Portent Read Online Free PDF

appreciate the irony .
        She blinked and her eyelashes were moistened. Surely not tears, not after so long? She had thought the weeping was done. Annie straightened, realising her head had been bowed. Oh Louis, why this terrible sadness today? For you? The mourning was always there, but the worst had been put aside three years after your death. For the forest itself, then, a grieving over the decaying timberlands. Or perhaps these tears were for herself.
        Annie closed her eyes and the tears broke free to dampen her face.
        A shuffling noise roused her. She turned in time to see undergrowth nearby swaying, obviously disturbed by some small creature that had wandered too close before noticing her presence. It had fled.
        A wise move, little friend. We humans are not to be trusted.
        A sound to her left, much louder. Something was crashing through the forest, a deer or elk, a sizeable animal judging by the commotion it was making. Now a fluttering of wings. Annie looked up, startled, and saw the flock of birds taking to the sky, the wings flapping against upper branches, beating at the air.
         My God, it can't be me. Surely I couldn't have disturbed them .
        Because of her tears, her eyes were not quite focused, and the shiny object that caught her attention was like a sparkly glimmer, a diamond catching the sun's rays. She drew a handkerchief from her jacket pocket and dabbed at her eyes, feeling shamed and inconvenienced by the tears. If one of the fallers had come upon her…
        With clearer vision, she looked again at the bright thing.
        'Oh,' she said quietly.
        It was beautiful.
        She dared not move, lest the tiny light be disturbed.
        It glowed among the trees, no more than twelve or so metres away from her, hovering like some wonderful firefly, the shade of the forest enhancing its brightness.
        Annie's hand slowly went to her face, an involuntary action as her mouth opened in wonder. The light, floating at shoulder-height, was of the purest white she had ever seen, yet it did not dazzle. There seemed to be a faint shimmering around its edge.
        Her hand reached out as if to touch the light.
        It began to rise, an easy, almost languid, movement.
        Then it began to dance.
        Now both hands went to Annie's smiling face. Dark thoughts left her and she suddenly felt joyously happy.
        The sounds of machinery, the occasional human shout, came to her from afar, but there was no reality to them; they belonged to another dimension. The light, gently weaving to and fro, flitting between the trees, was the only reality.
        Annie Devereux took a step towards the bewitching glow and its movement stopped. Annie froze, afraid she might scare this tiny phenomenon away. What was it, oh Louis, what was this strange and wonderful thing?
        The light began to rise again, smoothly avoiding boughs, ascending, it seemed, towards the high treetops. But then it began to move from tree to tree, touching the thinner limbs, bouncing off them like some ethereal pinball.
        A small, uncertain laugh escaped Annie. She followed the light's motion, her eyes shifting with its seemingly haphazard pattern, her body tensed like an excited child's. The light swooped delicately and brushed against a slender branch, flicking instantly towards another.
        This latter one sparked.
        The light touched another, and this one flared briefly.
        Annie's smile wavered.
        The light fluttered amidst the branches of a different tree and there were more sparks, as if a flint had been soundlessly struck against stone. This time a flame appeared. And as other limbs were brushed against, then they too burst into flame.
        'No…' It was a low wail of pleading. 'Nooo-'
        The flames grew and began to spread.
        The light flew more swiftly, flitting from tree to tree,-igniting branches, kindling