Lirit and the BoneEater by By Amanda Galloway (free ebooks for android TXT) 📖

Prologue
The children all gathered up around the old Gypsy storyteller named Aberama, eager to listen to another of his tales. He stroked his long white beard and spoke to the children.
“ Well now, what will it be today children?” the children began to call out different types of stories they wanted hear. The boys wanted one with fighting and action, but the girls wanted a love story. They were about to argue until the storyteller raised his hand to silence them
He cleared his throat and spoke, “Now hold on, hold on! Now it seems that we have a little dilemma here of whether to have an adventure or a love story. Hmm…let’s see if we can put those together.”
The children fussed a bit and watched the storyteller think about the story. He looked at them, and then chuckled, “I guess I’ll have to tell you about Lirit.”
One girl asked, “Who is Lirit?”
“ Lirit was a young woman whose dance was as beautiful as she was and she fell in love with a demon.”
The boys moaned and one spoke up, “So it is a gushy love story!”
Aberama chuckled again, “Yes it is, but you might want to listen to it, there’s plenty of fighting in it for your satisfactory.”
This put a sparkle into the boys’ eyes and then they all started to beg him to start the story, for now they were ready to listen. So, Aberama cleared his throat again and began to speak.
“And so, we began the story of Lirit and the Bone Eater”


Chapter 1
In a small village, surrounded by a thick forest and a sparkling lake, there lived a young woman named Lirit. She was a beautiful dancer and everyone agreed that she was like the light breeze. Swaying gracefully through the trees.
It was a week before the great Festival of Flowers and Lirit was now old enough to participate in the Women’s dance that took place during the night. For this dance, each dancer has to pick a flower to represent. But Lirit couldn’t decide on which flower to represent and time was running out.
“ Lirit, how about a beautiful rose? It definitely shows your beauty.” Angie said, Lirit’s eldest sister suggested to her. Lirit wasn’t paying attention; she was looking out the window into the dark opening of the forest.
“Lirit.”
Lirit turned to her sister, “What is it?”
Angie sighed, “Have you chosen your flower to represent yet? The festival is one week away and you still haven’t picked out you flower. Why?”
“I want to go and get one of the flowers in the forest, Romanio says that there are beautiful red and white flowers that grow wild in there” Lirit sounded a bit whiny, she really wanted to go into the forest to find those flowers her best friend has spoke of many times.
Angie sighed then spoke, “Lirit, you know that is not safe to go into the forest. There are demons, witches and unexplainable things in there. Its not safe in there.”
“Fine!” Lirit said, looking depressed. Angie left and Lirit watched her go. Then she thought to her self, ~Tonight I’m going into that forest, no matter what Angie or anyone says~.

Later on that evening, when most people were asleep and the only ones awake were the night watchers, Lirit slipped away into the forest. Carrying only a small lantern and a basket, Lirit walked through the forest.
It was quiet and peaceful, with the moon shining down making everything glisten. Lirit couldn’t see why everyone was scared of it so much. She walked and looked around for the red and white flowers. Then she spotted a small patch near a stream. It was filled with the most delicate flowers that seem to look towards the moon. The petals were red and white that looks splattered instead of painted.
“ These must be it!” she whispered to herself. Lirit bent down onto her knees and started to pick the flowers one by one and putting them in to her basket.
After she picked up her fifth flower, Lirit heard something rustling in the bushes. Lirit looked around and saw nothing. She went back to picking flowers then she heard a low growl.
Lirit jumped up, getting frightened a little, then called out, “Whose there?” her voice shaky a bit. Then a large figure stepped out of its hiding place. Its eyes glowing red and a pearly flash of sharp teeth showing, the shadow got closer. Lirit, now fully scared, yelled out, “Stay away!” Then she quickly scrambled for her things and ran as fast as she can out of the forest. She didn’t look back until she was at home safely.
She went into her room then noticed one thing; she had forgotten her basket back in the forest.

Chapter 2
The next day, Lirit was restless when she woke up. For most of the night she was thinking about that dark figure with the glowing red eyes that almost touched her.
As much as she didn’t want to, Lirit had to go back to get her basket back before her sister found out. One of the rules of her sister was “Never lose your basket or else.” Lirit didn’t want to know what the “or else” was; she knew it wasn’t something fun.
Angie saw how her sister looked, “Lirit, are you alright? You don’t look so good.” She asked Lirit, looking concerned.
Lirit looked at her, “I…I couldn’t sleep very good last night.” She hoped her sister would believe her.
“ Well, I’m going to help out Mrs. Salvado with her gardening today. I’m going to be there all day, if you want you could stay home and get some rest.”
~Perfect! ~ Thought Lirit, she nodded her head and smiled weary. Angie grabbed her basket and her cloak then waved to Lirit, telling her to get some rest, and then she was gone.
Lirit got dressed in a fresh new blue dress then walked outside. She was going towards the forest when Romanio spotted her. His dark brown hair looked well kept and his brown eyes were just waking up to the sun.
“Oh! Hi there Romanio!” She greeted him with a smile.
Romanio yawned then spoke. “Hey Li, what are you up to? Where is Angie?”
Lirit had to say something to make him leave. He was the last person she wanted to know that she was going into the forest.
“ Oh, I was just going around thinking to myself. It’s a lot of things and I don’t want to be distracted by anyone Romanio.” She quickly replied. Romanio look at her in a weird way then shrugged.
“Okay then, I talk to you later then Li, stay out of trouble.” He replied then went back to doing his work.
Lirit gave a sigh of relief then she quickly ran of into the forest before anyone could stop her. She remembered the way back to the flower patch, but Lirit didn’t realize how far away from the village she was.
When she arrived at the spot, her basket was gone so were the flowers she picked. ~Who picked up my basket? ~ Lirit looked around and saw a small blue bird looking at her from branch. It was holding one of the red and white flowers in its beak. It flew away and Lirit followed it, deeper into the forest.
Then the blue bird landed on her shoulder and dropped the flower into her hand. Lirit smiled and smelled the flower then chuckled.
She heard a branch snap and she turned around to see something move. Lirit cleared her throat then spoke up, “Who ever is there, show yourself! Now!”
A figure began to step out from its hiding spot to show its self. It was neither man nor beast that was standing in front of Lirit. It had strange claws for hands and wolf like legs and feet. Sharp horns came out from both sides of its head and it had pointed ears. A demon. But it had the face and upper body of a young man. Lirit was stuck in her spot because she didn’t know what will happen if she moved.
“Who-who or what are you? And what do you want?” The words came out all at once.
The demon looked at her then spoke; “ I’m known as BoneEater to most of your village. But please don’t be frightened…” His voice was a calm and whimsical sound that was peculiar.
Lirit found her voice, “How do I know you not going to eat me or trick me?”
“ I won’t. I just want to return something back to you, if that’s alright?” BoneEater replied, holding up her basket that was filled with the flowers she picked.
“My basket! Oh thank you!” She replied, taking her basket. Lirit looked at the demon and saw that he meant no harm, but he did look very sad. His every expression seemed to be sad.
“BoneEater, my name is Lirit and I want tot be your friend.” Lirit replied smiling at him.
BoneEater’s eyes widened in surprise, “Really? You really want to be my friend? Aren’t you scared of my appearance?”
Lirit shook her head and spoke, “ You may look scary but I can tell that you’re not bad. I was told not to judge by looks but by heart.”
BoneEater smiled for the first time and spoke gently, “ Then I thank you Lirit for being my first friend.”