Circles in the Stream (Avalon: Web of Magic #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

that strange girl who’d brought the wounded cat to the clinic. “What do you think you’re doing here?” she demanded.
    Emily moved back a step. “I…I…you called for help,” she said, confused by the girl’s hostility.
    “I did not!” The girl was crouched over something. “This is private property. Get out of here!”
    Emily wasn’t about to be intimidated again. “And what gives you the right to be here?” she shot back.
    “I live here,” she said.
    Emily tried to peer over the girl’s shoulder. “What’s that you’ve got there?”
    “Nothing,” she insisted, maneuvering her body between Emily and whatever she was hiding.
    Emily edged closer.
    “Go home!” the girl demanded, dark eyes flashing. “You don’t belong here.”
    “Neither do I!” exclaimed a high-pitched voice. “And whatever I am, I’m certainly not nothing. Ow, my leg! Ow-ow-owwwie!!!”
    Emily faked to the left, then twisted around to her right. Before the other girl knew it, Emily was past her.
    She blinked, totally surprised. In front of her, a golden ferret writhed in pain, his foot caught in a steel trap that was way too big for his elongated, furry body. “He needs help!” Emily exclaimed.
    “That’s what I was trying to do, genius,” the girl replied.
    Emily bent over to examine the ferret closer. His fur was mostly pale gold with wisps of brown; his feet, tail tip, and mask were darker brown.
    “Watch out, he’ll bite you,” the girl warned.
    Cautiously, Emily reached down to find a good grip on the trap.
    “Owwie, owwwie…ow—Aghhh!!!!”
    “Hold still a minute,” she told the ferret. “I haven’t done anything yet.”
    “Oh. Well, get on with it.”
    Emily’s jaw dropped. She stared at the ferret. “It’s…it can’t be—but I think he’s talking! ”
    “Score one for you,” the girl replied.
    Emily tried to pull apart the steel jaws, but she wasn’t strong enough. The other girl reached out to help. Together, they pulled the trap open just enough for the creature to wiggle his foot free.
    “Oh, that feels so goooood! I could kiss you, but I’m not sure I even have lips.”
    Emily’s head whirled. This was impossible!
    The ferret sat and examined his foot. “What in the world am I?” he asked, alarmed. “I look like some sort of rodent !” He stood and hobbled. “Aaahhh! How could they do this to me?” Then he looked up at Emily and his small eyes, set inside the brown mask, blinked. “Hey, aren’t you the one who hit me on the head with that big rock?”
    “It was a soccer ball,” she corrected distractedly. Wait a minute! She was correcting a ferret !
    “Is that some kind of formal greeting here? Beaning me on the head?”
    “It was an accident.”
    “What kind of world is this? Everything hurts!” the ferret whined.
    “What’s he talking about?” the other girl asked. “You hit him?”
    “No, I mean, yes, I—” Emily stopped suddenly. “But—but—that means…” She sat down hard on the ground. “If we can both hear him, then it must really—I mean, can it be talking?” She shook her head. “No way! Not possible!”
    “Stop talking about me as if I’m not here,” the ferret complained. He tried to walk on his wounded paw. “Owww!” He was obviously in pain.
    That snapped Emily back to reality. “We’ve got to get him to my mom. She can fix up his leg.”
    “No way—I am staying right here. I am not going anywAahHH!” The ferret screamed and leaped onto Emily’s leg, grabbing at her shirt with his claws. Emily turned. Her heart began to pound. A great silver wolf stepped out of the shadows and walked to the dark-haired girl’s side. It sat down and cocked its head at Emily. It was the wolf from the glade.
    “Hello, healer.”
    Emily was stunned. Was that the wolf ’s voice in her mind?
    “Help, it’s a mistwolf!” yelled the terrified ferret.
    The girl was patting the wolf. “You know this person?”
    “We had an adventure,” the wolf