Free The Elderine Stone by Alan Lawson Page B

or a cat. He fawned at her a little, and the tearful floods became the breathy little sobs and sighs, as he calmed.
    Jason thought for a moment. How exactly were they going to put a stop to it? After all, he still wasn’t too sure exactly what it was they were going to put a stop to.
    “ Are you going to be ok to carry on?” Emily asked, still stroking the small creature.
    Sherbit managed to pull a brave smile.
    “ Yes I am thank you. The sooner we go, the sooner we can stop all the bad things.”
    Emily stood up and looked over at Jason, then back to Sherbit.
    “ Well let’s go then.” Jason said. “Nothing will get in our way.”
    As they started walking again, Jason noticed that Sherbit’s earlier activities must have exhausted him, as he tagged behind them. Instead of running ahead he was only just managing to keep up.
    They walked in silence, each alone with their thoughts once more. Engrossed in their silence neither of the friends noticed the change in their surroundings. An eerie feeling drifted through the air hugging them like a dense mist. The birds were silent, and the temperature dropped to a cool skin tingling level.
    Emily shuddered. Her actions startled Jason, and he began to look around, trying to pinpoint what was wrong. A cold breeze blew passed them, stealing his breath in a long streamer of vapour.
    “ It has become cold all of a sudden,” Emily remarked, wrapping her arms around her body to keep the heat inside.
    “ Yeah, it has.” Jason replied. “But the sun is still out and there are no clouds.”
    They all stopped for a moment. Turning in small circles around each other, to try and spot anything out of the ordinary. Emily held her staff in an iron like grip, while Sherbit’s lower lip was clasped as hard, by his teeth, as his tail held tight in his hands. They stood still, listening. Listening for any sort of noise but the only sound was their breath.
    Finally, their eyes met, and they grinned.
    “ Look, at me! I’ve only been here a few days and I’m a paranoid wreck!” Jason joked, rubbing his hands to stave off the chill.
    “The weather is very unpredictable you know,” Emily said, the smile on her face brightened by relief.
    “Tell me about it” Jason replied with good natured sarcasm.
    “ My grandfather once built an instrument that could tell you the weather that was to come!” Emily said with a laugh. “Crazy thought, isn’t it? Knowing what weather could be, a full week ahead!”
    Jason smiled to himself, thinking of how everyone back home took weather forecasts for granted.
    “ Well?” She was all business now. “We’d better not hang around; we certainly don’t want to be caught in a thunder storm. You never know how the weather could change.”
    She brushed down her cloak, turned south and started walking again.
    Jason raised his eyebrows, shook his head and looked at Sherbit. The imp still seemed uncertain, so Jason stooped to scratch him behind the ears before standing to start after Emily.
    She was standing still only a few steps ahead.
    With a gasp, he started to run. He was panicked by the look of concentration on her face as she stared at the ground.
    She held out her hand and cried “Whoa!”
    “ What is it? What’s wrong?” Jason asked. He looked at the ground around her, trying to see what she saw. There was nothing. He started to walk to her, slowly and quietly, so he wouldn’t startle her. She could be casting a spell.
    “Stop!” she screamed, “Don’t come any closer!”
    Her eyes were wild, wide and afraid.
    “ Why? Emily what’s wrong ?”
    He took another step closer, and suddenly he felt the ground start to weaken under his feet. Emily looked up at him, frustration mixed with fear, and the ground collapsed beneath them. The shock of the fall caused Emily to release her staff into the air, and it clattered woodenly along the path ahead of them. They fell quickly and untidily into a deep, freshly-dug hole. Branches, leaves and copious