Crow - The Awakening Read Online Free PDF

nowadays," he confided in the executive.
    Steven grinned sheepishly. "It doesn't do much right now."
    "For now." Dmitri winked at the computer executive. He had always encouraged Steven's technical ambitions, in spite of his godparents. With his talent he could go far when he enters the workforce.
    Steven chuckled shyly, still uncomfortable with the conversation so close to his godparents. He handed the chef his receipt and thanked him and his friend as they moved on to the other booths, and Dmitri started to ask him more about his project when he stopped and smiled at someone behind him.
    Steven looked over at Jonah's booth and was shocked to see Jonah standing right beside him with a stack of books. Did he just walk up or did he overhear the discussion? Jonah plopped the stack of books on the table, jostling the jars of honey. "These just came in for you." Steven looked at them. His homeschool textbooks.
    "Uhm. Thanks?" Steven looked up at Jonah, but Jonah showed no sign of having heard anything. Dmitri quietly grabbed up his honey and wandered off. Jonah didn't approve of him hanging around much given his profession, so he tried to keep an inconspicuous profile. Steven already spent a lot of time at the library checking out books so he would grill him about his computer project then.
    "Now, be sure not to go through these too far ahead of the lessons. You do that every time and we have to follow a schedule to keep the state happy," Jonah chided. Steven was already a few years ahead of his normal grade and was on the verge of graduating high school before other kids entered junior high. His godparents weren't complaining too much and were quite proud of him, but they were also concerned that he was going through the material too fast to retain what he learned beyond the exams. Steven was pleased as he flipped through a few pages. Fresh meat, he thought.
    "Okay." Steven remembered the small box of computer parts sitting on the table and his heart jumped, but Jonah didn't notice it. Jonah shuffled through the stack of books and pulled out what he knew would be Steven's favorite - a large sketchpad. "And, here ya go," Jonah said as he presented it to him.
    "Cool! I'm almost done with mine!" Steven grabbed it and flipped through the blank pages, savoring the new paper crispness of the pressed cotton sheets. Jonah grinned. He was delighted that Steven was so artistic. Steven looked around the books. "Did you get any more pencils?"
    "Oh..." Jonah almost forgot and rushed back to his booth. Steven quickly tucked his box of computer parts under the table in his lunch basket, relieved. When he stood up there was another box on the table, but this time full of both color and black art pencils. "These should last you for a little while," Jonah said.
    "Excellent!" Steven opened the box and pulled out a pencil as he shoved the lunch basket under the table with his foot. His favorite way of passing time was drawing and he went through pencils fast. Today was a good day after all. He was determined to get that computer file he wanted, if indirectly. It would have been nice to be able to browse around, but he already knew what he wanted. He got the computer parts he had waited weeks for, and he got a fresh set of drawing supplies. The textbooks were the icing on his cake. Now he had to just finish at the market and head out to his tree house where all his computer work took place and get busy.

Chapter 2
    At chores' end, and with projects and schooling done for the day, Steven's playground and refuge was the vast forests of the mountainous hill country they lived in. Closer to home there was a fairly mixed forest of deciduous and conifer trees, a lot of it newer growth replacing previously cleared forests. Farther out, however, were more virgin, tall, conifer-dominated forests and forest floors littered with fallen trees, ferns and underbrush. He loved to play in both. And when not playing, he enjoyed taking a book and his drawing pad to