Chapter 24

All of them spun around in shock as a pair of glowing green eyes stared at them.  All of them were stuck with terror as the eyes moved slowly towards them, like a cat ready to pounce.  Lulu gripped Lilli's hand while Kumarain cowered behind Carol.   Rander alone didn't grab onto anything, and instead stared bravely into the dark.  Even Carol had shrunk against a rock, kind of squishing Kumarain.

The voice repeated itself.  "I was expecting you."  None of them moved, and none of them really breathed, either.  They were all too terrified, but eventually Carol, knowing that they couldn't stay like that forever, bravely spoke up.

"Who are you?  Why are you expecting us?"

The green eyes sauntered until a shadowy figure soon appeared.  The figure was wolf shaped but at a closer look it was also cat shaped.  It had broad shoulders like a dog, and legs like one, too.  The face was pointed, like a fox, but the tail was cut short, like a bobcat and the expression on it's face was one of an angry cat.  It's ears were pointed like a cats and the whiskers were long as well.  None of the humans could figure out what the animal was.  It was speaking to them, again.

"I am Thomas.  The Lamb has sent me to help you on your way.  You need not fear me, for I mean you no harm, I assure you.  Follow me and I will lead you out."

They all reluctantly followed, and then started to wonder about something.

"Thomas," Lilli said. "How come you set a trap for us to fall in?"

Thomas turned around and stared intently at her.  "Listen, child, do you hear that sound?"  Everyone was quiet, but none could hear a thing.  "I know you cannot hear anything, but evil is all around and evil is crafty.  I did not set a trap, the Lamb did not either.  I did, however, know that you were going to fall in it."

"How did you know?" Carol and Lulu both asked at once.

Thomas smiled and tilted his head, which made for a very odd puppy-like expression.  "I knew that you were not expecting it, and somethings, you just know.  I followed you, as I have been for quite a while, and when I saw you fall into the trap and jumped in with you."

"Why did you not warn us?" Lilli asked.

Thomas looked down and rubbed one paw against the ground.  "I did not want to scare you.  I did not want to tell you of the dangers, because fear weakens people very quickly.  Fear is the enemies greatest ally.  You should not fall to it.  Just trust me and I will lead you to safety.  Do not be so quick to trust, though," and he looked at them all and stopped walking, "often times darkness can be disguised as light.  Be careful who you trust.  You can trust me, though, I assure you."  And with that, Thomas spun back around and continued walking.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lulu stared around wildly in shock as she noticed that all of her friends had disappeared.  "Um, Carol?  Lilli?  Rander!  KUMARAIN!!!"  she was terrified at being alone and she had no idea what she was going to do.  She tried thinking hard and started pacing, as was her habit when she was nervous.  She stepped over a branch and felt her feet begin to sink.  She grabbed onto a tree in panic but the branch snapped, and she plummeted through the hole.

She reached the bottom with a shout and noticed that it was very dark.  She heard faint breathing and tried to look about her.

"Lulu, is that you?" a familiar voice called out.  It was Lilli.  Lulu ran towards the noise, happily affirming her sister that it was her and she eventually felt Kumarain's head as Rander landed on her shoulder.  She was much calmer now and felt much more confident.

"Oh, how did you find us?" Carol said, though she still couldn't see nor hear Lulu.

"I don't know, I just stepped and fell through a hole and here I am!  How did you all get down here?"

"We stepped into a whole, too."  Kumarain responded.

The darkness was so thick that everyone felt a little more tense than they would have in the daylight.  Lulu felt in her pockets for some matches.  She took one out of her pocket and lit it.  Everyone could see each others faces clearly and they soon discovered candles right behind them.  They were much happier now and were laughing and giggling to their hearts content (except Rander who was just as stoic as ever!) until a soft and gentle voice broke their merriment.

"I have been expecting you."

Chapter 22

Rander as a rule didn't talk very much.  It was, in fact, a great privilege to you if he ever unveiled his feelings in front of you.  Rander was a very solemn sort of fellow, and he was shy as well.  Unless you really got to know him, you could not count on him speaking to you about anything.  It was a little irritating, I must say, to the girls how little he talked.

"I didn't even know he had a voice!"  Lilli muttered.

"Hush," Kumarain scolded her. "Don't say such things as that!  You'll hurt his feelings and lose all hope of ever hearing him speak again, so hold your tongue."

The girls thought this was a bit of an overreaction, but still, they followed Kumarain's advice, and held their tongues.  It was very soon time to pack up and leave the place that they were at, to head towards the Lamb.  They had hoped very much that he could find a way to get them home, but apparently they had to save the world or something first.  This was very frustrating, but all five of them trudged on until they came across a shining lake of sorts.  It was one of the most beautiful things that they had ever seen.

"Wow," Lulu gasped as she looked at her reflection in the water.  "Do you think we can drink it?  I mean, do you think it would be helpful for us?"  She leaned down towards the water to touch it but was stopped short by Kumarain.

"Wait!"  she shouted.  "Don't touch it!  Looks can be deceiving, throw something in the water before deciding whether or not to drink it."

Lulu shrugged and broke a branch off of a nearby tree.  She tossed it in the water and gasped at the result.  The stick which was quite green inside as it had been alive, turned black and disappeared.

"Whoa!" Carol gasped. "Imagine what would've happened to you if you had touched the water, Lulu!"

Lulu just stared at where the stick had been and nodded her head numbly.  She was bewildered by what had just happened to the point where she didn't notice that the others had disappeared.

Chapter 21: Finish

"Look!  Look at what Rander's found!"  Kumarain jumped up and down excitedly as she spotted Rander flying above the trees.

"What?  What has he found?"  Lilli was confused as to why she was so excited.

"Ralceberries!"

"What are ralceberries, Kumarain?"

"Well, racleberries are extremely helpful.  They are just like peaches, or at least they taste like it, but they hold you for much longer.  They should be able to keep you from hunger for about ten hours for every piece of fruit you eat.  Isn't that cool?"

Carol was about to reply when Rander flew over their heads at such a speed that they barely saw him.  He dropped some of the fruit next to them, as he had wrapped some up in leafs, and had carried them to them.  The girls looked down at the beautiful fruit.  It was very round, and it was a bluish gray color of sorts with tiny speckles of pink and brown.  It was very pretty and you could see in the eyes of them all that they thought it was too.

"So, is it good tasting?"  Lulu asked, expecting an answer in the affirmative.

"No,"  Rander bluntly replied.

The girls were shocked to hear him answer, as they had never heard him talk before.  His voice was very soft, but altogether too deep for his small size.  It showed many emotions, as if he was feeling two or three at the same time.  Like if he were sad, but joyful, and maybe a  little frightened.  At that very moment, Rander had been perfectly happy, but as it was his style to not show much emotion, they were very surprised that he had said anything at all.

Chapter 21-Part One

He flapped his wings quickly and looked sceptically at the sky.  "Looks lie it's going to rain,"  Rander announced with certainty.

Kumarain glanced up at the sky.  "The clouds do seem to be gathering,"  she agreed.

Lilli moaned.  "Does that mean we'll have to stay here for the night?"

"Looks like it,"  Kumarain tried not to sound too gloomy.


They started to build tents to shield themselves from the rain that was already pouring down.  Lilli stuck some tents into the ground in a teepee fashion.  She had done a study on Native Americans and had learned all about the teepees and how to build them.  They covered the sticks in giant leaves that were "sewn" together using vines.  They proved to be very warm and very large, especially with the fire that they had lit inside the tent near the middle.

Rander glanced down at the fire and then darted out the top of the teepee, like he was looking for something.

Chapter 20

"Wow!"  Carol breathed in admiration at the cave.  "This is amazing!  Look at these stalactites!  I mean, this is awesome, can you imagine watching them for, Lulu?"

Lulu looked very excited.  Lilli however, was a different story.  She didn't like being underground, and she was worried bats might come out and scare her, or she would walk off a ledge, or something else equally terrifying.  How long is this cave?  It's going on forever!  she wondered to herself.  In actuality, they had been there only two minutes or so.  To Lilli is felt like two hours.

"Come on, I think I see some light!"  Kumarain excitedly pulled on Lilli's sleeve.  She had noticed the pale look on her friends face, and she had noticed that about halfway through the short journey, Lilli had thrown up.

A glimmer of joy flashed quickly across Lilli's face, and then it faded.  "It's so far away,"  she moaned.

"Well, yeah, but you know, we'll be there eventually.  Look, we're almost-ouch!"  Kumarain shouted as she bumped her head against something very hard.

"Oh no, it's an optical allusion!"  Carol exclaimed.

Indeed, the small glimmer of light turned out to be just a very small doorway with light coming out of it.  It looked terribly far away because of the simple fact that when things are small, sometimes they look further away then they are.  All but Rander were trapped.

Lilli sat down and started to cry.  "How do we-we get out?"  she sobbed.

Rander disappeared out of the little doorway.  "Wait!  Where are you going?"  Carol shouted after him, but he was far gone.

"Okay everyone, just breathe.  We can figure this out.  Okay, so-no wait!  Yikes!"  Carol had just taken a step back and then she was gone.

The other three looked at each other with terrified expressions.  They were all wondering the same thing.  What had happened to Carol?  They sat there a moment, not knowing what to do until they heard a familiar voice call up to them.

"Hey!  Everyone!  I'm all right!  Come on down!  I just tripped, but I found a way out!  Come on!"  Carol called up to them.

At that moment Rander returned.  He went down to where Carol was calling, and the others, not knowing what to do, followed him.  They came down to a giant part of the cave where there were crystallized things that glimmered in the reflection of a little pool that was on the ground.  When the girls put there torches next to the beautiful crystals, the room lit up like a disco ball.  None of them had time to be scared.  They were too busy admiring the wonderful scenery around them, including Lilli.

"Well, don't you wanna leave now?"  Lulu broke the silence.

There was a chorus of "Sure"'s, and Carol showed them a large opening that lead to the outside.

They walked onto the grass.  "Wow!  How good it feels to be walking on something softer than rock, and to see the sunlight!"  Lilli joyfully shouted.

"Hey,"  said Kumarain, suddenly very grave looking.  "We should keep moving.  Look, we need to find the Lamb in time before Lukinfer does, and who's to say he won't follow the same path we do?  We need to move now, in case he does, because we don't want to be caught by him."

Everyone except for Rander hesitantly agreed, and they left the beautiful place and moved on to the forest.

Chapter 19

Rander was admittedly adorable.  He fluttered his wings very gracefullly and very quickly, and the humming sound he made was very beautiful.

"So...does Rander talk?"  Carol inquired as she peeked over Lilli's shoulder and eyed the bird.

"Oh, yes,"  Kumarain responded.

"When?"  Lulu asked.

"When he wants to,"  Kumarain answered.

"Oh,"  Lulu slumped her shoulders in disappointment.  She was hoping very much to hear the voice of the bird, but seeing that in her opinion, it wouldn't be happening very soon, she dropped the matter.

"So then, are we to head off?  Did you find anything for warmth?  Oh...wait!  We could just make torches.  If we all walked in a square and held the torches in our right hands and periodically switched hands, that might keep us warm.  What do you think, Lilli?"  Kumarain suggested excitedly.  In truth, she had heard about them wanting to skin animals, but, knowing they were human, didn't mention it.

"You know, I think you have a point.  Right Carol?"  Lilli answered the little beaver who was jumping up and down in excitement.

"Yeah, that should work.  Let's work on some torches!"

Carol was very good at making fire, so while the others went out to find materials for the torches, Carol made the fire for them. 

When they came back they found a lovely, blazing, fire going steadily with Carol warming her hands beside it.  They lit their torches and very carefully headed back to the cave.