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

simply by guiding her hand over a page. “You need to fix this page. The unicorns cannot fly and they eat grass just like a regular horse,” Willow said. The girl pulled a pencil out of her bag and started to write in the margins of the book of creatures. She didn’t know if it any of it would be relevant to her, but it was distracting her from the sick feeling still running through her body.

“Grimalkin,” Willow’s voice trailed off as she read the page.

“I think I have seen that thing. I think it is following us.” The girl said to Willow.

Willow turned her head slowly with a fearful look on her face. “Did you see the witch, or did you see the shadow?” the fairy asked.

“The shadow. It looked like a huge lion with glowing eyes.”

Willow stared out into the darkness and said in a tiny voice. “Be careful of traveling through the forest in the dark. She likes to jump on people’s backs from behind and steal their souls. Then you see people and creatures wandering around the forest with a stupefied look on their faces. I don’t know where they end up going, but they look like they are dead. You should get a weapon. Something sharp.” Willow trailed off as she continued to read the book.

Willow and the girl stayed up throughout the night and discussed gnomes, and shadows, nymphs and dragons. “Tell me. How many fairies are there here?” The girl asked.

“Well in this kingdom there are 7,365 fairies. There are seven other kingdoms that I know about in the forest. But I haven’t made it to all corners of the forest yet; so there may be more. Each kingdom has a royal family that rules over a part of the forest.” Willow stated.

“Oh? Where is the castle?” the girl asked.

Willow started to laugh at her. “We don’t live in castles you silly human. We live in the trees and the mushrooms.” Willow giggled.

“Oh.” The girl said sheepishly.

“They live in that old oak tree.” The fairy pointed to the outskirts of the fairy circle to the biggest tree in the area. The girl could see a faint golden light coming from the top of the tree. “They have been watching you since you got here.” Willow whispered conspiratorially to her with a smile. “Anastasia, the fairy queen, and her children live there. She is the fairest fairy you will ever lay eyes on. She has golden hair that shines as bright as the sun, and her glow is the lightest pink shimmer I’ve ever seen.” Willow was in awe of the queen. “Her poor husband fell in the last battle against the Starling Kingdom. They attacked our kingdom to try to take our territory away from the lake. The water nymphs had gnomes attacking our houses while we slept. The rest of the fairy warriors went out and attacked their kingdom too. We lost a lot of fairies.” She said sadly.

“Is the Starling Kingdom another group of fairies?” the girl asked.

“Yes,” Willow answered. “We are the Sparrow Kingdom.” She said pointing to her green sword. The girl held it close to her face and was able to see a small sparrow engraved into the handle. “That was many years ago, but the queen doesn’t leave her home very often. She watches from her window and sends sparrows down with her messages.” She was very solemn in her delivery. They sat in silence for a while and watched the fire burning low in the pit. “Well it’s late. You should try to rest. You still aren’t looking well.” Willow excused herself and fluttered to a little mushroom near the edge of the fairy circle. The girl curled up on her bed of moss, and covered herself up with her blanket from the fairies, and her cloak. Fig nuzzled into her arm and purred softly.

Chapter Five

The girl awoke to chokecherries and explosions falling around. Willow zoomed by her face and yelling, “Girl! Human! Get up! We’re being attacked!” The girl looked up to see Fig jumping up in the air and attacking tree elves who were riding on the back of ravens; the elves were bombing the circle. The elves were not much bigger than the fairies. They were all dressed in brown with little green hats. They had the darkest black hair and pointed ears spilling out from under their hats. Their emerald eyes looked angry as they swooped in. The girl jumped up and started to swat at the birds flying around her head. She picked up a branch from the fire pit that had not burned all the way through and swung at the birds and elves flying through the air. Sparks flew when the elves and fairies collided. Pink, green, red and blue orbs spun around the fairy circle. Ravens were falling from the sky and scooping up fallen elves. Once the girl had started in the battle, the majority of the birds flew away in fright.

There was a rainbow of colored orbs scattered on the ground. Many of the fairies were not moving. She sat down panting against a rock and rested in the moss. “Can you help them?” A breathless Willow spatter out in her tiny voice.

The girl looked up to see the warrior fairies bringing their injured over to the girl. “I…I don’t know what to do! I told you that yesterday!” She cried.

“You can do it again! You have to!” Willow yelled in a panic.

“I...I’ll try,” she stuttered.

The girl placed her pointer finger on the bellies of a fallen fairy and rubbed it back and forth. The electric current she had felt the day before came over her once again. Running through her body and out her finger tip the little fairy started to levitate in the air. Her raven hair extended off her head