The Eagle's Eyes

By R L Roush

Nestled in the hills of Western Pennsylvania alongside the Beaver River, sits the small town of Riverside. A town with an amazing secret known only to a select few Chippewa Indians called the Guardians. It was these Guardians who stood watch generation after generation over the surrounding lands and the reason for the secret, the stone formation called the Eagle's Nest. But now that secret is about to be revealed! Little did Kristen Elliot and her brother Lawrence know that they would be caught up in events that had been set in motion hundreds of years earlier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Engine Press
• Release date: Jun 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781937958718

Book preview

~ Chapter 1 ~

It was one of those warm spring days you dream about all winter long. The kind that makes the last few days of school drag on forever. For Kristen Elliot, and her younger brother, Lawrence , it was also their last day of school. They would now have more time for their favorite activity, exploring Eagle Woods and more importantly, Eagle’s Nest.

Before the last school bell finished ringing, Kristen, Lawrence and the rest of Riverside Middle School, raced out the doors. Lawrence was not as athletic or as fast as his sister, but he was right there, alongside her, in the middle of the screaming mob escaping for summer. Kristen and Lawrence had plans. They, along with a half dozen of her friends, were to run home as fast as they could, change into their swimsuits, and head to the Beaver River and Eagle Woods south of town.

Eagle Woods was Kristen’s and Lawrence’s favorite hangout. Along with the river, there was a small dam made from rocks and boulders the glaciers had carved out of the earth and left behind eons ago. The pond created by these rocks and boulders was just deep enough to swim in during the heat of summer and still shallow enough to allow you to look for crayfish and minnows.

Other boulders along the river’s south shore were stacked against the cliff, hiding from view a narrow path that wound around to the back of the cliff coming out at the top. These same boulders had strange carvings on them made by some unknown and forgotten people from long ago. They were perfect for climbing over, lying in the sun and just exploring. But, best of all, above the river and the pond, set back from the crest of the cliff at the top of the hill, sat the stone formation everyone called the Eagle’s Nest.

It was this eagle-shaped stone formation the children loved best. It was if an enchantment had been cast over the place and here time had no meaning. Only soft lush grasses and wildflowers grew there. The stone that formed the body of the eagle was pitted from centuries of weathering. Made of dark gray granite, rippling with light gray stripes, it set on what appeared to be a nest of smaller rocks similar to those against the cliff below. These shared some of the same strange carvings the boulders possessed. The wings were arched back and out like a live eagle ready to take flight. Perfect, except for one thing. Where the eagle’s eyes should have been, there were two empty hollows.

The eagle-like formation and the missing eyes had been the object of speculation for years and years among the people who lived in and around Riverside. Eagle’s Nest had been known to the Chippewa Indians who lived here long before the town was settled in 1799. After the settlers arrived, the Chippewa Indians who stayed shared much of their culture with them and eventually intermarried. One important part of that culture was the Legend of the Great Spirit and the Eagle Warrior.

This legend foretold how the Great Spirit many moons from now, would send a warrior to protect the people and the land from a great evil called Misiginebig, the Great Horned Serpent. This Serpent lived in the darkness of the night sky, between the campfires of the Spirit Guides. He sought only to devour them and use their strength to create a mighty war. Misiginebig knew the Great Spirit would try to stop him, but he didn’t know how.

To fool the Great Horned Serpent, the Great Spirit removed the eyes of a young brave, known as Eagle Warrior for his great deeds. He hid them among the campfires of the Spirit Guides and turned Eagle Warrior’s body into a stone eagle. The Great Spirit then took Eagle Warrior’s spirit and gave it a human body, so he could walk among the people to protect them and wait for the Great Spirit’s sign that Misiginebig, the Great Horned Serpent, was coming.

When the time came, the Great Spirit would send the Eagle Warrior’s eyes to earth. Two children, a sister and a brother, would find the eyes. Only after facing much danger and proving them worthy of the honor, they would return the eyes to the stone eagle, placing them in the empty hollows.

Once again with sight, Eagle Warrior’s body and spirit would unite and be freed from the stone. Eagle Warrior and the children would become one Spirit and rise to fight the Great Horned Serpent, protecting the people and the land from being devoured by Misiginebig. After they fought a great battle against him, they would cast the Great Horned Serpent, Misiginebig, into the belly of a great worm, vanquishing him forever. Once more the Spirit Guides would be able to dance around their campfires and sing their songs to the Great Spirit for there would be peace in the heavens again.

Down through the years, others had their ideas about the formation as well. Scholars and archeologists came to gather samples, run tests and share their theories with anyone who would listen. Fortune hunters seeking wealth and fame, wanted to dig up the formation, claiming there was an ancient temple filled with treasures under the rock. Some had tried, only to reach an impassable layer of bedrock that stopped them from digging further.

Still, even with all the theories, experimentation, digging and speculation, no one could tell if the formation was natural or man-made. The idea that outsiders still wanted to dig up the formation upset and angered the townspeople, young and old alike. In fear of this happening again, the people of Riverside decided to make the woods around the stone formation a park, preserving it from harm forever. The adults remembered when they had been children playing around the stone formation and even though none of them openly admitted to it; they all felt a little better thinking that maybe the eagle really was guarding them.

The missing eyes did not scare any of the children or keep them from playing around the eagle-shaped rock. Instead, they felt safe and secure, and some of them even felt sorry the eagle’s eyes were missing. From time to time, a few children would place rocks in the empty hollows, secretly wishing they were one of the children in the old Chippewa legend. Still, none of these stones ever really looked quite right, but to the children the eagle did not look quite as sad.

Kristen and Lawrence also looked for rocks they thought would fit. It eventually became a game between the two of them to see who could find the same size, best fitting and most colorful rocks and place them into the hollows. Little did they realize it was this game that would change both their lives, the lives of their friends and the lives of every living person on the planet of Earth.

~ Chapter 2 ~

If sports were being talked about, Lawrence would somehow manage to disappear. In fact, he had a gift for disappearing at the mere mentioning of any words containing ball or game. He hated sweating. He hated running. He hated anything associated with physical activity. Most boys going into seventh grade had at least one favorite sport, but not Lawrence . Amazingly, in spite of his aversion to sports, he was only slightly overweight and a little out of shape. Maybe it was his above average height that helped to disguise his extra weight.

His mother worried about it, but never said anything hoping it was a phase he would grow out of eventually. Besides, she didn’t have the time or the energy to give it too much thought, with her working full time to support Kristen and Lawrence since their father’s accident and death last fall. It was hard for her to keep track of his activities. Thank goodness for Kristen. She kept an eye on him. At least she got him to eat something healthy during the day and was able to drag him into some of her pick-up games so he would get some exercise.

Along with sports, he also had an aversion to haircuts and was forever brushing his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes and pushing up his wire-rimmed glasses. Besides being slightly clumsy, and always carrying books or a computer, Lawrence dressed like a geek. He even filled his flannel shirt pockets with a calculator, a couple of small screwdrivers and a pocket protector filled with pencils.

However, the one thing Lawrence really loved besides his computer was drama. He liked to pretend he was someone famous from history, like the explorers Lewis and Clark or like Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. He let his imagination take him to far away, dangerous places, like the Bermuda Triangle or to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. He loved playing the brave and courageous action hero.

Lawrence especially liked to draw Kristen into his playacting by having her be in some terrible and horrible danger from which he alone, in the entire universe, could save her. Sometimes he even got his mother and father to join in, but since his father’s death and his mother working as much overtime as possible, there hadn’t been much fun in it lately.

Lawrence especially loved working on computers. He was a genius when it came to fixing them. He even started to design a special computer for himself by using old computers and parts people gave him.

Because he was so good at putting computers together, many people, including his teachers at school, were always asking him to fix their computers or for advice on what hardware or software they should use. Lawrence was always downloading the latest technical articles and poring over them looking for the newest advancements. The townspeople compared Lawrence to Bill Gates when he was in middle school. Lately though, this hobby had become an excuse to hide behind so he did not have to deal with the real world, his aversion to sports and especially, his father’s death.

It was only because of Kristen, her friends put up with Lawrence. It wasn’t that he was weird or strange, it was his attitude. He had the type of attitude people who are really smart like to use on people they think aren’t as smart. Lawrence, unfortunately, had become a know-it-all, and he was becoming more annoying every day. Kristen understood what he was going through and tried to get her friends to ignore his attitude and still include him in their plans. But lately, it was getting harder and harder to convince them. If he kept it up, pretty soon they would ban him.

She and Lawrence usually got along, except when he tried to use his know-it-all attitude on her. Lawrence didn’t try it too often, because he knew she would not put up with it for long and he did not want to make her angry. Deep down, Lawrence knew Kristen was his only real ally and the reason he was included in anything.

Sticking up for Lawrence was nothing new for Kristen. She had looked out for him ever since their father, Ed Elliot, had been killed in an automobile accident coming home from work last fall. Someone had to keep an eye on Lawrence and since their mother, Sara, was working full-time, the responsibility fell to her. Most of the time, Kristen did not mind. After all, Lawrence was her brother and she loved him.

Besides being dependable and responsible, Kristen was also attractive. Slim and tall, she was a head taller than Lawrence and much taller than most of the girls going into tenth grade. Because she was slim, people did not realize she was strong, and on top of being strong, she was quick and fast. Since she was athletic, the boys in Kristen’s school thought she was cool, so they often included her in their pick-up games.

Her medium length, curly brown hair framed large, blue eyes that twinkled when she talked. She would raise her left eyebrow and give half a smile whenever she found something amusing or if it caught her interest. She always had a smile on her face.

Kristen liked people and because of her sweet personality, people liked Kristen. Still, even though Kristen knew a lot of people, she only counted a handful as close friends. All but one of these friends were now heading to Eagle Woods to spend the first summer vacation afternoon together. Kristen regularly played basketball with two of them, Chad Walker and Jacob Newman. In addition to being among Kristen’s closest friends, they were also each other’s best friends.

Chad was charming, confident and good-looking. He was especially proud of his Native-American heritage. The Walker family had descended from the Chippewa Indians who once lived in and around Riverside and the French fur traders who had come to trade with them. For as long as anyone could remember, they had lived next to Eagle Woods on the large farm everyone in town knew as the Walker homestead.

In fact, Chad’s family still farmed the land that had been in their family for many generations. The canned foodstuffs and homemade jellies made on their farm and sold in their gourmet food store in Riverside were shipped around the world. Even though Chad’s family had their own website and used modern technology to run the farm and store, they still had a deep respect for their culture and many of their Native-American beliefs that had been passed down from one generation to another. In fact, since he was a baby, Chad had been taught these ways from his grandfather and father.

Jake Newman, on the other hand, came from a totally different background. His family had been in Riverside for only a couple of generations. Coming from Germany, Jake’s grandparents came to America with a dream of owning their own bakery. Now, years later, Jake’s parents ran the bakery his grandparents started. He was a hard-working young man and often helped in the store, along with his brother, Jackson. At other times, he ran errands his parents did not have time for.

Jake was tall and muscular. While Chad was outgoing, Jake was soft spoken and laid-back. He was always calm in tense situations. That trait served him well on the basketball court. His blonde hair and blue eyes revealed his German ancestry. Chad and Jake were different in looks and in heritage, but it was those differences that bound their friendship together.

Two other special friends of Kristen’s, Allison O’Connor and Keiki Klark, were meeting them at the pond in Eagle Woods. They also happened to be members of Kristen’s basketball team. Both girls were tall and had similar builds. Allison had long, copper-colored hair, green eyes and a dash of freckles across her nose. Keiki had almond-shaped hazel eyes and raven black, curly hair that she wore in short loose curls around her face.

Allison’s family, also descendants of the first settlers, had lived in Riverside since it was founded in 1779, while Keiki’s family had only recently moved to town, after her father had been transferred from up-state Vermont. The Klark family arrived two weeks before the beginning of school — just in time to join Allison and Kristen in the second grade.

Allison had been a friend of Kristen’s since kindergarten, so they knew each other quite well, but when Keiki moved into town, the three of them hit it off right away. It was like they had known each other all their lives. Since Keiki and Allison lived on the same block, they spent much of their time together.

Both Keiki and Allison had a great sense of humor and were known for playing practical jokes. All of their friends had at one time or another fallen victim to one of their pranks. They had slightly greased the basketballs for practice on one occasion, filled someone’s locker with tennis balls on another, tied the team’s shoes together, just to name a few.

Getting caught up in their pranks usually ended with plenty of laughter. Their giggles were infectious. Still with all their fooling around,