A Gypsy Song (The Eye of the Crystal Ball - The Wolfboy Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF

curious and wanted to see the Gitanos with her own eyes. Because she was the child of a fearless leader, she herself wanted to become fearless, and everyone knows that the only way to conquer your fear is to face it. On top of it all she didn’t want to be afraid of something she had never seen. That was just plain stupid, she thought while she ran through the forest hoping not to disturb any of the creatures of the night.
    She came to the valley and crossed the bridge over the river. Lights and the sound of music filled the forest as she neared the camp of the Gitano people. She climbed one of the trees in the clearing and had a good view at the people her father had told her would steal her soul if she let them.
    “They have made a pact with the devil,” he told her. “They have sold their souls to the evil spirits so they would have prosperity.”
    So Sara wanted to see what the devil’s people looked like. She imagined they would have horns on their heads and tails on their backs. But they were nothing like that.
    They looked perfectly normal (as normal as a Romani-tribe could be) sitting around their bonfire, clapping their hands while a girl danced in front of them.
    She wore a big red and black dress. Sara liked the rhythm. It reminded her of the music her own tribe played only faster and more tempered.
    The young woman stood still for a second. Only her chest was moving, while she breathed. She was looking straight in front of her with an intense almost angry look. On her forehead little beads of sweat glittered. Her mouth with the extremely red lips was a little open. A couple of seconds later the magic silence was transformed into a powerful movement. The woman stomped rhythmically on the wooden panel she was standing on. It made a loud noise. Her arms were moving fast in front of her face and over her head. Then she took her skirts and lifted them just so that they still covered her knees and then she swung them around her.
    “Así se baila! Baile bueno! Olé,” the crowd yelled and clapped.
    Then a boy sat next to her with his guitar and began to play fast and with great feeling The rhythm was incredible.
    For hours Sara let the sounds, the lights and the smells blend and enclose her, and she had the feeling of being the witness to something truly magical. A passionate performance, she didn’t quite understand but it still allured her.
    When the woman was done, everyone got up and started dancing and singing and Sara forgot all about getting back to her own camp.
    When she finally remembered that she had to get back and climbed down from the tree, someone was waiting for her. As she placed her foot on the ground she heard a voice behind her.
    “Who are you?”
    She turned around and looked into the eyes of the boy that had played on the guitar earlier in the evening. He was a little taller than her, had brown eyes and curly brown hair under his soft hat. Her heart started to pound remembering what her dad had said about the Gitano people.
    “Please don’t take my soul,” she said.
    The boy laughed out loud.
    “Why are you laughing?”
    “Well, I haven’t heard that one before. A lot of other things, but never that one,” he said.
     “What do you mean by that?”
    “People call us all kinds of things and are scared of us for a lot of reasons.”
    “That is because you take people’s souls. You have made a pact with the devil,” Sara said. “That is what I have heard.”
    “You heard wrong,” the boy said.
    Sara stared at the boy. Was she supposed to be afraid of him?
    “So what do you do?”
    “We sing and dance and I play the guitar. Flamenco.”
    Sara had a hard time believing him.
    “Is that all? What about bad spells? Do you curse people?”
    “I don’t know anything about that. But you best be running along now. It has gotten very dark and the creatures are coming out soon.”
    Sara looked into the forest and saw nothing but darkness.
    “I am not afraid of a little darkness,”