unning again, deeper into the night. What confused Shannon more than anything else was the fact she felt like she knew exactly where she was going! She knew there was a small river nearby, and that the big cat was headed that way. She didn’t even need to follow the trail of bloody leaves and dirt, although she knew it was there. An owl sounded to her right. She didn’t look. She could gauge distance and direction without looking. It sounded again as she broke into a moonlit glen and froze.

At the opposite side of the grassy area was the big cat. It was laying on its side and breathing heavily. A great bloody wound covered almost the entire side of its hind leg. Shannon crept as slowly as she could around the edge of the trees. She wasn’t getting much closer to the animal. She wanted to be sure she could run if she had to.

Suddenly, the black mountain cat whirled to its feet and faced her. Shannon’s gaze locked with its blue eyes, and it lowered its head menacingly, ears flat.

Shannon’s heartbeat accelerated and she leaned back. The huge animal growled. It was a hollow rumbling sound that made Shannon’s throat tighten. Then its whiskers and mouth pulled back again as it screamed a challenge.

Shannon was breathing very fast by now, and she put her hands out as a show of truce. She saw the telltale glint of lustre from the sapphires of her Ring. The jewels were glowing softly. They brightened as Shannon spoke.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said. “I’m not like those men.”

The big cat’s ears rose as if it recognized something. Shannon felt herself getting dizzy as she stared into its eyes. In her mind, the pain and exhaustion and hunger were replaced by a single word.

Sister

Then those blue eyes clouded over in pain again just before the animal turned away from her. It walked a few steps and then collapsed on the ground, rolling on to its side.

Shannon moved closer. She could hear the cat’s breathing becoming strained, and the sound of wheezing. The urgent sensation of pain in her mind was almost unbearable. The wound on its leg looked ragged and very serious.

The river can’t be far, Shannon thought.

“Stay here,” Shannon still kept her distance, but she also kept holding her hands out to make herself look less threatening. The animal lay on the ground, its breath rattling each time it exhaled.

Shannon ran towards the river. She was doing her best to calm herself. She could feel tears nearing her eyes. But becoming emotional wasn’t going to help the situation, and she knew she might be the only chance this animal had to survive. She had no supplies to speak of, but at least she might be able to wash away some of the dirt from the cat’s wound.

I wish I knew where that stupid ship was, Shannon thought. There’s probably all kinds of supplies on it, and here I am out in the middle of nowhere. Shannon felt herself getting frustrated, but she stopped and calmed herself. She took a deep breath and exhaled. I have to find a way. She reached the river and ran up to the bank, looking in both directions.

What do I use to wash with?

Then she had an idea. She sat down quickly and took off her shoes and socks, tossed the socks to one side and put her shoes back on. As she was soaking the socks in the swift, bracing water of the river she saw a strange shape on a nearby rock. It was only a few yards away, but even in the dim moonlight Shannon could see it looked like a bowl of some kind.

Curious, she walked a few yards up the bank of the shallow river to get a better look. Sure enough, there was a dark-colored bowl sitting on a flat stone next to the water.

Why would there be a bowl out here in the middle of nowhere?

She crouched down and picked the bowl up. It was made of polished wood, and it was about half-filled with a coarse ground up substance that looked like some kind of cooking spices. Shannon held it up to her face to see what it smelled like. It had a tangy bitter aroma.

Maybe this is some kind of medicine?

She gathered a little water in the bowl from the river, gathered up her socks and ran back to where the big cat was laying on the ground. The blood from the gash on its leg was beginning to coat the leaves underneath its body.

She walked around behind the animal and knelt down. She dipped one sock in the bowl. The dark greenish flakes of whatever was in the bowl clung to the material of her sock. She reached out slowly and dabbed around the wound on the cat’s leg. She heard the animal groan, but it did not reach back and swipe at her.

Encouraged, Shannon began to clean as much of the blood away from the wound as she could. Her socks were thick enough to keep her hands clean. She managed to get at least four good doses of the greenish material in the bowl applied to the area around the animal’s injury. The cat did not get up. It just continued laying there, breathing heavily.

I’ve done my best, Shannon thought. All she could do now is hope the animal got better. She stood and looked around. I hope those men don’t come back.

The sound of crickets all around her was comforting in a way. The moon bathed the grass in a pleasing light. Shannon sat against a tree not far from where the cat was laying. It wasn’t cold, but Shannon wrapped her arms around herself anyway. She wanted to wait. At least until she was sure he was okay.

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anko closed her eyes, turned her head away and motioned urgently for Jessica to come over to their side of the Lantern. Jessica ran to join the others. As she passed Talitha, the enormous phantom wooden Shield came into view.

“Sugoi! Is that what my charm looked like?”

“Same idea. It’s like spooky weapons. Your charm is a Sword, the Professor’s charm is a Shield.”

“I wonder if they go together?” Talitha asked rhetorically.

“Cici, turn the Lantern so the purple lens is lighting up Talitha’s jewel” Alanna said.

As the Lantern rotated, and the blue light was replaced by the purple light, the semi-transparent shield image disappeared.

“Okay, now turn it back.”

Once the treasure was lit by the blue light again, the Shield re-appeared.

“We gotta figure all this stuff out,” Ranko said. “Blue light makes these ghosts appear but the purple light doesn’t do anything.”

“Yes it does!” Cici replied, looking up at Ranko. “The purple light is the power of time, it made you come back after Reina said so.”

“What’s that lens made out of, Cici-chan?”

“The purple lens is made of amethyst, and Reina said if there was danger I’m supposed to use my Spectrum Deflect power.” Cici put her Lantern down and sat next to it.

“This is stupid,” Shannon said, plopping down on a large nearby tree stump with her arms folded.

“Maybe all our treasures have some special powers,” Jessica said, turning her Charm back and forth and watching the light reflecting from the faceted gems. “I wish we knew what they are.”

Talitha straightened her glasses.

“I don’t care. This is all stupid and confusing. I want to go home,” Shannon replied.

“What’s a Cryptic?” Cici asked, spinning her Lantern around.

“Sounds like someone I don’t want to meet,” Alanna said.

“We don’t even know who this lady that Cici is talking about is. I don’t think we should be listening to people we don’t know. She could be on the same side as those guys that attacked us!” Shannon exclaimed.

Talitha sat down across from Cici. “Did you say that green lens in your Lantern is made out of emerald?” Talitha spoke very quietly as she pointed.

Cici nodded. “Uh huh. It is a emerald.” She continued spinning the treasure.

“The whole thing?” Talitha asked, noting the lens was nearly a foot tall.

Cici nodded again. “I like the blue one and the purple one too. Reina says the purple one can control time with magic. The rest of it is gold and bronze and a little iron too.”

“What if we can’t get home?” Ranko asked the obvious question. There was a pause as all six girls considered the serious possibility they were stranded.

“I miss my cat,” Cici said. “Hikousen won’t eat if I don’t feed him.”

“The ferocious guard cat looks like he hasn’t missed many can opener activations,” Ranko said.

“No more band practices,” Jessica said.

“This is stupid,” Shannon snapped, arms still folded.

“Alright look–” Ranko started.

“We can’t panic here,” Alanna said. “If we get all bent out of shape–”

“This green lens is worth more money than all of our parents’ houses put together,” Talitha said quietly.

“Well I am bent out of shape!” Shannon exclaimed. “First, we shouldn’t have been down in that ship where we didn’t belong. Second, the tour group should have come back to get us and third, this whole thing is stupid and I don’t know why we’re sitting out in the middle of nowhere because some weird lady that we don’t even know said we have to wander off in the middle of the night. We should just leave and forget this and find our own way home.”

“And go where?” Ranko replied. “We don’t know where anything is, even if we do have the Professor’s whiz-bang map. For all we know the next person we meet could be worse than anyone we’ve met so far.”

“I sure don’t want to go back to that ship,” Alanna said, folding her own arms.

“Why? Who says we can’t?” Shannon raised her voice further. “What if I want to? What if any of us want to go back to the ship!? Are you saying we can’t?”

“No,” Alanna replied in an appeasing tone. “Noboby’s saying that. I just think it’s a bad idea to go somewhere we know is dangerous.”

Shannon finally relaxed and folded her arms again. Her hair fell over her shoulder and she sat quietly. It was about as close as she was going to get to admitting Alanna was right.

“What’s this one again?” Talitha asked, pointing at the blue lens.

“That’s a sapphire,” Cici replied. “And the orange one is a sunstone.”

Talitha looked up, pushing her glasses higher on her nose with two fingers. “If what Cici says is correct, this blue lens is the largest sapphire gem on Earth.”

“Great, we’re lost and sitting by some river and now we’re the richest high school students in the world,” Shannon said.

“We need to make the best of it!” Jessica said. “Come on, everyone! We have to help Reina! She’s all by herself and she got attacked by that evil Cryptic, and she might get attacked by those guys! What if she gets hurt?”

Cici jumped up. “She can make herself better! She has green swirly magic that sounds like bells and it made my ankle stop hurting! It’s all because of her ring. She has lots of rings.”

Alanna knelt down to look Cici in the eyes. “Cici, I want you to tell me the truth, okay?”

Cici nodded intently with a serious expression.

“How did your ankle get hurt?”

“I fell all the way down that hill we were by and it turned sideways and then I was under this tree and I couldn’t get out.”

“And that lady climbed all the way down the side of that ravine?” Ranko asked.

Cici nodded.

“That would be dangerous for any of us,” Ranko concluded.

“I guess that answers the question of whether she’s one of the good guys,” Alanna said.

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