In Deep Dark Wood Read Online Free PDF Page A

actually believe that their crazy neighbour had found dragons here in Glenkilty Wood? It was bad enough that the old woman was obviously bonkers, but now she was putting her strange ideas into Mia’s head too.
    ‘It’s not true, Mia! I don’t care what that old woman told you, or what you think you saw, none of it is true. Don’t believe it, any of it!’ he shouted angrily at her.
    ‘The thing is …’ said Mia softly, ‘I do!’
    In the distance, Jackie suddenly whined, then barked.
    ‘She must be stuck. I’ll go get her!’ Rory said.
    Mia stayed sitting on the log, a small, scared figure.
    Jackie was caught in a small patch of briars, which she had run into in her haste to catch something or other, probably a squirrel or a rabbit. Untangling the squirming dog took Rory a few minutes, and by the time he walked the few yards back, Mia was gone. He saw the yellow flash of her jacket way ahead of him on the path. He called and called her, but she ignored him and kept walking on.
    Mia didn’t know what to do. Talking to Rory hadn’t helped at all. Usually her brother was so understanding. They’d always helped each other and stood up for each other no matter what, but now they seemed so far apart. He didn’t believe her and she wasn’t prepared to listen to him.
    She had never felt so alone and unsure of herself. All her life she had been reading books and listening to stories, stories about princes and princesses and giants and dwarves, witches and wizards and all kinds of incredible happenings – children who followed a piper and were never seen again, a king who turned everything he touched into gold, a mermaid who sold her beautiful voice for a pair of human legs, why, even her mother and grandmother had told her about the banshee that cried the night before anyone in their family died, and of the little man who, if you managed to catch him, would share his crock of gold with you at the end of the rainbow. Her head and heart were full of such stories, they filled her brain and she dreamed and imagined them in the long hours of night. Were they all nothing but lies, based on nothing more real than imagination? Surely strange things could and did happen in the world?
    She was tired of being scared and worrying about Bella. The dragons meant her no harm. She had not just imagined them, or made them up! They were real.
    Walking back home she felt more light-hearted, clear-headed. She stopped outside the witch’s house, staring up at the windows, almost unafraid. She was just turning up the driveway to her own house when Dad pulled up in the car.He stopped and parked and reached into the back seat for his briefcase.
    ‘Everything okay, Mia?’ he asked, hugging her. ‘Were you in next door?’
    She looked at him, standing there beside her. He was tall and sandy-haired, balding in the front, wearing a navy suit, a white shirt and a multicoloured, striped tie. He always seemed out of step with the world and what was going on around him, as if he lived in a world of his own that was more real to him than the actual world. It drove her mother mad and exasperated Rory.
    ‘Bella, the old woman next door keeps dragons, Dad,’ she blurted out. ‘There are eight of them!’
    Matthew Murphy looked across at The Elms, his eyes studying the shape and form of the old house before coming to rest on the windows.
    ‘Does she indeed! What colour are they?’
    Mia stood in disbelief. Her father hadn’t shouted or roared at her, or even argued about the existence of dragons.
    ‘There are two black ones and a gold one, and four green ones and a blue one.’
    ‘How interesting!’ nodded her father.
    ‘Oh Daddy, I love you!’ Mia smiled and gave him a big hug.
    Matthew Murphy was left standing there, wondering what it was he had said or done that pleased his daughter so much.

Chapter 5
The Apprentice
    ‘S o you came back, child. You returned to see Bella and the dragons.’ The old woman smiled as she opened the front