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e warned if you have found this treasure you are in grave danger.”

Jessica Hoshi gasped. The gleaming Lantern with the colorful lenses was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her 14 years of life. But the voice she heard made her shiver. She peered through the ornate deep green lens: one of eight, each a different color, that formed a jeweled shell around the flickering light.

A shadowy figure was visible inside.

The hazy image of a robed woman wearing a cowl and carrying a skull-capped staff gradually formed from swirling wispy outlines. Jessica’s friends gathered around the open trunk and the colorful treasure they had discovered inside.

“Who are you?” Jessica asked. Her blue eyes were wide with wonder.

“Time is short,” the woman replied. Her voice sounded ghostly, fading in and out as if she were speaking into a strong windstorm. “Are you aboard a ship? Have you found a jewelry box there?”

“How can you know that?” Shannon asked, brushing her long hair back over her shoulder before leaning down to get a better look through the yellow lens.

“Yeah! We found a really pretty jewelry box in a trunk with an alto clef design on it. We’re on the museum ship at the Lakeshore Promenade!” Jessica replied cheerfully. Ranko Yorozu put her hand on Jessica’s shoulder, shaking her head urgently and frowning.

Jessica silently mouthed the words ‘what should I say?’ in reply.

“Bring the jewelry box to Vuran’s Wharf at once. Speak to no one.” The woman’s voice was calm but there was a tone of urgency in her words. Her image faded and the Lantern’s light returned to full brightness.

“Vuran’s Wharf? Where is that?” Ranko asked, looking up at the others. She had been crouching next to Jessica to get a better look when they opened the trunk.

Talitha straightened her glasses. “Is that on the lake?”

“Nope. Nope. Uh-uh. No such place on the lake, Talitha-chan,” Jessica said, shaking her head and making her light blond hair sway back and forth on purpose.

“Maybe it’s where that lady is” Cecilia said, holding the Lantern up by its circular handle and trying to look inside it.

“Guys, it’s already dark outside,” Alanna said, taking advantage of her height to reach the open hatch to the main deck. She used one hand to steady herself as she looked up the wooden steps towards the sky. “We’ve got to go.”

“What do we do about this stuff?” Ranko said, picking through the elaborately decorated finery stored in the heavy wooden trunk. “Do we just leave all these expensive things here? These plates and cups look pretty valuable.”

“We have to tell the Historical Society about it. This might be part of the museum exhibit or something,” Alanna replied as she climbed up the steps. “Come on.”

Sure enough, it was past sunset. The afternoon tall ship museum tour group had long since disembarked. A breeze caught Alanna’s short hair, and she smoothed it with one hand as she looked up and down the Promenade. She pulled her windbreaker closer around her neck. All of the shops were closed and there were no other people around.

Talitha Hayashi looked out across the lake. The horizon over the water was a purplish color and stars were visible in the sky overhead. The white sails of the huge three-masted wooden ship were tied up to the crossbeams far above the deck.

“Looks like they left us behind.” Ranko grinned, stepping on to the deck.

Jessica hurried past Ranko and quickly made her way back to the quarterdeck. She hurried up the steps and placed the jewelry box they had found next to the helm. “Ooh, I want to see how this wheel works. I wonder how we’re going to get to Vuran’s Wharf?”

“Hoshi, there’s no such place,” Alanna said. “You said so yourself. We can’t take those jewels with us. They belong to the museum.”

“Yeah, that’s stealing!” Cici said, a little louder than normal.

“Hey, maybe we can sail there,” Shannon grinned sarcastically, tugging on one of the riggings with both hands as if testing its strength.

“Look! The colors are different!” Cici exclaimed, turning the Lantern around by the handle to look at all eight lenses. The light was cycling between it’s normal light colors and a yellowish glow. “There’s obsidian somewhere nearby.”

“Obsidian? Whoa whoa, wait a second here,” Ranko made a “slow down” gesture with both hands. “You’re in elementary school. We don’t even know what obsidian is.”

Cici shrugged, straightening her little beret. “I just know there’s some here.”

“Obsidian is a volcanic rock formed from solid lava,” Talitha said.

“Okay, the Professor knows what it is,” Ranko sighed.

Talitha blushed and hid her face behind her long wavy brown bangs.

“Maybe there’s some in that trunk,” Jessica said as she absently reached out and put her hand on one of the wooden handles of the wheel at the ship’s helm. There was a sudden, silent flash of light!

Continue to Chapter Two

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hannon followed the group as they slowly made their way past the northern edge of the central arena, Kishi at her side. The vortex still spun above them, and as the wind started to return, Ranko noticed how strange it seemed there was almoat no effect at all inside the arena, but that the wind steadily increased in intensity the further they got from the center of the storm.

“Okay, let’s see if we can find the Professor’s tracks,” Ranko said, looking around at the windswept ground. A few scrubby plants grew here and there. Ranko didn’t see anything remarkable. “What should we be looking for?”

Alanna managed to silently translate the question for Shannon, who shook her head. “You can’t track Talitha!” Shannon shouted over the wind. Ranko stopped and waited.

“Why not?” she asked impatiently. Things were just starting to go right and now this! Alanna translated Ranko’s question once again. Shannon watched Alanna’s face intently, then answered.

“Anywhere there are living plants, they will help her hide her tracks!” Shannon said loudly. “If she doesn’t want to be found, even I can’t track her!”

“Talitha can hide in a forest better than anyone,” Cici said. “She always wins when we play hide and seek if its around some trees and stuff.”

Just at the edge of the light provided by Cici’s Lantern, a stand of brown and tan thistles could be seen. The closer the group got to the edge of the thorny plants, they could see the stand was easily ten feet in height. It spread into the distance on either side.

“Looks like we found those maple plants!” Shannon shouted.

“That’s got to be where Talitha is hiding. If I had her powers, that’s where I’d go too,” Alanna said.

“Stupendous,” Ranko said as a gust of wind roared past. “If the Professor went in there, we are totally out of business, ladies. We can’t even walk through those. There’s no way we can track the Warrior of the Forest through that!”

“I know how!” Cici said. “Talitha always has her shield with her!”

Alanna nodded. “What’s your idea, Cici?”

“Her shield has bronze and emeralds in it,” Cici smiled.

“That’s it!” Ranko exclaimed, making a fist. “Little Bit’s got the power to find metal and gemstones. All we gotta do is let her turn on the rock radar and we’re back in action. Let’s go! Little Bit leads the way!”

Continue to Chapter Thirteen