The Secret of Kells Read Online Free PDF

looking down on him through a cradle of branches, laughing at his frightened expression.
    ‘This is one of my favourite times in the forest,’ she said. ‘It’s still very quiet, like it is in the winter, but everything is starting to grow and come to life again. I’ll ask the forest where your berries are.’
    As they made their way through the wood, sheshowed him many things that he had not noticed when he had been on his own. Walking with her was like having another pair of eyes, eyes that could see all the little things that it was so easy to miss: two beetles greeting each other on the stem of a fern, a nest of field mice snuggled in the bole of a beech tree, the hole in the earth where a badger lived. Finally, they came to a great tree, which seemed to stretch up high beyond all the others. Brendan could not even see the top.
    ‘This is an oak. It’s the oldest and tallest tree in the forest, and has special powers.’
    She picked up a leaf that had fallen to the ground the autumn before.
    ‘See, look, it has curly edges. And the berries you are looking for are growing on the tree. Though they are not really berries, they are just things that grow on the oak.’
    She stopped and looked at Brendan’s face.
    ‘The berries, as you call them, are up at the top,’ she said. ‘It’s a big tree. You have climbed a tree before, haven’t you?’
    Brendan paused. This girl was smaller and younger than he was and the thought of climbing the tree didn’t seem to bother her at all. How hard can it be? he thought.

    So he said, ‘Yes, of course. It’s easy.’
    He soon discovered it was not easy at all; in fact, climbing the huge oak tree was one of the most difficult things he had ever tried to do. Twigs and branches scraped his arms and legs and poked him in his eyes. His feet slid on the wet bark, unable to get a foothold. The one branch that he wanted to catch in order to go higher always seemed just a little beyond his reach. And the further up he climbed, the further there was to fall …
    The girl, on the other hand, scampered up the tree with the ease of a squirrel. Now she was really starting to irritate him. Why did she have to go so fast? He tried to climb more quickly, so that he could catch up with her, and found himself sliding and stepping onto thin air. He was falling down through the branches, and just when he thought his heart was going to stop, he managed to catch hold of a branch, which he clung onto for dear life. He looked up to where the girl was peering down at him through the leaves. She jumped easily onto the branch he was clinging to and pulled him up tosafety.
    ‘You’re useless at this,’ she said crossly. ‘I thought you said you knew how to climb trees!’
    ‘I do,’ he said. ‘Smaller ones.’
    ‘Yeah,’ said the girl. ‘Like bushes?’
    At last they reached the top of the tree. As the girl had said, the oak was the tallest tree in the forest. When he looked down, Brendan thought the ground was rushing up to meet him. His stomach turned over and he was sure he was going to be sick. Once again he could feel his legs going, his body lurching towards the ground below … and the girl had to push him back against the trunk of the tree.
    ‘Don’t look down,’ she told him, holding his arm tightly. Brendan shut his eyes and tried to breathe.
    After a moment, the girl said, ‘Come on, Brendan, open your eyes now!’
    He shook his head grimly and kept them shut.
    ‘Come on,’ she said again. ‘Open your eyes and I’ll tell you my name.’
    Brendan opened his eyes.
    ‘It’s Aisling,’ the girl said, ‘and this is my forest.’
    He looked down. He could see far into thedistance in every direction. Away to the west, he could even see the encircling wall of Kells, with the great stone Round Tower rising in the centre. Inside the walls, he could make out the tiny figures of the monks, scuttling around as they worked. It reminded him of an anthill he had once disturbed. But the