The Reindeer Girl by Holly Webb Read Free Book Online Page B

could see the bright sun shining on the river ice. Erika was right. They didn’t have long before it melted.
    They hurried on, trying to go faster now, taking it in turns to carry Karl, who was getting wobbly on his legs. Every few minutes they stopped for a rest, and to call out for Flower. Karl joined in, honking his sad, hungry cries.
    They had been going for about another hour when Lotta stopped to call out again. “Flower! Where are you? Flower!” She’d grown so used to shouting that she almost went on without really listening for an answer. But suddenly she felt Karl wriggle in her arms.
    “What is it? Do you want to get down?”
    Karl wriggled again, snorting and honking, and Lotta gasped. He had heard something, she was sure of it.
    “Is he all right?” Erika asked, but Lotta shushed her.
    “Listen!”

    And there it was – only a little way off the beaten trail of hoofprints, in amongst the trees. A loud, sharp whinnying sound.
    They had found her.

Chapter Eight

    “Flower!” Lotta cried, putting Karl down and pulling off her skis so she could hurry through the trees without tangling them up. “You’re here!”
    “She’s not hurt is she?” Erika gasped, following her into the trees.
    “I don’t think so.” Lotta stroked Flower’s nose, smiling as the reindeer snuffled at her fingers. “Oh, but she’s stuck. Poor Flower, how did you manage that? Were you hungry? Did you go looking for that nice lichen on the trees?”
    Flower had worked her way into a clump of trees and somehow managed to get her thick winter coat wrapped up in the spiny branches of a young sapling. She was completely tangled.
    “She must have seen all that lichen and wandered off for a snack,” Erika said,trying to pull the twigs out of Flower’s fur. “Then she got herself all caught up, and couldn’t follow us.”
    “I’m so glad we found her,” Lotta murmured, yanking at the branches. “There! Come on, Flower! Pull!”
    The two girls backed away, coaxing Flower to follow them. At first, the reindeer didn’t seem to realize that she was free. She shook herself suspiciously, antlers swaying, and then looked down in surprise. All at once she understood that she could move and she gave a great leap, bursting out into the open. She stood there in the snow, her sides heaving and her eyes wild. But then she saw Karl, and she nuzzled at him delightedly.
    The little reindeer allowed himself to be sniffed and licked all over, and thenhe ducked determinedly underneath his mother and started to feed.
    Lotta watched him, smiling to herself, and then she hugged Erika. “We did it! Look at them, they’re both safe.”
    Erika nodded. “I know. And it is wonderful. But we have to get back, Lotta.” She was looking along the trail, a serious expression on her face, nothing like her usual teasing grin.
    Lotta swallowed. She had forgotten. “The river?”
    “Mmmm. I’m worried that if we leave it much longer, we won’t be able to cross back over. And then we’ll lose the trail.”
    Lotta glanced down at Karl, who was still feeding. He didn’t look as though he wanted to stop any time soon. “He’s so hungry…” she said. “We can’tmake him go on just yet.”
    But Flower was sniffing at the air, turning her head from side to side. She looked as worried as the girls, and then she turned and began to nose gently at Karl, pushing him away.
    He honked crossly and tried to keep feeding, but Flower began to walk off down the trail, and he stumbled after her.
    “She knows!” Lotta stared at Flower. “Did you see that? She knows we need to keep going!”
    “Maybe she can smell the river?” Erika suggested, hurriedly putting her skis back on. “It isn’t that far away, and reindeer have amazing noses. She might even be able to tell that the ice is melting. We’d better be quick.”
    Despite the worry about the thaw,Lotta couldn’t help smiling as they made their way back through the forest. The sunlight was coming