Read Into the Forest Shadows for Free Online

about
exploding engines? Those kind of engines don't explode, they sizzle
out. Geez, why were you let out of the city? I would have thought
there would be more forest sense for someone who visits her
grandmother all the time."
    "Leave my grandmother out of this!" Kate
said, jerking back hard, worried at how far from the shuttle they
were moving.
    In return, Ayden jerked her hard forward.
Kate lost her footing and found herself rolling across the ground,
right under the outer layer of drooping limbs of a large tree with
cream-colored bark. A root dug into her stomach.
    Kate tried to roll to her feet, but Ayden
followed and pulled her back to the ground. Not quite balanced, she
fell right over him.
    "Don't make me sit on you," Ayden said in her
ear.
    Kate scrambled off his lap but the grip on
her arm kept her form moving further away from him. "Mind telling
me about your particular brand of insanity?"
    "Oh, what a wonderful personality. Just what
I want to be stuck in the middle of the forest with." Ayden rolled
his eyes. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Here it comes."
    Bunbun put a paw at the opening of Ayden's
coat and studied the world outside the veil of leaves. Something in
the air made Kate shiver. She looked out past the drooping leaves
and branches, her eyes going from one shadow to another, straining
to see any movement.
    Nothing moved. The forest remained quiet,
waiting.
    Her mind flashed on the dark shape moving
around in Grandma's orchard. The idea of getting back into the
shuttle and locking the door sounded more appealing by the
second.
    The building fog made it even harder to see
into the shadows. At first light wisps curled around the trees. It
grew bolder, engulfing the shuttle and the trees behind it.
Pinpricks of color and spark played among the white of the fog. In
one instant it condensed, making it impossible to see the shuttle
any longer.
    And yet, she could still see the shuttle.
Because it was arcing and sparking with energy.
    Kate blinked. Nope, she wasn't imagining it.
The shuttle lit up the entire area with Red and blue energy racing
back and forth from one end to the other. In the stillness she
could hear the arcs pop and crackle.
    "Still want to be in the shuttle?" Ayden
asked softly.
    Kate shivered, "What kind of fog is
this?"
    "It's nothing unusual, just happens to be the
type that is dangerous to us."
    "Dangerous? As in, deadly?"
    "It can be. The human body doesn't take a
constant electrical charge very well. We would light up like the
shuttle if we were out in it."
    Kate glared at him for forgetting the
obvious. "But we are out in it."
    Ayden let go of her arm. "That's why I
dragged you to a Trailing Willow. The leaves repel the fog."
    Pinpricks moved over her skin, her head
itching from the inside. The white in the air glistened. A tree
across from them shuddered, the limbs came up, sticking out wide
into the fog.
    Kate watched the movement nervously. She'd
heard that some of the trees could move, but she'd never seen one
do it. She reached to where her basket had fallen, snatching it
away from the fragile barrier of leaves.
    An arm snaked around her middle and pulled
her up hard against the tree trunk. Kate slapped the arm,
"Hey!"
    "Look what's coming," Ayden said in her ear.
She looked in the direction he pointed.
    Flowers quickly closed and the trees pulled
in their limbs. A wave of fog so dense it looked like a solid
sparkling white wall moved past the shuttle towards them. The shape
of the shuttle disappeared.
    A flush of heat run across her skin, and yet
she shivered. Something didn't feel right. She closed her suddenly
stinging eyes.
    Kate blinked, finding the landscape tipped to
one side. Bunbun sniffed at her chin. Her eyes threatened to cross
in an effort to look at him. His ears went straight up and swiveled
towards her and he placed a soft paw on her skin.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE

    She realized her cheek lay on rough material.
She felt a hand rest lightly on her shoulder. Seeing