"Una. Una! Wake up!" said a vaguely familiar voice. She grumbled in response, and someone shook her shoulder. "Please, you must hurry."
Una sat up and rubbed her eyes. The room was dark. "Why are you here?"
"I don't have time to explain it to you now, but please trust me. You have to leave, now." Flynn's voice was calm but his tone left no doubt that it would be a bad idea for both of them if she stayed. "Do you have another place to stay and be safe?"
Ignoring the question, she asked, "How am I going see you again if I can't stay here?" He didn't seem to be paying attention to her. "I'd hoped you could give me some answers," she said pleading.
Flynn sighed. "I know, and I'm sorry. But you really have to leave now. If you can, try and come back to the cottage in two days' time, at midday. I'll try my best to be back then too. If I don't come before evening that day, leave and don't return to the cottage again." He rose and left the room.
Una scrambled out of the tiny bed and dressed as fast as she could in the very little light. After grabbing the note and the pebble from the nightstand and shoving them back into her pockets, she fled.
Una crossed the yard toward the wooded area behind the cottage. The sky was clear, and there was enough moonlight to show her way to the edge of the path. But once she was on it, the trees and shrubs obscured too much of the light for her to know exactly which way she was going. The only indication she had of moving in the right direction was a slight downward incline with every step. It wasn't long before she doubted her decision to leave the cottage, but she kept moving forward. Even in her confusion she sensed rather than knew that leaving had been her only option. When she finally pushed aside the last of the bushes between her and the stream, Una saw she had veered off the path to the left. The three stones she had jumped were higher upstream, to her right. Una walked to the water's edge and followed the stream up the same way Zurburt had led her on the previous morning.
YOU ARE READING
Goldentracks
FantasiEllie is fourteen, and has a secret crush on a sixteen-year-old boy at school. And then there's Simon, her little brother, who wants to make her life miserable by revealing her secret to everyone because she tattled on him again. But before the secr...
