The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) by Dani Swanson (read aloud books txt) 📕

couldn’t help but laugh at Robin’s lame pun. “That’s not funny,” she tried to say with a straight face.

“Can I have that please?” Thea said to the ravens with her hand out. A large raven with blue tipped wings, hesitantly dropped it into Thea’s palm. “Thank you, sweet friend.” She said as she dropped the eye into a bottle and filled it with some liquid.

“You ruined their fun.” Robin said as she tossed one of Fig’s cat toys up in the air for the ravens.

   The witches kept their booth closed the next morning as Thea was still resting from their adventure the day before. She finally stopped coughing up bile around two in the morning and got some rest. She rubbed thyme on her wounds and changed the dressing on them. Bruises over her collarbones matched that of Thalia’s hands perfectly. The girls stayed quiet most of the day, listening to the chatter of the people outside who were gossiping about the Crow Witch. By the day’s end, her ‘tale of the Crow Witch’ was larger than a giant, and her were fireballs hotter than Hades. Thea just shook her head as she read her books in the overstuffed chair, and drifted in and out of sleep.

“Tomorrow, I am going to head back to my cabin,” Thea decided. “You are more than welcomed to join me if you’d like. I feel that there is something that I am missing from there that will tell me what happened between me and this sisterhood.” Thea was turning her pendant between her fingers as she read her personal spell book.

“That’s sounds like a plan to me.” Robin said excitedly as she swung back and forth in her hammock.

“Hey. How did you make those mud trolls?” Thea asked without looking up from her book.

“Huh? Oh, I do it the same way you make fireballs. You have a fire element and I have an earth.”

Thea sat and contemplated that for a moment.

“So, the Crow Witch has air?” Thea responded, now looking up from her book.

“Hmmm, I would guess so since she can make thunderbolts. Only a supreme witch will have more than one element within her. My mom had three, but she never was able to do fire. So close to being a supreme.” Robin said as she got a little teary eyed talking about her mom.

Thea gave her a half smile and reached up and grabbed her foot. “There, there little bear,” she said as she stuck her tongue out.

“Nerd,” Robin responded as she wiped her face with her sleeves.

 The girls started off early the next day. Thea took everything they could carry in the wagon with them, and cleaned out the shelves. After what she witnessed with the Crow Witch, she seriously doubted that anyone would be buying anything from the booth any time soon. She shook Fig from his slumber. “Come on Fig, lead us home.”

He meowed in protest but got up, stretched, butt in the air, then started to trot down the market to the path leading towards Thea’s small cabin. They passed Eleonore and Flynn’s farm, which was in much better shape than the last time Thea had seen it. The fences and the walls were all mended and there was even a fresh coat of paint on the barn. She saw that all the horses and cows had made it home as well. She wanted to stop, but knew that Eleonore didn’t want to see her. The girls left a bottle of tonic on the fence for Flynn. Thea sighed as they continued down the dirt path to the open field.

Deer were jumping through the long grass; a few had fawn following behind them. The sun was heading towards the west and Thea knew that she wasn’t going to make it all the way home before night fall.

“We better find a place to camp,” Thea said as they entered back into the wooded area of the path.

Robin was humming as she pulled the cart. “Are you sure? We’re kind of out in the open out here.” Robin responded as she looked around.

“Well when the sun goes down we lose the path.” Thea stated as she stopped and turned to face Robin.

“Fair enough. I’m hungry anyway.”

They went into the thicket about one hundred feet and set up their camp. Thea started a fire, except this time she used just her hand instead of smacking rocks together.

“This is much easier to do than what I was doing before,” Thea said with a chuckle.

Robin smiled and pulled out a skillet she had bought at the market.

“Whoa! Nice,” Thea gestured to Robin’s new skillet.

“We made a lot of money before that witch showed up.” Robin jingled her coin pouch and danced to the rhythmic clanking of the coins with a smile. Robin made them grilled cheese with a side of bacon that they had bought.

“Good thing Doug isn’t here anymore.” Thea joked as she devoured her dinner. Thea was doing her best to study about the elements from her books by the campfire, but was failing to focus or to see the words on the page.

“How do you figure out what elements you have?” Thea questioned Robin, who was trying to get her hammock set up between two trees.

“Well, you know how you focus all of your emotion and energy into the pit of your stomach, and then you open your palm and focus it there?” Thea nodded in response.

“Well you need to do that, but try to focus on the other elements that you want to use. I almost got fire once.” Robin said as she finally looked over to Thea. “But it just came out as black smoke and singed my eyebrows. Still pretty scary though.” Robin said as she rubbed her brows in remembrance.

Thea smirked at her. She stood and focused