Children of the Sun and Moon Read Online Free Page A

Eric.
    Koral shook her
head. “No, we need to try and figure this out.” Sitting down beside
Eric on his bed, they both began looking through the book. After
hours of staring at empty pages, both fell asleep.

CHAPTER TWO

    Koral awoke
with a start. At first, she could not figure out where she was but
soon realized she had fallen asleep beside Eric, the book between
them. She glanced down at the book and saw that the pages were
still blank. Moving herself off the bed, she went toward his
window. It was another beautiful day, and she could not wait to see
Gillock. Shaking Eric awake, she ran off to her room to get ready.
Today, the test was definitely going to take place, and she wanted
to be ready for anything. After the morning meal, they went
straight to the stable. Neither one said anything to the other as
they got their horses ready. Both were quite nervous, more so than
the previous day, and they wanted firm answers about the book. The
ride out to the field was quiet and uneventful, although neither
would have noticed if anything were amiss. When they arrived, there
was no sign of Gillock.
    “I guess we are
early,” muttered Eric with annoyance.
    Koral nodded.
“I guess we will have to sit and wait for him,” she said, moving
down from Swift. She pulled the book out of her saddlebag, sat down
and began flipping through it. She could sense the magic within it.
Eric decided to practice some of the fighting moves Payton had
taught him.

    After a while,
Eric’s patience began to wane. “Where is he?” he asked.
    “I do not
know,” answered Koral.
    Eric was about
to give his own answer when he noticed something moving in the
trees. “Koral, do you see something in the forest?”
    Koral raised
her head, and then jumped up. “I see the forest moving!”
    Suddenly, the
trees started to move toward them. As they drew closer, the twins
were able to make out faces in the bark. They both watched,
stunned, as the branches transformed into pointed weapons.
    “What are we
going to do?” yelled Eric, keeping an eye on the advancing
trees.
    “I guess we are
going to have to fight them,” answered Koral.
    “Maybe this is
our test. But how do we fight trees?” he asked.
    Koral ran for
her sword. “Well, this is the only way I know how to fight!” she
yelled, running towards them.

    The trees began
to advance quickly and before they could figure out a strategy, the
trees attacked. Eric and Koral were very well versed in the art of
sword fighting, but neither had ever had to put the knowledge to
use against real foes. The fight started clumsily, both making easy
mistakes. It appeared luck was on their side, though, as the trees
were inept at fighting. Eric, noticing the trees clumsiness,
started to remember some things which Payton had told him. Getting
his wits about him, he charged the trees. He was slashing and
chopping everything he could see, but it was all in vain. More and
more trees just kept advancing.

    Koral was
having problems as well. She had become surrounded and noticed the
limbs had changed into different weapons. Eric ducked to miss a
club-shaped limb, but it caught Koral square in the chest. Koral
had the wind knocked out of her, but otherwise did not feel any
pain. Shaking off the blow, she realized her sword was knocked from
her hand, and began to crawl on the ground looking for it. In the
distance, she noticed the gleaming from the blade and moved toward
it. When she drew near, something caught her attention in the
forest. Every time Eric chopped off a branch from a tree, another
one emerged from the forest. This is why there were some many, they
were reproducing. Koral ran toward Eric, trying to avoid severing
any branches.
    “Eric stop!”
she yelled. “You are just making more of them by cutting off their
limbs.”
    “So how do we
fight them?” he yelled back.
    “I do not
know,” she answered, arriving beside him. “Just move back toward
the centre of the clearing and maybe we can figure