The Beginning Read Online Free PDF Page A

arrived and with it came the warm weather that enticed the local families out onto Lake Ossar. Jahrra figured that with all of the prying eyes she and her friends would need to find an effective new way to hide their mounting pile of driftwood, rope, and bleached fish and seal bones they’d collected over the past few months.
    “I have an idea,” Gieaun hissed one weekend as the three sat hidden behind the rushes and cattails. “We can build a little bit at a time and sink it below the water when we are done for the day. That way no one will ever suspect anything!”
    “Good idea Gieaun!” Scede added. “We have to figure out how to keep it under the water anyway, now is a good time to start.”
    The process of building a few feet of neck and then sinking it below the lake’s surface seemed tedious at first, but it was their best option. Once they’d collected enough large rocks and attached them to the base of the structure, Scede tied a length of rope to it and lowered the five feet of thick neck they’d completed into the water. It sank easily, disappearing below the lake’s crystal surface. Scede led the rope to the middle of the island and Gieaun and Jahrra helped him tie it securely to a post they’d hammered into the ground.
    “All we have to do is make sure our driftwood pile doesn’t get any higher than the cattails,” Jahrra said, looking at the few pieces that were left.
    “We need to collect some more soon, maybe next weekend,” Gieaun suggested, eyeing the tiny pile with little interest. “But I think we’ve done enough work for one day.”
    The three friends rode home with light hearts that day. Eydeth and Ellysian hadn’t shown up at the lake for weeks, and they started wondering if maybe they didn’t have to finish their lake monster after all.
    “Trust me, they’ll be back, I just know it,” Jahrra said begrudgingly as they led their horses through the small wood surrounding the lake. “Summer is coming, so I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of them around here soon. Especially since they won’t be able to harass us everyday like they do at school.”
    Despite the misgivings she felt about her limited freedom on Lake Ossar, Jahrra was looking forward to the upcoming summer. Although she’d be busy once again with her Kruelt lessons with Hroombra and defense training with the elves, Jahrra looked forward to spending more time working on the water dragon, even if that time was limited by Eydeth and Ellysian and their insistence on visiting the lake. She figured if they spent at least two days a week building, and one day a week collecting material, they just might be done by the beginning of fall. Well, time will tell. I just hope we can keep this secret from the twins a little bit longer , Jahrra thought as she waved goodbye to her friends at the foot of their long drive.
    During the first few weeks of summer, Jahrra contributed to their project by scouring the fields after her defense lessons with Yaraa and Viornen for any bit of wayward material that might be helpful in their endeavor. One day she found a very long piece of discarded rope, another day she found a nicely shaped branch that had broken off a tree. Jahrra dragged them home, hoping that Hroombra wouldn’t ask any questions if he saw her, and hid them in the back of Phrym’s stable.
    As the warm season progressed, the three friends added more and more to their lake monster. By the first day back to school in the fall, they had nearly three quarters of the frame finished and weighted down below the water.
    Jahrra couldn’t have been more pleased: it was perfect. All that was left was for them to devise a way to get Eydeth and Ellysian out onto the lake at the most opportune time.
    “We don’t need to worry about that now,” Scede said when Jahrra brought this up. “We need to focus on finishing the monster first.”
    “Yeah, but it wouldn’t hurt to start thinking about it,” Gieaun put in.
    “First of all,”