Waiting For Eden (Eden Series) Read Online Free Page B

to catch her breath after reaching a summit of some sort, both long and narrow, extending outwards from her left and right.  A grouping of wizened apple trees wiggled in the slight breeze, sporting a smattering of small white flowers which promised fruit in the season to come.  A slim doe with twin speckled fawns darted among the apples and into the open before her.  Alex froze, staring in startled delight. 
    The youngsters paused to view her disheveled person curiously, while the doe stood guard cautiously.  With her white tail flashing upward, the doe’s nostrils distended to pull in Alex’s human scent.  After determining that she was in fact, a threat, the doe bounded off abruptly, and the fawns followed suit, bucking in defiance and rampant glee.  Alex watched as their soft brown bodies and waving tails disappeared over the ridge.
    On sudden impulse, she followed them.  She eventually reached a fairly severe edge, and halted uncertainly, for the terrain was steep and vastly rugged below her.  The animals were already small dots in the distance, winding downward and downward, following a small stream that gurgled forth from springs along the top of the hollow. 
    Well, she would do the same as the deer.  Unless she changed her course, and struck off to the north or south, there was nowhere else to go but down.
    Alex began her careful descent.  It was rocky at the top, and footholds were difficult to find and keep.  It was steeper than she had even anticipated.  She went from tree to tree, pausing at the base of each to catch her balance and regroup. 
    The weight of the pack on her back was throwing her off, and she felt ungainly and top-heavy.  Not to mention the fact that her legs felt like Jell-O after the last three hours of stead ily climbing upward over tree limbs and rocks.
    Almost lost it that time, Alex, better stop and take a nother breather, she counseled herself after a particularly shaky move, but when she stopped her legs from moving - the ground beneath her simply didn’t.  She was sliding, the backpack swinging roughly on her shoulders, as she desperately tried to counter balance. 
    But then her feet were out from under her, and she was rolling down the ravine, with no way to stop.  One-way down , the thought flashed in her head, before her world was filled with a tumble of stones and ferns and crashing noise, and the wildest, fastest ride of her life.
     
     
    ~~~~~~
     
     
    The world was out of focus .  Alex blinked and sucked in a fearful breath, for right above her, a strange being hovered insidiously, stretching so tall and dark that she couldn’t even see its head.  It reminded her of the Slender Man, from children’s tales.
    Another blink and the image lightened, sharpened, and Alex slowly realized that she was staring upwards from the ground at the base of an immense tree.   Remembering the fall, she cautiously wiggled her fingers and toes, and was grateful that there were no resultant stabs of pain. 
    Alex became aware of the bulky pack beneath her shoulders and head, and it seemed as if the whole damned contraption had wrenched itself up under her armpits.  Luckily so, she mused, struggling to push herself into a sitting position.  There were rocks upon piles of rocks behind her, a steep outcrop of forty feet or so over which she had obviously taken a ride.  The ungainly pack that had caused her fall must have shielded her head and back from any nasty impact.
    As she surveyed the area around her, relief quickly melded into amazement.  Massive pines and oaks surrounded her, behemoth trees that spiraled powerfully upward to the heavens.  It made her dizzy trying to locate their crowns in the great canopy so far above.  She felt like an ant crouched in the backyard of giants. 
    Shakily, she wobbled to her feet, and made a show of brushing off her pants and rearranging her pack, choosing to momentarily ignore the engulfing forest.  She needed a second to collect