Finding The Soul Bridge (The Soul Fire Saga Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

morning was warming up slowly, but the water in the waterfall remained as clear and cold as ever.
    “Jem, do you feel something strange in this waterfall?” said Thist.
    “Like what?” asked Jem.
    “I don’t know, like something calling to you from the bottom of this plunge pool?”
    Jem looked stumped. “Yes, the diamonds at the bottom of the pool that’s going to make us rich like no person in this world has ever been.”
    “No.” said Thist. “There is something else here. I just can’t put my finger on it.”
    “That’s because it’s too deep for you to reach.” said Jem with a sarcastic snigger. “Besides, I just think that you have diamond fever.”
    “We better go,” said Thist, “we have quite a climb ahead of us.”
    The boys shouldered their rucksacks and headed toward the mountain.
    As the ground started sloping up to the foot of the mountain, the trees seemed to increase in size, the roots coming up from the earth like giant talons. A thick carpet of leaves and moss made for a soft walk through the forest, and all the sounds seemed dampened. They passed the place where they had last collected mushrooms, only to see the patches they had cleared, were over grown again.
    “We’re almost halfway,” said Jem.
    Thist looked at his long-time friend. He couldn’t see in his face if he was joking or not.
    “You know Jem, sometimes when you speak; horse dung comes out of your mouth.”
    “I know. It must be fun to listen to.”
    “So where is the stuff?”
    “Look, the forest is thinning out as we move up to the middle of the mountain. Just on the edge of the forest, as it opens up, we will find the ant nests built on dead trees.”
    “Tell me, master Jem.” mocked Thist. “How do we get into the ant nests?”
    “Oh, ye of little faith shall be shown, the heavens will open up and the so-called gods will pour down their blessing on the so-called believers.”
    “Jem, don’t mock. Just because you don’t believe in the gods doesn’t mean they are not there.”
    The two boys walked in silence for a while. The forest seemed to end abruptly. One moment there were trees all around them, and the next moment, there was bright sunlight enveloping them. Long dried grass stood waist high carpeting the whole area.
    “Wow!” said Jem. “I had forgotten how humid the forest is! Feel the fresh air?”
    Thist scanned the area and shielded his eyes from the bright light. “Look over there.”
    Jem looked to where Thist was pointing. A great tree stood grey and stripped of bark, and around its trunk, a big red-brown mass of compacted earth, twelve paces around and twenty paces high.
    Jem grinned like a crocodile. “That’s the one we’re going to plunder for our booty.”
    Thist looked dubious. “One of two things is going to happen today my friend. Either you are going to make a believer out of me,” as he pointed to the impossible size of the ant nest, “or we are going home without hum. I didn’t see any shovel in your rucksack and there sure isn’t one in mine.”
    Jem started walking across to the ant nest. He walked around the nest, five paces from it. He pulled tufts of the dry grass out of the soft earth and threw them inside the circle. Thist followed suit under Jem’s guidance. They did this until there was a full circle of cleared earth around the nest.
    “What are we doing here Jem?”
    “We are clearing a fire barrier around the nest so that we don’t set the whole forest on fire, and using the dry grass as fuel for the inferno.” Jem explained with a grin. “Here hold this.”
    Jem produced a large coil of thin but sturdy rope and two pulleys. He then took a knife and cut two short lanyards from the length of rope and attached them to the pulleys.
    “You know how pulleys work, don’t you?” asked Jem.
    “Yeah, each time you thread the rope through another pulley then you double the pulling strength.”
    “Clever. Now first we have to use the rope to ‘wet cut’ a good