Free Circles in the Stream (Avalon: Web of Magic #1) by Rachel Roberts

scalp.
    “Ouch! Calm down, Ozzie!” Emily pulled him off her head.
    “We’ve got to help him!” Ozzie wriggled out of her arms and leaped to the ground.
    The men were shaking their heads and gesturing toward each other. Then the man with the rifle pointed it at the sky. Bang! The creature still didn’t move. The man lowered his gun and moved forward slowly.
    “We can’t let them capture Phel!” Ozzie insisted.
    Emily looked at Adriane.
    “I don’t know, it’s a talking ferret, maybe they’re all crazy,” Adriane offered.
    “It’s a creature of magic!” Ozzie yelled
    “And it’s not dangerous?” Adriane asked.
    “Nooo!” Ozzie was very frazzled. “You've got to do something!” he urged the girls.
    Emily nodded her head at Adriane. “All right.”
    Adriane straightened her shoulders. “Okay, I’ll distract those hunters, while you and Alice see if you can move that…thing…out of here.”
    “Be careful,” Emily said, crouching low in the tall grass.
    “You, too.” Adriane took a deep breath and confidently walked down the hill. “Hey!”
    Startled, all three hunters whirled to face her.
    “It’s a kid!” one of them said. “Go on home, it’s not safe around here.”
    Undaunted, Adriane continued until she was right next to them. “This is a wildlife preserve,” she said. “Didn’t you see the signs? They say ‘No hunting.’”
    “Who are you?” the rifle-holder asked.
    “I’m Adriane Charday. I live at Ravenswood Manor.”
    “We don’t have to listen to a kid,” one of the net-holding men said.
    Their backs were to the creature—and to Emily. She seized the moment. “Let’s go,” she said to Ozzie. She dashed into the field and skidded to a stop right in front of the purple giant. Ozzie was running so fast he hit the creature’s belly and bounced back off. The thing was enormous, easily eight feet tall. It sat motionless in the grass, surrounded by a ring of rainbow puff flowers. Deep purple fur shimmered in the sunlight. Emily stared in wonder. It looked sort of like a cross between a great bear and Humpty Dumpty. Its giant eyes were shut. A think line for a mouth ran across its face and it had no neck. Ozzie scrambled up the huge beast and looked into its face. “Phelonius! It’s me! Ozymandius!”
    The creature just sat, eyes closed, still as a statue.
    “Maybe he’s been tranquilized,” Emily whispered.
    “No, no,” the ferret said quickly. “He can’t be tranquilized. That’s absurd!”
    “You have no right bringing rifles onto private property!” Adriane yelled in the distance.
    “This preserve has no right harboring killer grizzlies,” one of the men countered.
    “That’s no grizzly! It’s a rare… um, panda from China… and it’s worth a million dollars! If anything happens to it, you’d be responsible!”
    “I don’t care what it is, we’re bringing it in!” the hunter threatened.
    Emily studied the creature. She felt oddly drawn to him. She realized she should probably be scared—but she wasn’t. She ran her hand over his smooth fur and felt a wave of calm wash over her. Light caught her eye, and she looked down to see her gem pulse a soft aqua blue. She took a deep breath.
    “What are you?” she asked.
    “He’s a fairy creature.” Ozzie had resorted to kicking the giant. “Wake up, you big thing!”
    Looking past the creature, Emily saw that the field fell away into a shallow gully. “Maybe we can roll him down into that gully.” She placed her hands on the creature and pushed. “Come on, Ozzie, help me!”
    The creature put up no resistance as he started to tilt over. Despite his girth, he felt as light as air.
    “What?” Ozzie cried. “That’s ridiculous, you can’t roll—aaaahhhhh!”
    In a cloud of rainbow dust, the giant furball starting rolling down the hill, the shrieking ferret hanging on.
    “What was that?” asked one of the hunters.
    “If you harm that panda, you’re all going to be in big trouble!”