Blue Hills by Steve Shilstone Read Free Book Online

… like … like Rumin.”
    â€œWhy the path then?” asked Kar, still busy tearing up and chewing clumps of moss.
    â€œTrue … true. Why the path?” I pondered. “Why the path? I will tell you why. A path reveals its … its … why … at its … end. Yes. That’s it. Up, Kar. Let’s find the … why.”
    The path ran straight, nudged left for a spell, right for a spell, but ever on a modest rise. I smiled at the stiff silence stacked all around us. Truly, I was a new Bekka, a different Bekka. I walked tall as I could, short though I am. I noticed the gloomy menace of the towering black Charborr trees had Kar hunching her wings and dipping her mallet head.
    â€œTell me, Kar, ridiculous bird, are you ticklish?” I asked in effort to lighten her mood.
    She widened her pink eyes and gave me a wary look before saying, “Bek, have you shifted to strange again?”
    For an answer, I grabbed her by the legs and tickled her madly under her wings. She writhed with screeching laughter. I set her down on the path and backed away.
    â€œSo. The ridiculous bird is … ticklish,” I said, folding my arms. “The blue plume, Kar. The plume. It truly is what makes it the funniest. You were so such right to add the plume.”
    â€œThank you,” she snapped with a fine measure of irritation. “I’m going to fly ahead. No more riding. A jrabe jroon never knows when her best friend from forever is going to attack her.”
    So saying, she wobbled into flutter flight and flapped away above the path. Satisfied I had transformed her mood from gloom to anger, I followed. It wasn’t long before she came hurtling back in a whirl of wings.
    â€œOh, Bek! The crest! The crest! I saw! I saw! The Blue Hills! The Blue Hills! Tiers of ‘em! AND THEY’RE ALL MOVING!”

Chapter Eighteen
    The Sea of Blue Hills
    â€œRun, Bek! Run! Such close it is. The crest. Hurry. Hurry! See!”
    â€œOhhhh! Blue Hills. They’re …”
    â€œMoving! I told you. Look. The path. It zigs and zags right down the steepness. Is it too high for you? Ever was it so that you were afraid of heights. Close your eyes. I’ll guide you down. We’ll get to that lake, cross it, and …”
    â€œKar! Settle! Not another … word. I am … Bekka of Thorns. I am not … bothered one shake by this … this … so said steepness. I am changed. Not like you … a silly bird. But … on the inside … strange power. Listen closely to … what I say. Somewhere over there among those drifting … Blue Hills, the witch, the Babba Ja Harick, she … she … awaits our arrival. She is expecting … me. Kar, see how the Blue Hills drift … in tiers?”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œAh! They change direction … all together at once so such. The first tier … the lowest … it was moving right and now it moves left. Ah. And with it drifts the third and the … fifth … while the second and the fourth, they were drifting left and have reversed direction to the … right. Count, Kar.”
    â€œCount?”
    â€œYes. Now!”
    â€œOne, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fif …”
    â€œYes! That’s it! Stop. Start over.”
    â€œOne, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.”
    â€œSo! On every count of … of … fifteen, the tiers so such reverse their drift. Ah.”
    â€œWhat does it mean? Are they as like hackenlumps, gateways to the Land of the Rainbow Giants?”
    â€œNo, no, no, not at all, but … yoss, yes, maybe … Kar, yes, you do have a very … idea there. Very in spite of being a ridiculous bird. Hackenlumps? The Impassable Swump of Greedge. Yes, a true Gwer drollek with the Triplet Princesses Three and, in addition, the most