it, I tumbled down like an acorn bouncing through tangled tree branches.
My momentum flipped me onto my stomach and sent me zooming headfirst. The steep side of the hill sped closer. The field far below waited.
Helplessly, I watched it race nearer.
With the force of a punch, an unseen weight slammed into my shoulders. It knocked the air from my lungs and propelled me faster along the slick path.
I was almost to the edge. I tried to suck in a breath but dirt and dust choked my mouth. I couldn’t slow down. I was going to die.
As if watching it happen to someone else, I glided off the edge of the hill and into the air with a shower of debris. I soared into weightless silence.
I flailed my arms and legs but they touched nothing and felt nothing but wind. I was floating.
Flying.
Falling.
The ground raced up to meet me in a spiraling ocean of green.
I’d had dreams of falling before. Dreams so frightening that I woke gasping for breath. But those dreams were nothing compared to this sensation. This was real. This was the end.
The ground lurched and twisted, or maybe it was me.
Somehow I was turning. Not falling anymore. Wind howled in my ears and tore at my clothing. The hill rushed back into view. I was climbing higher!
Pain lanced into my shoulders again, and I realized that something had hold of me. It clutched me with sharp fingers of stone. I was almost sure that I was bleeding under its tight grip.
I turned to look over my shoulder at what held me. Wind brought tears to my eyes, but I made out
the massive shape of a stone bird. It clutched my shoulders with granite talons.
Seeing it, I understood that the boulder on the path hadn’t been a boulder at all. It had really been a giant bird made out of rock.
With its wings spread as we soared through the air, the great bird was as wide as a house. It looked like a statue come to life. Its powerful wings made a terrible grinding sound with every flap.
We climbed higher and the bird’s chiseled beak let out a deafening rumble, sounding like an avalanche.
I risked a glance down and regretted it immediately. My stomach lurched at the sight, and I felt like I might pass out. Only squeezing my eyes shut as hard as I could stopped the awful sensations.
I wanted badly to stop wondering about how a rock managed to fly through the air. I wanted not to think about it, but I did anyway.
Rocks didn’t fly, I knew. It was impossible. But here I was flying in the clutches of an enormous stone bird.
Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe I had already hit the ground. Or maybe the impossible wasn’t so impossible …
Suddenly, I understood as if someone had shown me a picture. The reason the bird could fly was obvious. Especially considering where I was and whom I was near.
Wizard Ast.
The bird was a creature of the wizard’s magic. With magic, I realized, the impossible was possible.
As we flew ever higher, I repeated that important lesson to myself. Hoping it was true and counting on it.
Magic makes the impossible possible. Magic makes the impossible possible.
I felt a bit safer as we soared through the sky, but I still kept my eyes closed.
Without warning, the pressure of the bird’s powerful talons around my shoulders relaxed and I fell
Cauldron Cooker's Night (Epic Fantasy Adventure Series, Knightscares Book 1) Page 8