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

imagine that he has enough room to fly down there!” He continued to pace, deep in thought.

“Do you think it’s stuck down there? Do we need to help it get out?” Thea’s love for animals was cancelling out the fact that she was almost burned alive by that dragon.

“I don’t think it got down there through that hole….So there would have to be another opening somewhere, where it got in. If there is another opening someplace, it should be able to get out the same way that it went in….right?”

Thea and Percy made beds out of the blankets they had packed. Thea draped the blanket she had found over part of the rocks, blocking out some of the cold air blowing into the cave. Percy only needed one blanket that he laid out on the floor, whereas Thea had her cloak and the patchwork blanket the fairies had made for her wrapped tightly around her and Fig – as they lay close to the fire. Thea couldn’t sleep as her mind was racing through all the different things that could have happened to Robin, and why she hadn’t come back to the cabin. She finally decided to believe that Robin was happily living amongst the dragons. She pretended that she got a letter from her saying that she was studying the dragons for a new book she was writing. That put her mind at ease so she could finally fall asleep.

As the sun rose in the morning sky, the temperature only increased a few degrees. Thea felt frozen on the inside- she lit another fireball to increase the flame on their small fire.

“I’ve been thinking….” The sound of Percy’s voice startled her enough that she jumped – she forgot that he was there with her. “If Robin and Edward went to find the blue-scaled dragons, and there is a dragon below this mountain….they may not have gone up to the mountain top, but followed it down to the opening where the river is flowing. We should go around this mountain and track the base to see if there is another way in there.”

Thea sat and started to nod in agreement with what Percy was saying. Robin is a smart person and is a better tracker than Thea. “It sounds like a logical thought….and it will be warmer, right?”

Percy chuckled at her while wrapping his jacket around her shoulders. “I guess you aren’t used to this weather yet.”

Thea blankly stared at Percy for a moment before standing up and putting away her makeshift bed. “Let’s go to the base of the mountain. Maybe then I can feel my face again.”

Percy pulled down the blanket from the entrance, peering out into the white void. Unbeknownst to them, there had been unwelcome visitors not far from their cavern door while they slept. Wolf tracks could be seen going up the path of the mountain.

“Another reason we will be going to the base….if the wolves went that way,” Thea pointed up the path. “Then we will go the other way.” She started out the door toward the trees, with her cat again curled around her shoulders. Percy shook his head as he followed behind.

“This mountain is bigger around than it looks.” Thea’s legs were starting to get the feeling back in them as they continued to wind down around the width of the mountain.

“There are pros and cons for going up and over a mountain and going around a mountain….” Percy was getting warm too. He had taken off his jacket and had it tied through the strap of his bag.

Fig had also warmed up enough that he no longer was forcing Thea to carry him around her neck. The amount of snow was decreasing, and they could see spots of grass poking through the snow here and there.

There were only a couple of instances when the yetis and bazzles threw snowballs at them. Usually it only took a yell from Percy and they would disappear within the pines. “Why are they so scared of you?” Thea watched a bazzle run across their path and into a dense bush to hide.

“My jacket is made of yeti hides. I have been hunting yetis since I was a little tyke with my dad. They know who the hunters are.”

“That’s horrible! Why do you hunt them if they are intelligent enough to recognize you?!” Thea gasped as she spun around to look at Percy’s face.

“What do you think you were eating last night? We don’t have the same amounts of chicken and beef that you have at the base of the mountain.” He smiled at her shocked face. Thea felt dumb to not realize that she had been eating yeti for her dinner whenever she was on the mountain. “It’s all part of the natural system up here. If we didn’t hunt them, they would overpopulate and starve.”

“I guess that makes sense. It tastes like a spicy beef….and I should talk, I eat meat too.” She could see the red eyes of a small yeti watching them from the trees. Where they were aggressive with her while walking with Dean and Charles, these yetis would shut their eyes to hide amongst the snowy branches when they saw Percy. “Interesting. I guess it’s part of the circle of life, right?”

“I guess, but yetis eat meat. They would have no problem ripping through your flesh to make their next meal....so it’s sort of eat or be eaten, rather than the circle of life….we could eat the penguins.” He playfully smirked at her without making eye contact.

“Don’t tell me about eating the penguins. I don’t want to know where the food comes from anymore.”

“We don’t eat them….I was just saying that we COULD eat them.” Thea’s face was twisted in a mixture of sadness and disgust. “I wish I didn’t like the taste of meat so much.”

The conversation between the two went from where the food came from, to what causes witches’ magic to be different from witch to witch,