The Circle of Owls (The Grimalkin Book 3) Dani Swanson (best books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

out from the outside. As the Grimalkin, her hearing was extremely sharp – she could hear the flowing water beneath the rocks. She followed it all the way around the base, past the Izotza kingdom, and into the valley near where the Baba Yaga was living.

She found the mouth of the river which started from a small lake, that was freely flowing to the rocky edge of the mountain. The Grimalkin jumped into the water, swimming over to the rocks, diving down into the darkness – the water nymphs hid from the shadowy cat as she tried to find a way to get through the wall. The Grimalkin swam until her lungs started to burn, following the bubbles to the surface for air. She would fill her lungs and then dive down again until she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, repeating the routine until she finally swam all the way down to the sandy bottom. She could feel the rush of the water being drawn to the rocks. The opening she found wasn’t large enough for her to pass through in her Grimalkin form. She returned to the surface, changing her form back to her slight human body.

Each time Lilly turned back into her human form it was taking longer for her to feel human again. Ever since she ate Celeste’s soul, her vision was different, and she could smell everything – her eyes, that were usually light in color stayed black. Lilly had to sit on the bank of the lake for a moment as she slowed her heartbeat. Once she was relaxed, she went back into the water to swim down to the opening she had found.

As she dove down into the cool water, the nymphs were no longer afraid of her presence. They swam out from behind the weeds and were following behind her. Lilly’s lungs started to burn faster than they did when she was in her larger Grimalkin form. She made it to the opening as the water nymphs were grabbing for her ankles. She swiftly kicked at them as she squeezed her body through the opening. The tunnel beneath the rocks was tight, barely allowing for Lilly to swim through it. She was starting to panic – what was she going to do if she ran out of air down there? There was no light and she kept having to push her arms out above her head to see if the tunnel had come to an end. Once she reached the other end of the mountain’s tunnel she swam as fast as her body could to what she felt was the direction of the surface – pushing with all her might as she gasped for air once her head broke the surface of the water. Her chest heaved as her lungs tingled with the fresh air.

Once Lilly was over the shock of almost drowning while swimming through the small tunnel, she realized that she was, in fact, back to the opening that housed the dragons. She quietly swam to the edge, as all three of the mother dragons were sleeping with their eggs on their nests.

Lilly sat with her legs hanging into the water, the leather of her boots were growing tight on her skin, but she was too distracted trying to figure out where the water was running to even notice.

If the water comes from the north, and there is a draft pulling the water into the mountain, there should be another way that the water is being pushed out….right? There is no way these dragons were brought through that small opening, when I barely fit through there, and I’m the size of one of their snouts…..

She once again left the mountain in all her Grimalkin glory and followed the noise of the running water below the rocks past the mountains, and toward the Monkey Tree Village. She had to change back into her human form once she got near the village to not draw attention to herself.

Lilly continued to walk the path that she thought the water would have flowed. It didn’t surprise her in the least bit that it ran to the little house that Lilly had witnessed Sorgin and the sisters occupying. She wanted answers to how the dragons were trapped below and wanted her peace from everything the Circle of Owls had done to her, but the fear of the unknown always took over whenever she thought she was going to be strong enough to confront any of them. She would have flashbacks of being locked in the dungeon; her hands would start to get sweaty, her chest would become tight and she would freeze on the spot when she would see them. She decided that today wasn’t going to be that day either. She walked around the house and over the hill that was behind the village. It was there that she found an opening to a cave that looked to have been boarded up at one point.

She cautiously made her way through the discarded wood and into the darkness. She morphed into her Grimalkin form, her eyes glowing in the darkness as she went down the path. She could once again hear the water flowing below her feet- getting louder the farther down the path she went. She did notice that this entry was large enough to fit the dragons through, but there wasn’t an opening where the dragons were located. The Grimalkin made it to the end of the path, meeting a solid rock wall of the mountain. She changed back to being Lilly when she noticed the mining tools that were left behind. “Dwarfs built this wall.” She said as she picked up the pick axe that was laying on the floor. There wasn’t any sign of fire around for her to pull into the cave to light her way, so she sat on the floor and rubbed two sticks together until she had a spark. She started a small fire and started to