The Princess and the Snowbird Read Online Free PDF Page B

them.
    She sighed, then let them come to her, making as much space for them as she could by the boulder, where her magic had melted snow and wakened grass and flowers underneath. The plants would die when she left, frozen by the winter’s return.
    Liva did not know what to do. When she reached her father, perhaps he would know how to undo what she had done with the aur-magic, how to detach these animals and send them back where they belonged. She felt humbled now, not as sure of herself as she had been.
    After several efforts, Liva found her feet and began walking again along the river as it tumbled down small hills, making waterfalls and rapids of white water that she stopped to stare at, in awe of the beauty of a part of the forest she had never seen before.
    As she moved south, the storm grew less fierce, but she was joined by more animals. She had to cross over the river at a narrowing, to skirt by the crumbling shelf on the other side. She took the form of an elk and stepped into the water.
    The animals jumped in with her, all of them.
    Liva gasped as the cold swallowed her up to her knees. The river water felt like liquid snow. Even her aur-magic could not protect her from the bite.
    A shrew was swept away beside her, and then a badger. They simply stopped fighting the current and went floating downstream. Liva could feel the smallest hint oftheir magic as they bobbed furiously on the surface, and then they were gone.
    Disgusted, she threw herself out of the river as soon as she could do so without magic, in the form of a pika, a creature like a mouse.
    Lying facedown on the bank, she stirred to the sound of human voices.

C HAPTER S IX
Jens
    “ W HAT IN THE name of life and death are these doing here?” shouted Torus, waving his arm at a strange grouping of animals, all in a circle at the edge of the river.
    Jens stared at the animals and could think of no explanation. He had never seen such a group all together.
    Were the flesh eaters and the plant eaters at peace? Perhaps the snowstorm had made them all confused? But their eyes were wide and bright.
    “I don’t care why they’re here. Think of it as a gift.
    We’ll kill them and take their skins back. Then we’ll be men,” said Harald, stroking his scraggly, red beard. He was two years younger than Jens, only fourteen, but he liked to pretend he was older.
    “What if it’s a trap?” asked Jens. “To be safe, we should leave these here and go after others.”
    “Safe? We’ve been hunting for four days in this storm,with not a sight nor sound of animals. Now it’s clear and we have a chance. If we don’t bring something back now, we’ll all go hungry,” said Torus. This year the winter had been long and harsh, and more than half of the animals in the village had already been slaughtered. The land had grown less and less productive in recent years, and there were no stores of grain left in the village. If the hunters of the village did not find food in the forest, the village would be doomed.
    “There’s something wrong with these animals. They are not acting as they should,” said Jens.
    “When they’re dead, they will taste just like any other animals,” said Harald.
    “And so many at once,” said Torus. “Think how many days we will be able to eat. And what a celebration the village will throw for us!”
    “I am not sure,” said Jens. He was the oldest of them all and had been on the most hunts. But he was not surprised that they did not listen to him.
    “What do you know?” Torus taunted Jens, for his lack of the tehr-magic was no secret. “The animals feel fine to me.”
    “No,” Jens muttered distractedly. He was staring intently at the animals. He had no magic, but he felt something that was different. At the center of all the animals Jens could see a small creature almost like a mouse. No, it was a pika, black and white with shining eyes that turned and stared back at Jens as if pleading for its life.
    I can’t speak to you,