Poppy and Ereth Read Online Free PDF

the mud. He scrutinized the sky again. Not a single sign of Poppy did he find.
    I must, he decided, have imagined it all. A mouse in the sky…flying…disappearing…that’s just not…possible…. Unless I’m crazy.
    Determined to convince himself that he had only imagined what had happened, Ereth galloped home, taking pains to follow the exact route he had used when coming to Glitter Creek.
    It was dark and Ereth was quite worn-out when he reached the foot of Poppy’s snag.
    â€œPoppy!” he cried. “Come out! It’s me, Ereth!”
    There was no reply.
    â€œPoppy!” he shouted with a mix of agony and rage. “Answer me!”
    Still no answer.
    â€œPoppy!” Ereth pleaded. “ Please ! All I ask is that you tell me you’re here! That you’re safe! Then I promise, I’ll go away. Forever!”

    He waited, all the while watching the snag intently. “Maybe she’s just playing a trick on me,” he muttered, hardly knowing whether to be frightened or furious but desperately wanting some explanation.
    â€œYes, that’s it. She’s playing a practical joke on me. As if it’s funny to disappear like that. Leaving no trace. No note. Or words. No respect. No caring. No friendship. No love. No nothing! Well, I’ll do the same. I’ll ignore her. Forget her. Pluck her out of mymemory. Out of my heart. Act as if she never existed. As if we never did anything together. As if I never cared for her. Ever! ”
    Sighing deeply, Ereth remained silent for a moment, only to lift his head and wail, “Poppy, please tell me what happened to you!
    â€œBut I do know what happened!” Ereth reminded himself. “She saved me and then went up in the air and…disappeared.
    â€œBut—how could that be?”
    A new explanation formed in his mind. Perhaps Poppy had fallen into the creek and had sunk the way he did. In the twilight gloom he just hadn’t noticed.
    Ereth’s heart gave a lurch. I must still try to save her.
    He raced back to Glitter Creek. As he scurried along, his mind was a muddle of self-reproach: I should have checked more. I should have searched harder. What a dunce I am! What an idiot! How cruel and unthinking! There I was, only thinking about myself. How selfish! How vain! How stupid! How like me!
    Panting and exhausted, Ereth reached the bank of the creek. Pale yellow moonlight filled the heavy, warm air and lay upon the empty creek bed like a golden carpet softening the rough edges of the drought-parched landscape. Crickets endlessly, mindlessly rubbed their legs together. Mosquitoes droned.
    â€œPoppy!” Ereth cried into the darkness. “Are you here? Are you drowning? Please, please, please tell me you are drowning—so I can save you!”
    The last words were spoken in the feeblest of voices, a voice tinged with complete despair.
    Bleary-eyed and quite frightened, Ereth attempted yet again to make sense of what had happened. He closed his eyes. It was too extraordinary. Too awful. Too dreadful. Even so, there were a couple of things about which he was now quite convinced: he had seen Poppy fly into the sky, and then she had disappeared.
    Poppy, in order to save her best friend— him —had sacrificed herself.
    The painful fact made him groan. But since he was now convinced of what had happened, Ereth made himself say aloud the awful words he was thinking: “While saving me, Poppy… died !”
    As he spoke, he began to fully understand what he had witnessed. Could it have been? Might it have been possible? There’s no other explanation! What I saw rising into the sky must have been…was…Poppy’s… ghost!

CHAPTER 10
In the Dark
    I’ M STILL ALIVE ! thought Poppy, even though she opened her eyes to complete blackness. Luci had not crashed into the stone cliff and they were still flying, but in a deeper darkness than Poppy had ever experienced.