Free The Legend Begins by Isobelle Carmody Page B

could not be the same ones, even though they did go in both directions as far as she could see. Little Fur decided to follow them, because the ditch would hide her from the human if she crouched down.
    She could not move very quickly while crouching, and she soon had a sore back and head from bending over so oddly. That might be what kept her from noticing that the ground had begun to rise. But when the ditch flattened out suddenly, she discovered that she had come up onto the beginning of some sort of structure which lifted the strip of earth beneath the metal rails high above true ground level. This must be what Brownie called a bridge, built by humans to let them go over things. Fortunately for her, grass and true good earth lay over the bridge, though she could not see what lay under it. A road, perhaps; maybe the very road the human had used to get from the wasteland to the top of the slope.
    Little Fur started across the bridge. She had to move quickly because the sky was streaked with purple and orange now. The sun was very near to opening its bright eye, and the enormous human might yet be somewhere waiting for daylight to reveal her.
    She had just reached the top of the bridge when a long, dreadful scream rent the air. It was so loud that it seemed to come from all directions at once, and there was a horrible metallic edge to it that hurt Little Fur and made her cry out and clap her hands over her ears. The scream seemed to go on forever and when it stopped, the air quivered. Little Fur straightened and a sharp premonition of danger made her glance back. A monstrously long serpent of gleaming silver metal was writhing along the ground at an impossible speed, its single piercing eye casting a yellow glare before it.

    So great was her wonderment that it was not until the metal rails began to vibrate and the earth began to shudder under her feet that Little Fur realized
it was coming along the rails
.
    She turned and went on as fast as she dared, her heart thundering painfully in her breast. She reached true ground an instant before the great metal serpent came roaring and grinding over the bridge. She staggered away from the rails, but as the monster roared past, a wind pushed out like a giant hand and Little Fur fell forward. She managed to catch her balance, only to feel the earth give way under her feet. With a cry, she slipped and slithered down a smooth, hard slope into a swift, dark swirl of water.

CHAPTER 13
    The Stone Fairie
    Little Fur had fallen into a tumbling river. At first her shock was so great that she did not think to fight. It was as if she had fallen into a chilly dream. But then her heart began to bang and her breath to burn in her throat, and she thrashed her hands and kicked her feet until she reached the surface. She had time to gulp in a great breath of air, but then the current dragged her under again.
    She floundered desperately against the force of the water, working her way toward the bank. It was exhausting because if she rested an instant, she was at once pulled back to the center. The battle became harder the longer it went on, and as a deadly tiredness stole through her, Little Fur found herself wondering if it would be so bad to let herself go down into the liquid darkness.
    A vision of the Old Ones, stately and green in their hidden hollow, came into her mind. A great longing to see them welled up in Little Fur, giving her the strength to go on fighting, but a moment came when she had no more strength left. She gave in to the flow, only to find that she had made it to the edge. Indeed, her feet were dragging on the ground and, fortunately, the bank nearest to her was curved enough so that the main force of the river passed by.
    It took an immense effort of will for Little Fur to haul herself halfway up the bank. She was utterly spent. She did not faint or sleep, but for a time it seemed that her mind had been left behind in the dark, violent water, being smothered and swept