Brandis Holly's Secret

1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-64690-622-2
Verlag: Arctis US
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Woodwalkers

After his final battle against the vengeful Andrew Milling, cougar shapeshifter Carag is happier than ever to have his friends Brandon and Holly by his side. But ever since Holly's new guardian threatened to take her out of Clearwater High, the red squirrel shapeshifter has been acting very strange. When thefts start happening around town, Carag is immediately on the alert: Is Holly involved somehow?

Katja Brandis, born in Germany, majored in American Studies and went on to work as a journalist, traveling all over the world to report for magazines. She loves nature and is active in conservation. The idea for her Woodwalkers series was born in Yellowstone National Park. She began writing fiction as a child and has published more than 50 novels for young readers. Her home is near Munich, where she lives with her husband, their son, and three cats.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brandis, Katja

Weitere Mitwirkende

Carls, Claudia

Ward, Rachel

Leseproben

Hot Water

It was spring and the snow on our territory was slowly starting to melt. Bright green, juicy grass was shooting up on the wide plains, dotted with yellow, red, and purple flowers. On a hill high above them stood a thicket of pine trees, where my sister Mia was teasing a large black beetle, constantly stalking it, and pouncing on it. she called, the thought passing soundlessly from her head to mine.

My father stood up, stretched his long, cinnamon-colored body, and yawned, showing his fangs.

I’d only been half listening because I was lying on the cliff edge, peering down through the branches into the valley. Not many humans lived in our territory, which they called Yellowstone, but some of them had a base near here. I could see the gray-brown roofs of scattered houses, and cars driving up and down a road.

Humans were mysterious and powerful. Sometimes they stank, and at other times they acted like headless rabbits. With the best will in the world, I had no idea what they found so fascinating about hot water shooting up out of the ground. Right then, more people than I could count were gathering down at that spot in the valley, near one of those hot springs. There, they sat on longish pieces of wood and waited patiently for the event to begin. I betted they had those flat, rectangular polished stones with them, the ones that fitted into the palms of their hands; I couldn’t get my head around those. People stroked the things, or talked to them; sometimes they pointed them at something else, or at themselves . . .

Disappointedly, Mia swiped at me with her paw, claws retracted.

I hit back lightning-fast and bared my teeth.

My mother pushed her way between us.

, I lied, licking my forepaw and hoping my parents wouldn’t notice the way my heart was racing. If things went as planned, I’d be down there in a flash, without anybody finding out who or what I was. Otherwise, the humans would try to kill me.

My father gave me a funny look. I twitched. Had he guessed? Maybe . . . He’d often been down or irritable lately. In the old days, he used to play boisterous jumping games and roughhouse with us—when had he stopped doing that?

Without another word, he turned to go.

Mia called out, and I growled after her, then she flitted silently away through the trees.

Not long after that, I set off too. As a puma, I crept to our nearest cache of human items. There, I transformed and pulled my clothes from the pile. Sadly, they weren’t great. There was a hole in the shirt and the shoes were too big for me. I started out by carrying the shoes and walking barefoot down the path to the valley. A couple of ants scurried over my toes and one bit me. It was their bad luck that I now had these practical human hands again. I flicked the ant off my foot and it went flying into the bushes.

The gray stuff that humans made their roads from felt warm under my feet as I walked cautiously toward one of the biggest buildings. It towered above me, with walls in brown-flecked stone and large glass windows, and people were constantly going in and out. Fortunately, the only person who took any notice of me was a child, half my size, who was staring suspiciously. Could she sense in some way that I was different, that I wasn’t really human? Rats, I’d forgotten to put the shoes on! And my feet were currently looking alarmingly furry—that wasn’t good!

The girl was tugging at her mother’s sleeve, trying to make her look at me. But luckily, the mother was busy talking to another woman. I hurriedly crouched down and forced my feet into their leather wrappings. If I was quick, I’d manage it before . . .

“Mom! Mom, look at that boy over there, he . . .”

Silkily, I got to my feet, just as the woman asked, “What’s the matter, Lydia?” and the girl pointed at me. But by then I was no longer barefoot, and the woman’s eyes glanced past me. Phew.

, I read, then jumped as something moved above me. It was only a large piece of cloth fluttering from a metal pole.

I told myself. The cloth, which had red-and-white stripes, and white stars on a blue background, clearly wasn’t dangerous even if I had no clue what it was for.

I watched the people walking into the big house for a while before trying to enter it myself. Trembling with nerves, I pulled at the door, and it worked. I was in! I looked around in astonishment, sucking in the air, which smelled strange and artificial. Cautiously, I walked right across the room and laid my hand on the huge windowpane that was as clear as spring water yet as solid as stone. People were strolling around, all studying a sign, on which I spelled out: . They then walked back outside and sat down, keeping their eyes fixed on the place where the hot water was due to appear.

Without a word, I sat down among them, listening in fascination to the things the people were saying. What in the world were vacations, shares, and terrorists?

When the water finally did shoot out of the hole—a hissing white fountain as tall as a tree—they all stared and exclaimed “ooh” and “ah” and “whoa, awesome!” Not me though. I kept my mouth shut . . . and watched the humans. I’d seen more geysers than sea eagles, and that was saying something ’cause there were lots of those around here.

Most people held up their flat, polished things and pointed them at the geyser. Curiously, I craned my neck. But even with this close-up view, I was none the wiser. Clearly, they weren’t weapons, as I’d thought that time in the supermarket. Were the humans trying to ward off evil spirits with them? My mother believed in that stuff . . .

“Hey, what’s your problem?” the girl sitting beside me asked. She had yellowish hair that looked kind of fake and an unpleasantly shrill voice. She nudged the guy she was with. “Mark, this kid’s been staring at me the whole time . . .”

It took a while before I realized that she meant me. “I, uh . . .” I stammered, not knowing what to say.

The young man next to her looked as though his muscles were about to burst out of his T-shirt. But he only had eyes for Old Faithful. “This is so cool, look, Victoria! Wow.”

She crept a little farther away from me and whispered in her boyfriend’s ear: “What the heck, Mark, are you even listening to me?!”

“What?” Now the guy with the muscles did turn and look at me. “Who’s staring at you? Him?”

“Yeah, him, like I said.”

I hurriedly looked away and my human face felt weirdly hot. Surreptitiously, I felt my cheeks. Was I getting a fever now or something?

“So, kid, what d’you want?” the man growled, his eyes torn between glaring at me and glancing back at Old Faithful, which was still hurling its boiling water up into the air, over and over. “Leave my girl alone, you hear? You’re too young for that stuff anyway.”

I plucked up all my courage and said: “Sorry. All I wanted was to look at this thing . . .” Hesitantly, I stretched out a hand and touched the flat rectangle in the girl’s hand.

Big mistake! She snatched it away and her face twisted into a grimace. “Mark! He’s trying to steal my phone!”

“Aw, crap. I’ve had about enough of this.” The man pushed his girlfriend aside and his hand shot out to grab me.

Luckily, he was pretty slow. By the time his hand landed, I was somewhere else. I had to get out of here—I’d messed up and there was no changing that!

I ran blindly—not toward the buildings, but toward the hills. By the shortest route. People started to scream as I jumped over the barrier and ran. What was their problem? Seemed like Old Faithful had finished the show.

Even through the shoes, I could feel how hot the ground was. No wonder my mother had always told me to avoid the water-spewers. And I would’ve done just that, but not right then, because two men in gray uniforms were bearing down on me from either side. Rangers! They looked anything but pleased—had touching the rectangular thing been that bad? Owl pellets, they had guns on their belts!

I sped up, splashing through steaming puddles that stank of sulfur, my eyes scanning for an escape route. The rangers were gaining on me, yelling: “Hey, kid, are you nuts? Stop right there, this minute!” It was no use, I’d have to get even closer to the mouth of the geyser to escape them.

And I could feel the ground vibrating. This wasn’t good. Old Faithful was gearing up for an encore! More and more people were shouting, but I could hardly hear them in my efforts to get away.

Just a few feet away from me, boiling water shot out of the ground. I ran like I hadn’t done since an eagle plunged toward me with outstretched talons when I was a cub. I had to be far enough away by the time the water came...