The Daughters Daring (The Daughters Daring & The Enchanted Forest Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

snacks. “And I am a garden gnome! We’re not as big as our forest gnome cousins, but we are quite resourceful.”
    “I see. Well, hello, Periwinkle. Would you mind getting out of my backpack?” Emily was trying her best to be cordial.
    "Hmm?” Periwinkle responded, while absently munching on a biscuit. “Oh, actually, I'm quite comfortable in here, and was hoping I could stay a while.”
         Emily frowned and was ready to dump him out, when she heard a scream in the distance.
         “My sister’s in trouble!” Emily took off running toward the scream, tossing her backpack, and the small gnome in it, onto her back in one quick motion. “Hang on Liz,” she called out as she ran, “I'm coming!”
         Emily cut through the forest now, leaving the path and her earlier annoyance behind. She did not know that leaving a path in the Enchanted Forest was never a wise choice. Though plenty of paths lead safely, this way and that, once off the paths, it was easy to become lost, or worse.
         She had run in the direction of her sister's screams, but it seemed the sound was moving farther away. She stopped and turned around, but nothing in the forest seemed familiar. Something was not right, she thought. Even the trees seemed to move whenever she looked away.
         Emily heard the scream again, and was sure of the direction, this time.  A wall of vines hung between her and her sister. She plunged straight in, hoping to push her way through to the other side, but the vines would not budge. Even worse, they started wrapping around her, ensnaring her arms and legs and actually lifting her off the ground until she was bundled like a package and hanging in mid-air.
         And then came the goblins.
         “Here's another fine mess Elizabeth has gotten me into,” she muttered to herself, as they carried her away.
    
         Elizabeth had been dealing with her own problems since leaving her sister and the bothersome gnomes. First, she had wasted her time on a trail that seemed to lead in endless circles. She had also failed to find any more clues, not even a single dropped sweetberry! Worst of all, she could hear her sister yelling in the distance, calling her name at the top of her lungs. What was wrong with her? Did she want to alert the entire goblin army of their location?
    Elizabeth’s boldness increased as she walked. She didn't really need her sister along to solve the sweetberry mystery, but her mother would be very cross if she came home alone, even if she single-handedly saved the kingdom, which she was sure would be the outcome. For now, she would just have to rescue her bumbling sister and hope that she did not get in the way.
         Elizabeth headed in the direction of her sister's loud yelling, but much as Emily had experienced, she found the voice hard to pinpoint. She wandered this way and that, sure she was getting closer, until the direction of the voice changed again.
         She stopped and tried to remember the tales about the Enchanted Forest, which was known for magical mischief on unsuspecting wanderers. She closed her eyes, let out a deep sigh, and tried to use all of her senses. She felt a light breeze on her skin, could hear a bird chirping in the distance, and she smelled—something putrid.
         It was the smell of goblins.
         Elizabeth had no sooner readied her bow with an arrow than several goblins popped out of the forest, surrounding her. As they threw a small hunting net over her, she screamed for her sister, but it was too late. They bundled her up, and two of them carried her away over their shoulders.
         “This is all Emily's fault,” she complained to herself, as they carried her down into another entrance to the cave.

Chapter 6
     
         Being smaller creatures, standing no taller than Elizabeth, it took three goblins to carry Emily into the lower reaches of the cave before dropping her, rather abruptly, onto the floor of a