The Arrival (Birthright Trilogy #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Catherine? Kassie opened her eyes and squinted at the light. She blinked in surprise.
    Are those trees? What are we doing outside?
    'Cat?' mumbled Kassie. 'Why are we outside?'
    'We’re outside?' Sian sounded confused.
    Loi groaned, 'I’m so dizzy. Guys, are you dizzy?'
    The others made noises of agreement.
    Cautious, I opened my eyes. I could just make out the tops of trees.
    Whoa, that's weird.
    'We ARE outside.'
    I eased up to sitting and blinked as I looked around. The others seemed as groggy as I was.
    Holy crap! Where the hell are we? We lay in a circle on the ground in a clearing. Trees, bushes and low vegetation surrounded us but it didn’t look like any forest I knew. Swirls of panic spun in my stomach as I stared around us. I couldn’t recognize any of the trees or bushes, and I know New Zealand bush, it’s very unique. I’d been going to my family’s cabin in the bush since I was six weeks old, I'd know New Zealand forest anywhere.
    Kassie couldn’t speak. She simply gaped at their surroundings. What part of the spell had said this?
    'Sian,' she growled as her anger grew. 'Where the fuck are we?'
    The others turned to stare at her in surprise, Loi arched an eyebrow.
    'Don’t arch your eyebrow at me, Loi,' she snapped. 'There’s a time and place for strong language and this is it.'
    This was one of those moments where Sian truly felt little. Her stomach had hit her feet when she’d sat up and looked around. No spell she’d cast before had ever done this and now she was supposed to explain it to her friends? Cat and Loi looked dumbfounded while Kassie was turning red with anger.
    She gulped, 'I, I don’t know. This has never happened before.'
    Loi could see Kassie was ready to explode. Opening her mouth to tell her to calm down, Loi froze when she noticed her clothes.
    'Guys, where are our costumes?'
    After an initial panicked thought of ‘WHAT! I’M NAKED?’ I realized I did have clothes on, but they weren’t mine.
    There were sounds of astonishment as we stared at our "new" outfits.
    It was somewhat similar to my costume.
    Fitted tan pants with dark brown leather boots that pulled on to the knee and laced at the back of the thigh. Over the knee boots like what I had worn. But these had slight heels and they weren’t pointy. They looked like good walking boots. On the top I wore a dark red tunic with a scoop neck; it was fitted and laced down my side.
    Weird. Why would our clothes change?
    The others, I saw, wore the same as me, the only difference was the color of their tunics. Loi’s was green, Kassie’s yellow, and Sian’s blue. Hearing Audrey whine, I glanced up and forgot about the clothes in an instant.
    She pushed a limp shape on the ground. I realized it was Lucky.
    'Kassie,' I gasped alarmed. 'Look! Lucky’s here too. Is she okay?'
    Kassie jerked around, staring, 'Where?'
    I pointed, then hurriedly crawled after Kassie. She eased Lucky onto her lap and looked at me with concern. Kneeling beside her I slipped my hand between Lucky’s front paws, my palm against her chest.
    After a moment I could feel her heart beat, slow but steady. I gave Kassie a reassuring smile.
    'Her heart beat is strong, I think she’ll be okay.'
    Sian watched and felt relieved when Cat said Lucky would be okay. Guilt swirled through her, even though she knew it wasn’t her fault.
    At least, she thought it wasn’t. The rational voice in her mind reassured her that she hadn’t done anything wrong; the silly voice wasn’t so certain. The contradictory views made her feel nauseated and she stared at the ground in an attempt to stop the dizziness. A jumble of fabric near her foot caught her eye and she reached for it.
    'Hey guys!' Sian sounded excited. 'Look around you, I just found a pack and a cloak.'
    She held up the blue cloak.
    I climbed to my feet, arms spread for balance at the change in altitude and walked back to where I woke.
    On the ground, a bit scrunched from where I must have rolled on it, (or