Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky Read Online Free PDF Page B

think it would be better if we both slept on this and decided in the morning.”
    “All right. Sleep well, Dad.”
    Zahn gave his father a hug, took the fragment, and walked back up to his room. Behind him, he thought he heard his dad say, “Wrap it carefully, Zahn.”
    After Zahn had closed the chest, he walked over to the lattice wall and looked out over the forest. The sky was clear, revealing thousands of stars above, and a half moon hung high in the sky, faintly illuminating the tops of the trees below.
    He walked over to a small, round window and looked out to see the path which led behind the house and then up to Zikhara Peak. As the leaves moved in the breeze, the moonlight patterns on the ground slowly changed.
    For some reason, his mind drifted back to his dream of the pyramid flying in the sky. He thought of his mother’s words in the dream, telling him that he was ready. Zahn suspected that was his unconscious mind’s way of telling him that he had to tell his father what he’d found, but he also wondered where the pyramid fit into all of that.
    With these strange thoughts still floating around in his mind, Zahn walked to the corner of his room, climbed into his hammock, and sank into a deep sleep.

CHAPTER7
     
    A TAPPING IN THE NIGHT
     
     
    TAP, TAP, TAP was the sound that disturbed Zahn’s sleep just a few hours later. At first, he thought he might have been imagining it. After all, the boundaries between sleeping and waking had been blurred for him lately. But the sound came again, jolting Zahn up.
    He turned his head to look around the room, but he saw no one. Briefly, Zahn envisioned massive Zikhara bears, tapping on the window, hungry for Avanian flesh.
    TAP, TAP, TAP.
    Now that he was fully alert, Zahn knew exactly where the sound was coming from and approached the round window. In the daytime, the window provided a prime view of the path that led into the forest behind the house, but tonight the view seemed almost foreign. As he approached the window, he saw the faintest outline in the shadows.
    Quite the opposite from a bloodthirsty bear, the outline gradually resolved itself into the shape of a figure just outside the window, wearing a silvery uniform that was shimmering faintly. Something else was odd about this figure, too, but his mind couldn’t settle on what it was. Now that it saw Zahn, it was motioning for him to open the window. Whatever it was, why had it scaled the side of the house in the middle of the night?
    In situations like this, Zahn found it crucial to listen to his instincts. In this case, his instincts were telling him to be cautious but also that this figure meant him no harm, so with some suspicion, he opened the window slightly.
    “Who the heck are you?” he whispered.
    As the man blinked his eyes, his skin glowed slightly, and for a fraction of a second, Zahn saw his distinguished face with eyes that seemed so dark as to be black. The man had a strong jaw and short black hair to match his eyes.
    “I am Oonak of the Confederation of Unity, and I request your help in a matter of utmost importance.”
    “What?”
    “Are you not the one who found the fragment?”
    For a moment, Zahn wondered if he should confirm the strange man’s question. What if the fragment didn’t belong to him at all? But again, his intuition told him to trust this man, despite these strange circumstances.
    “Yes. I am.”
    “The fragment you found is part of my ship, and regrettably this entire situation is in danger of disrupting the balance. May I please have the fragment back?”
    “Perhaps. But why should I trust you?”
    “If you follow me, I will show you the ship that fragment broke off from.”
    Zahn considered the danger of following him, but in the end, his curiosity overcame his fear. After all, he knew these islands better than anyone, and if this man turned out to be dangerous, he could vanish into the forest within moments.
    “Okay. I’ll be right there.”
    Soon, Zahn had