Emma and the Minotaur

By Herrera, Jon

Book Id: WPLBN0002829005
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.4 MB
Reproduction Date: 10/1/2013

Title:	Emma and the Minotaur
Author:	Herrera, Jon
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Children's literature , Short stories
Collections:	Children's Literature, Authors Community, Favorites from the National Library of China, Sociology, Music, Agriculture, Medicine, Military Science, Literature, Naval Science, Most Popular Books in China, Education, History
Historic Publication Date:	2013
Publisher:	Jon Herrera

Member Page:	Jon Herrera
Citation APA MLA Chicago Herrera, B. J. (2013). Emma and the Minotaur. Retrieved from http://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
All stories are true. Emma Wilkins is eleven years old and she lives on Belle Street. In the forests of Saint Martin, a great power has awakened. Whispers abound of a monster that lurks in the darkness as more and more of the city's residents go missing. Called by the song of a tree, the diminutive Emma finds herself face to face with the colossal Minotaur. Following a narrow escape, Emma discovers that she is the only one who has any chance to stop him. On her way to an impossible confrontation, Emma will learn that the crisis is greater than it seems, and that at stake are the fates of those she cares about the most, and that of the entire world.

Excerpt
Emma was sitting on a bench next to a bus stop. It was morning on a busy street and the road in front of her was full of traffic. There was a bus shelter next to the bench and there were a few people inside. They were looking at her. A woman was sitting next to her but she stood up and walked away. Emma glanced toward the people in the shelter and they all looked away at once and pretended that she wasn’t there. She looked down at her lap and saw that she was holding a plain flute made of wood. She swung her feet back and forth as memories began to creep back to her. There was something about a forest. She hummed and waited patiently for all the memories to return. A black cat came and jumped up on the bench beside her. “Hello, Mr Cat,” she said as she watched him lick his paw. The cat paused in mid-lick and looked straight at her and then at the people behind her in the bus shelter. “They see a girl appear out of nowhere and that’s how they react,” he said. “They try to disappear her right back again.” Emma blinked. She looked around and behind the cat and under the bench. He watched her the entire time. She wanted to giggle. “I can talk to animals!” she said and raised her hands in the air in delight. The cat blinked at her. “I can’t understand anything that you’re saying,” he said. “You’re just talking nonsense like the rest of them.” The cat leaped down from the bench and ran off across a lawn and around the building behind it. Emma lowered her arms and frowned. After a moment, she raised them into the air again. “I can listen to animals!” she said. A bus pulled up at that moment and the people who had been waiting for it climbed in. A number of them cast quick glances at Emma as they departed. When the bus drove away, Emma saw that there was a hospital across the street. There was a sprawling parking lot in front of it. “He’ll take me where I need to go,” she said as her memory returned. “A hospital? Am I hurt?” She checked herself over and thought that she was uninjured, but she realized that she was still in her pink pajamas and slippers. They were still wet and dirty. Maybe the hospital would give her something clean to wear. She walked to the corner and pushed the button for the crosswalk. When she was across the street, she walked straight through the parking lot and up to the hospital’s main entrance. Automatic doors slid open and she went inside. A voice from a speaker somewhere told her to sanitize her hands using a dispenser that hung on the wall. She did so and then went through another set of doors into the main foyer. It was a spacious room and there was a help desk off to the side. She couldn’t think of anything to say so she took one of the many chairs in the waiting area and considered it. At that time of day the hospital was busy, with people coming in and out for whatever reason. She didn’t see anyone actually use the help desk and she wondered how it was that they all seemed to know what they were doing. An old man rolled by on a wheelchair. He had a cigarette in his mouth and he winked at her as he went out the door. An elderly couple sat down on the chairs opposite Emma’s and smiled. She smiled back. The woman spoke to the man in a whisper. A voice came over the public address system announcing a “code green” in the mental health ward. “Emma!” Down the hall came Jake. Emma stood up and ran to him and threw her arms around him. “You’re alive!” she said. “Emma, you’re filthy,” he said. “What are you doing here?” She backed up and blushed as Victoria Milligan walked up behind him. “Hello, Mrs Milligan,” Emma said. “Hi, Emma,” she said. “Call me Vicky. What are you doing here? Look at you! What happened?” Emma took a breath. “There was a singing tree in the forest and he gave me this flute. Then a thing with horns came and there was another bigger thing with horns and it was very scary, but the smaller one pushed me into the tree and I showed up here. It was night then but it’s day now. I’m not sure what day it is though.” “I see,” Victoria Milligan said. “Is your father with you, my dear?” “No, he’s still at home. I ran away crying!”

Table of Contents
1 The Music in the Forest 2 The Disappearing Boy 3 Wizard Falls 4 Dinner and a Conspiracy 5 The Forbidden Forest 6 Strike Three 7 A Girl and a Tree 8 The Missing 9 The Portents of War 10 Mr Jingles 10 Mr Jingles 12 Invasion 13 The Lost 14 Battle Song 15 The Wizard and the Lightning