Arcene: The Island Read Online Free PDF

week with a sore bottom and had a dislike for carrots to this day.
    The trees were now about ten feet below them but they weren't gaining much altitude. That was the least of their concerns, as the basket smoked and the flames licked higher. Arcene managed to get a bottle of water out of the backpack then shouted to Fasolt, "Use your knife you idiot, cut your hair off."
    Fasolt stared at her like she had gone stark raving mad. She knew it was a lost cause, had long held the suspicion he drew power from his ever-longer dreadlocks — they seemed to grow many feet each year. Now well over four meters and showing no sign of slowing down, Fasolt's demeanor improved the longer they grew, and he became the man he said he'd always wished he could have been. So there was no way he would cut them off just because he was stuck to the rope and their transport was on fire.
    "Okay, here we go." Arcene upended the bottle onto the matting and it sizzled, a satisfying sound heard above the howl of the wind.
    There was a creak and a feeling of sinking, just as the wind changed direction again. Lightning flashed and the balloon skirted to the right, heading northward, pace picking up and finally ascending.
    "We'll be all right, it's working," said Fasolt with a smile, undoing one trapped dreadlock and working as fast as he could on the next. He stared at the end of a handful as he hauled them over the side, the ends singed and smelling terrible.
    "Yeah, I think the storm's behind us now. Look, it's getting brighter." Arcene was right, the sky was clearing, the dark clouds dissipating. The landscape revealed itself.
    Then the bottom fell out of the basket. Leel dropped into nothingness, closely followed by Arcene, hand still trapped in her collar.
    She didn't even have chance to scream.
    Fasolt drifted higher and higher, saved by his knotted dreadlocks, and was whisked away.
    Lighting crackled in the distance, the sun took a final chance to shine before it sank behind the strange silhouette to the west, and two friends crashed into the canopy of the forest.

 
     
     
    Another Adventure
    Arcene felt the bottom fall out of her world, and the only thing she could think of was she hoped she didn't break her sword. Her life didn't flash before her eyes; she was rather calm. She had been on enough adventures, come close to death so many times because of others or because of a little bother she had got herself into due to her insatiable curiosity, that she no longer felt the gut-wrenching fear of death. She knew it wasn't her time, the world still had too much to offer, and her it.
    That didn't mean it wasn't terrifying, it just meant that as she was dragged down by Leel she had the foresight to act, and act fast. As she dove headfirst toward the trees, she moved her free hand from her side and took hold of Leel's collar. She dragged herself to Leel and ended up astride her friend as Leel's legs pawed the air in total panic.
    I'm riding Leel like a horse, but a flying horse.
    Arcene unhooked her caught hand by pulling the collar away a little and turned Leel so she was belly down, then released the stressed dog and moved away from her a little. It all happened so fast she had no time to think, merely acted on instinct, doing what she could to save them. Less than a second had passed but time was up. They would hit and the only thing that would save them was the fact they hadn't fallen far so were nowhere near maximum velocity.
    "Stay calm, Leel. Grab a branch and don't fall out of the tree."
    Woof, woof, woof.
    "I know, but we don't have any other choice. Get re—"
    Oomf.
    Their fall ended simultaneously, smacking into the top of an oak tree belly first then tumbling from the dying light into darkness as the canopy enveloped them. Leel whimpered and Arcene clutched wildly for anything to halt her fall, but the canopy closed behind them and it was impossible to see as leaves and branches whipped past in a blur, the only sound her own heavy breathing