Circles in the Stream (Avalon: Web of Magic #1) (3 page)

On the third afternoon, Emily was lying on her makeshift bed, skimming through her yearbook from last year. Her class would all be starting junior high. Everyone but her. Because she’d known that, she’d made sure to collect as many signatures as possible.

Friends 4ever
, Alison, who played on her soccer team, had written.

2 good 2B 4-gotten.
Laura had drawn a smiley face next to that, adding Good luck!

Wherever you go, there you are
, her best bud, Taylor, had scrawled.

Emily looked around. Here I am. A stranger in a totally new place where school would be starting in about three weeks. She realized she was dreading it. Here, middle school
started
in sixth grade. By seventh, all the kids already knew each other.

If only her mom hadn’t found this veterinary practice to buy in Stonehill; if only her dad hadn’t moved to Seattle, where his new wife’s family lived. The only thing that hadn’t changed was having to deal with animals in pain. And she wasn’t even good at that.

Emily felt it before she looked up. The cat was watching her. Both eyes were open now, the injured one only halfway, but looking clear and bright within still-swollen tissue. Emily felt a wave of happiness at seeing the cat awake. She dropped her book and scrambled to the open cage. “Hi, there.”

The cat licked Emily’s nose with a sandpaper tongue. Emily giggled. “Stop that, you silly!”

Trying to stretch, the cat licked tentatively at the edge of a bandage. The recovery process was clearly beginning, but between patches of singed fur, her wounds looked ragged and ugly.

Emily’s heart sank at the thought of this magnificent animal horribly scarred for the rest of its life. “You’re going to be just fine,” she promised. “Your fur will grow back as pretty as ever.”

“Well, our patient’s up and about, I see.” Carolyn walked into the room and over to the cage.

Gentle as a kitten, the cat allowed Carolyn to inspect her wounds and bandages.

“Mom, what do you think those bumps are on her shoulders?” Emily asked.

“I don’t notice anything abnormal, Doc,” her mother replied. “Her joints may be a bit swollen. Now as for my other patient…”

“What other patient?”

Carolyn lifted Emily’s chin and felt her forehead. She swiveled Emily’s face this way and that, and stared into her eyes. “Hmmm, pale, needs exercise and sunshine. And I have just the cure.” She left the room and returned almost immediately with a soccer ball and dog leash. “Take these and call me in two hours.”

Emily opened her mouth to object.

“You’ve done an amazing job with her, but how much longer do you expect Kevin to handle your chores?”

Emily hesitated, taking one last look at the cat. The cat just yawned and curled up with Mr. Snuffles.

A
RROWHEAD PARK LAY
at the foot of the wooded mountains to the northwest of town. There were two baseball diamonds, a soccer field, and an extensive playground but near the woods, the land was left open.

Emily, Jellybean, Biscuit, and Pumpkin ran past the picnic grounds and into the meadow that lay before the deep woods. It was an ideal spot to let the dogs romp. Despite the heat, the day was beautiful. The recent storms had lifted the humidity, and hints of a breeze made the flowers shimmer in the sunlight. Emily had to admit that, on a day like this, Pennsylvania was almost as pretty as Colorado.

“Ladies and Jellybeans!” she called, tossing the soccer ball in the air. “It’s time for… Doggie Soccer!” The dogs yelped excitedly and began jumping for the ball, running circles around Emily.

“Okay, okay, hold on,” she laughed, kneeling down to unhook the dogs from the group leash. Jellybean jumped and entangled her arm. Biscuit had wrapped the leash around her back. Pumpkin was winding in and out of her legs. Emily tried to stand up, but instead fell down, tangled in leashes.

Laughter drifted over Emily as she lay in the grass like a mummy. She looked up to see three girls sitting on a picnic table.

“What a geek!” One, with long red hair, pointed.

Emily felt her face go red as she slowly shoved the dogs aside and unwrapped herself.

The girl in the middle, willowy, with a cap of curly blond hair, stared straight at Emily. “I think she lives over at Clueless Farms. She must have forgotten her pitchfork.” That sent the first girl into a fit of laughter.

Emily slowly got up and dusted herself off. She shook auburn curls from her face.

The third girl, the one on the end, turned slowly. Clad in a pink tube top, khaki shorts, and pink sneakers, she wore her long blond hair loose under a studded baseball cap. She squinted. Emily tensed for another snide comment, but all the girl said was, “Hey, that’s Pumpkin, Mrs. Stalling’s poodle. Mrs. Stalling’s gone to France.”

“Cool. I’m going there next year,” the first girl said

“I’m going to Brazil with my dad,” the curly-haired girl replied.

The trio seemed to lose interest in Emily. She walked into the meadow after the dogs. Please don’t let them be kids from my school, she thought. If that’s what kids here are like…

She gave the ball an angry kick and it went flying. Biscuit, Jellybean, and Pumpkin shot like rockets chasing down the ball.

The ball came rolling back to her and she gave it another sharp kick. It sailed through the air toward the edge of the woods—and bounced oddly off to the side.

“Gah!”

Emily was startled by the loud grunt. The dogs stopped and looked in the direction of the cry.

Emily ran over to see whom she’d hit. “Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. Are you—”

There was no one there. She looked around. Something dashed out between the trees, shaking its head and stumbling as it ran away into the woods. Emily blinked. It looked like… a ferret?

Bewildered, Emily didn’t have time to react. Jellybean and Biscuit were after the creature in a flash, letting loose a chorus of barks. Pumpkin sat and wagged her tail.

“Hey! Wait!” Emily yelled. “Come back here!” But the dark forest seemed to swallow her cries.

She felt a weird chill come over her. She hesitated. She didn’t believe Kevin’s nonsense about haunted woods and scary monsters. Just the same, she felt a tingle along the back of her neck. But the dogs were her responsibility. She had no choice. She had to find them!

Emily attached the leash to Pumpkin’s collar. “It’ll take more than a few haunted trees to stop us,” she said, faking a courage she didn’t feel. The little poodle lunged forward eagerly, pulling Emily into the dark shade of the trees. “To the haunted woods!”

There was no turning back now.

T
HE LAND SLOPED
gradually uphill and, after awhile, Emily had to stop and catch her breath. She cautiously looked around. Nothing seemed remotely haunted about this forest. It was just trees, undergrowth, and lots of shade. Just like hiking in the Rockies back home—her
old
home, she corrected herself.

“We’ve got to find a trail.” Her voice fell flat in the stillness of the woods.

As if in answer, Pumpkin pushed on straight through the underbrush.

Emily bent forward, with one arm held up as a shield. “Or we could go your way.” Branches whipped at her legs and scratched her face, and then they were through and onto a narrow but well-worn path.

“Good job!” Emily exclaimed. “Pumpkin, are you part bloodhound?”

Pumpkin yapped and tugged at the leash. Emily allowed the poodle to pull her briskly up the path. Thick trees and lush plant growth surrounded her. It was hard to take Kevin’s stories seriously as she breathed in the sweet smells of the forest—but it was also hard to forget the terrible burns on the cat and her mother’s fears that someone might be in these woods, hurting animals. The cool air turned damp on her skin and she shivered.

She could no longer hear the other dogs barking. She hoped that didn’t mean they’d caught the ferret. Or worse, that something had caught
them.

“Come on,” she told Pumpkin. “Find Biscuit and Jellybean.”

Pumpkin followed the trail. On either side, the woods seemed to be getting darker and more ominous. Emily was straining to hear any signs of the runaway dogs. The rustle of leaves made her look around nervously. Light and shadows played in and out of the trees. Twisted overhanging branches seemed to reach out for her. The trail led around the side of a hill, curved to the left and then spilled out onto a dirt road. Emily slid down a sudden incline, piling right into Pumpkin. She looked up. A large stone arch with twin iron gates was in front of her. On either side of the arch stretched a tall stone wall. The gates were closed. Emily stared in dismay. The dogs could be anywhere. There was a sign on the wall next to the arch. She walked over to read it.

RAVENSWOOD WILDLIFE PRESERVE

Open 11 AM to Duh

Emily giggled as she realized that vines had grown over the last letters on the sign and arranged themselves to look like an “h.” She pulled the vines aside and read again:

Open 11 AM to Dusk.

Please don’t feed the animals, and stay on the paths.

Garbage in, garbage out policy. $200 fine for littering
.

“Wow, this is it! The wildlife preserve!”

Emily glanced at her watch: 11:30 A.M., but the gate was closed. Then she remembered what Kevin said about the old man disappearing. Maybe there
was
no one to keep the place open now. Except a caretaker who happened to be a witch!

“Rrrroof!”

The sound came from the other side of the wall. She grabbed the iron bars and jumped up on the gate, trying to peer farther into the estate. No sign of any dogs.

“Rrrouff!”

They must have gotten through somehow.

“Get back here!” she called sternly. But there was no response. She was starting to feel queasy. “Maybe we could find a way in somewhere else—”

Creeaaaakkk…

The sudden sound of metal on metal startled her as the heavy gate began to swing open. She hung on. “You have visitors,” she said nervously.

She jumped off the gate onto the road on the other side. “Jellybean! Biscuit!” She really hoped they’d come bounding out of the woods so she wouldn’t have to go in after them. But neither dog appeared.

Emily drew in a breath. What if whatever had mauled the cat was still here? Hadn’t Kevin said a few neighborhood dogs that had wandered in had been—
no
! Emily shook her head. She was so not going there. She’d find the dogs. And they’d be fine.

There seemed to be two ways to go: the main road, or a smaller path that led off to the left. “Which way?”

Pumpkin pulled her along the smaller path. Emily’s heart began to beat faster.

The woods closed around the path, deeper and thicker. The air smelled of damp earth. She called again, “Biscuit! Jellybean!”

She thought she heard a few woofs in the distance, but she couldn’t tell which direction they were coming from. She had a fleeting sense that something was following her. A soft rustling startled her. She turned to her right and thought she saw the strangest thing: a white mist snaking through the trees. A ghost? There was a loud squawk, and a flash of green and red and purple flew between the tree branches. Tropical birds, she thought, certainly not native to these woods. When she looked back, the mist was gone. Must have been a trick of the light, she told herself.

“Arff!”

Pumpkin pointed to the right. Emily saw a shadow move between the trees.

“Who’s there?” she called out, her pulse pounding in her ears. This was getting really creepy. A rustling in the undergrowth startled her and she whirled around to see the back of a very large animal as it disappeared from view. What was
that
? A moose? No, stupid, there’re no moose in Pennsylvania. Oh yeah, right, this is a wildlife preserve. Who knows what kind of animals are here? In fact, who even knew
she
was here? She was all alone in the
haunted
woods… Okay, she told herself, calm down, don’t panic.

As she led Pumpkin down the other path, visions of “haunted woods” and the old witch who lived there sprang up as in those Grimm’s fairy tales that had scared her when she was young. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Turning around, Emily saw the white mist again. It was moving, snaking through the trees straight toward her. “Oh, no…this is not good…”