White Ghost and the Poison Arrow Read Online Free Page A

learn to hunt, and set
traps. She just had to watch others do it, then have a go
herself.

    The orange glow of the sun can be seen through the trees and
bushes of the forest, and creatures of the night are beginning to
stir, just as those with dominion of the day are settling in for
the night to sleep. Birds are beginning to roost, while a nearby
owl hoots a wake up call. "The forest is
always so alive, no matter where I go." Arella thinks to herself. "I wonder
why my tribe are so afraid of the trees. There is nothing evil
here, nothing that will harm anyone, and it is madness to think
that there is."

    Arella walks until she finds a small clearing in the trees,
far away from the area she saw the other tribe in last night, and
sets up the targets. She uses brightly coloured leaves and pins
them to trees with the sharp needles of the boroana plant. Arella
sets up a dozen targets, all at different heights and of different
sizes then begins her practice. She takes the sharp blade from her
boot, pulls back and throws it at the first target. It hits, dead
on the mark. Arella smiles. She knows she has good aim, and never
fails to miss a target. She retrieves the blade and goes again, and
again until all targets have been hit. "I
need to find a way to do moving targets." She thinks to herself. Although how she will be able to do
this escapes her.

    She sets up her
targets again, a dozen of them all in the trees. When pinning the
last brightly coloured leaf to a tree, Arella pricks her finger
with a boroana spine. She winces at the pain, but does not make a
sound. She heard something. Just a small noise, a crack of a branch
in the distance and a quiet thumping sound, but something doesn't
feel right. Arella takes this feeling and does the only thing she
can think to do, she sheaths her knife and climbs up the nearest
tree with low branches, hiding herself in the foliage.

    High up in the
safety of the tree Arella listens, and surely enough the sound
comes closer to her. A small herd of fawn brown motto deer stampede
through, clearly spooked by something. They hit the clearing and
scatter slightly, a few go off to the left but most head under the
tree Arella is hiding in and keep on going. One of the males gets
his moss green antlers caught on a tree branch and panics slightly,
freeing himself in the struggle and shaking free leaves and
blossom, causing it to rain down on the ground.

    Once they can
no longer be heard anymore, Arella begins to think about leaving
the sanctuary of her tree, believing that the deer were the sound
that she heard. She was wrong. Just ask she was about to climb
down, he came into view. A large beast with long black fur,
highlighted with a deep purple that shined and caught the still
orange glow in the air. Her eyes as yellow as the sun its self,
looked up at Arella in the tree. Her big paw padding along on the
mossy ground, making no sounds as she prowled, the end of her bushy
tail flicking as he smelled the air. The big cat was beautiful, and
the biggest creature Arella had ever seen on four legs. It was
bigger than a wolf by a foot in height, and looked powerful and
strong. Arella's breath caught as she realised she was staring
right at her. The big cat just watched on under her, under the
tree, never moving its eyes from her gaze. This cat was
distinctive. It had a large scar covering most of its face, and a
white patch of fur behind its left ear. Then quick as a flash she
was gone again. Arella has heard stories of cats such as this,
ancient auron cats, but thought they were all but extinct in her
lands. No one has seen one for over one hundred years, or so her
tribal elders have said.

    "He could have easily climbed up this tree and taken
me." Arella thinks to herself, still
clinging to the branch she was holding onto for balance just a
minute ago. "Why did she leave me here? He
saw me for sure. Those beautiful yellow eyes were looking right at
me." She pauses. "Perhaps he was not hungry. Although if