The Hawkweed Legacy by Irena Brignull EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author:Irena Brignull
- Language: English
- Genre:Dark Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
POPPY
As a bird, there had been little thought, just instinct. No yesterdays and no
tomorrows. No prophecies from the past. No visions of the future. Just the
present. And it was liberating—existing in the moment, this second and
only this. Poppy Hawkweed had transformed into a swallow to seek
freedom and, up there, in the endless skies, she had found it.
Her tiny wings had carried her thousands of miles, so much farther than
her human legs had ever taken her. No map—just the setting sun and the
night stars and the earth’s pull. No company—the other swallows had left in
the autumn while the weather was still mild. Without her magic, speeding
her on, protecting her, she would have failed. She was certain of that. First
the bitter cold of winter, then the blistering heat of the desert to contend
with, as well as the constant threat of hungry predators and thunderous
storms. Poppy was amazed that, each year, so many birds survived. Their
migration felt far more marvelous than anything she might conjure.
The farther she’d flown, the more the endeavor had taken over all her
mind and body. The world was vast and she a mere puny ball of feathers,
knocked by gusts and tossed by gales and yet still flying on. So many
people below—chaffs or witches, she could not tell. They looked the same
from up high. So many forests, rivers, mountains, fields, so many homes to
stop and live in. But Poppy had kept on going to where the other swallows
had finished their journey some weeks before.
Here, in Africa, beyond the smudge of cities and smatterings of smaller
towns stretched a seemingly boundless area of sloping hills and plains
where animals, large and small, roamed wild. This land was unscarred by
fences or electricity towers, roads or railroad tracks. There was hardly any
trace of man at all. Zebras were bending their necks to sun-bleached grass.
Beyond them, a vast herd of wildebeest ran, dust rising from their hooves
like smoke. And, in the distance, a river curved like a reel of ribbon
dropped from above.
Weak with exhaustion, Poppy began her descent. For a moment she felt
she might tumble. I can’t die now, she thought. I’ve come so far. And I don’t
know who I am yet. Then a breeze, warm and welcoming, came to usher her
in, carrying her downward to meet this new earth.
The African insects tasted rich and spicy, and Poppy feasted on them. Then
she slept, and in her dreams she became human again, with ridiculously
long limbs and stubby nails, and strangely bare skin with no feathers to
adorn it. Poppy writhed with the pain of this transformation, her nerve
endings screaming out their protest at the assault as every vein and sinew
was twisted, ripped, and elongated out of all proportion.
As her body squirmed, her mind turned with it, back to the past, back to
the memories she had flown miles to forget. She was Poppy Hooper again,
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