Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) by Matthew Medina Read Free Book Online Page B

talking about. Her books.
And then she knew.
“Your mom and I talked about this, and we didn’t want to
take things away from you if we could help it. She was actually the
one who decided you could do without shoes for a while, because
since you were little, your feet have grown half a size every span!
And whenever we tried to put shoes on you, you’d pull them right
off three breaths later. We honestly thought maybe you were going
to grow flippers one day!”
She laughed at this, and leaned into him and he wrapped
his strong arm around her. He reached out and scratched the top
of her scalp, the way he always did. She liked to pretend that he
was running his hand through her hair, but she had no idea what
that really felt like.
“But listen, if you would rather wear shoes, we can talk
about other things that we can…”
“No, it’s OK, dad. I don’t mind. I just didn’t like them
teasing me about it, is all.”
He looked at her with such compassion and simply said “I
understand. No one would like that. If it happens again, you tell
me, OK?”
And then he stood up, held his hand out for her and she
took it, pulling herself to her feet and dusting herself off.
“Whatd’ya say we get home and you read to me some
more?” he whispered.
She simply grinned up at him, nodded and they walked
home hand in hand.
    Catelyn stretched out her arms and legs like a cat, flexing
her fingers and toes as she prepared to get up and return to her
roost to deal with the extra rations she'd been debating the fate of.
Her mind was still clouded with thoughts of the past which often
bubbled up from her unconscious mind to plague her and try to
pull her down into despair.
    However, this time her ruminations proved somewhat
useful as a sudden flash of insight struck her as she got to her feet.
In her most recent trip through the hallways of her memories, her
recollections of her father, and his valuable lessons, suddenly
reminded her of one of his problem solving techniques.
    Just as they did now, his words and his wisdom would
often come to her at times when she felt as though she could very
easily have just given up and let her life go, and they had always
motivated her to see things differently. And that is exactly what
she did now to solve the situation with her excess food.
    She knew that it was too much for her to eat by herself,
and storing the food was out of the question. Throwing away that
much food would be a crime to her. There was only one way to
solve her problem. She had to share it.
    But as she had reasoned before, she couldn’t simply show
up at the marketplace with a box of food, without it drawing a
whole lot of unnecessary questions about where such a bounty had
come from. And her father had told her to think about things in
reverse to see them from a different vantage point, or turning them
upside down.
    And so Catelyn sprang lightly from the roof as the sun
slipped down below the horizon, the wood roof slats still warm
beneath her soles, and returned to the inside of her roost. She took
her father’s words, and his idea, and applied them literally.
    She gathered up all the food from the cache, which she had
wrapped in individual parcels, placed each one carefully in a large
box that she used for keeping dry goods, and then without a trace
of mirth, proceeded to turn the entire contents of the box upside
down.
    The parcels tumbled out, spilling all of the food onto the
floor where they rolled, and bounced everywhere around her feet.
With her bubble, she both heard the low muffled thumps of each
package as they hit the floor, and felt the vibrations of each impact
through the soles of her feet. It both sounded and felt to her like
distant thunder rumbling on the horizon.
    She mentally mapped the location of every scrap of food as
they fell, and they formed a clear mental image in her mind as they
were scattered and strewn around her. As she bent down to begin
picking up the first of the packages, a smile