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.

Chapter 18

Kumarain was absolutely nowhere to be seen.  The girls were getting very frantic, as she was their guide, and she was such a very little beaver, she may have been kidnapped.  They continued calling her name as loud as they could.

"What do we do?"  Lulu cried.

"I suppose we should go out and look for her,"  came Carol's response.

"Should we split up?"  Lilli asked.

Both Carol and Lulu cried "no!" at the same time, as no one wanted to get stuck out in the forest, alone.  Who knows what you would run into!

Lilli pushed her sister forward, and then beckoned her to lead.

"Alright, we're going to head...this way!  Come on, troops!"  Lilli commanded as she pointed to the right.

The girls headed out and Lulu started to whistle the tune to Josh Wilson's Behind the Beauty. 

"Sometimes the smallest things...can cause our hearts to sing...the loudest...the loudest,"  Lilli started to sing to her sisters tune.

"Look around!...Look around!...tell me can you see?...all the wonder in the world...is reason to believe...that-whoa!"  their singing was interrupted as they stopped short to see Kumarain kneeling over something.

"Kumarain!  Where have you been?"  Carol demanded.

Kumarain said nothing.  "We've been looking all over for you,"  Lilli interrupted the silence.

"I was finding someone,"  Kumarain whispered.

"What was she finding?"  Lulu leaned forward, because she was in the back. 

"Not 'what', who,"  Kumarain corrected her.

"Okay then, who?"  Lulu asked.

"Rander."

"Who's Rander?"

"Rander is my friend.  See?  He's up there,"  Kumarain pointed up into a tree.

Sure enough, flying right above them was a small, green hummingbird.  It cocked its head towards them, and then darted to them.  It planted its little claws on Lilli's shoulder.

"This is Rander,"  Kumarain introduced them to the little bird who never stopped flapping its wings.