Serafina and the Twisted Staff (The Serafina Series) Read Online Free PDF

her.
    Then, even as she tried to figure out how she was going to fight this unknown lion, a second lion emerged from the trees.
    She breathed a sigh of relief. It was a lioness, full-grown and full of power; a lioness she knew well.
    When her mother was in her lion form, she was more beautiful than ever, with a thick tan coat, huge paws and the muscles of many hunts. Her striking face and golden eyes glowed with
intelligence.
    ‘I’m so glad it’s you, Momma,’ Serafina said, surprised by the tearful desperation in her own voice.
    But in that moment, before Serafina could make out any sort of answer in her mother’s eyes, the lioness suddenly turned her head and looked across the river.
    Then Serafina heard it too. The wolfhounds were upon them. And it wasn’t just two any more. The five were united again, growling and barking and snarling. They would be here in
seconds.

S erafina’s mother moved quickly towards her and flattened herself beside her. Serafina didn’t understand what she was doing. Then the
darker lion came and nudged Serafina’s body with his head. At first, she thought the lions were trying to rub against her and disguise her scent with theirs, but then she realised their true
intention.
    Serafina climbed onto her mother’s back, clutching her neck and shoulders. With the lioness carrying her and the dark lion close at her side, the three of them moved into the trees, slowly
at first, and then more quickly. Serafina felt her mother’s fur against her face, and the force of her mother’s lungs, and the power of her muscles. The lioness began to move more
swiftly through the forest. Soon they were running.
    It was the most incredible feeling, streaming through the night at high speed, propelled by the undulating rhythm of the lioness’s bounding stride, so strong and quiet and fast, the dark
lion running beside her. Serafina had dreamed of running like this many times, but she had never moved this fast in her entire life. What amazed her was how smooth it was, how agile her
mother’s movements, how quickly she could change direction and speed, with both grace and power at her command.
    When they reached a prominence of high ground, the two lions paused and looked down towards the river. They watched as the five wolfhounds followed Serafina’s scent to the edge of the
river, then crossed it. But they went straight across, not realising she had been swept far downstream by the powerful current. At the time, it had felt like a catastrophe that the river had pulled
her off her feet and carried her away, but now she realised that it had saved her. The wolfhounds sniffed the ground, circling in confusion. They’d lost her scent. And when they ran up and
down the edge of the river looking to find her trail, their confusion mounted.
    They can’t find me
, Serafina thought with a smile as she clung to her mother’s back.
All they can smell is mountain lion.
    Suddenly, the lions were moving again, running through the forest at high speed, leaping small ravines and creeks, dashing through ferns. The branches and trunks of the trees flashed by. The
whistle of the wind filled her ears.
    They ran for so long through the night that Serafina’s eyes closed, and all she could feel was the movement of the running, the coolness of the air above her, and the warmth of her mother
beneath her.

S erafina awoke a short time later on a bed of soft bright green grass that glowed in the moonlight. She felt the warmth of nuzzling fur and the
deep and gentle vibration of purring. Her mother’s two cubs snuggled up against Serafina, kneading her back with their tiny paws, so happy to see her that they were giving her a back rub. She
couldn’t help but smile. She could feel their little noses pressing against her shoulders and their whiskers tickling her neck. Over the last few weeks that she’d been visiting the cubs
at her mother’s den, she had come to love her half brother and half sister, and she