Mike and Brighty returned to the spring to find no one.
"Shucks!!" Brighty said. "I was hoping that Jared was
back. He seems really nice."
"He is," Mike confided. "He just has an odd sense of
humor."
"Hmmm," Brighty replied, and he thoughtfully scratched his
head. "Should we wait, or go after him?"
"Wait," Mike replied. "Much safer to wait."
So they did, and they didn't have to wait for long. In
about three minutes and 12.5 seconds--according to Brighty's
timer--Jared showed up with Brittany.
"Brittany?" Mike asked, sounding very incredulous.
"Uh-huh. I got sucked into this weird fantasy as well,"
she replied. She looked and felt very haggard and tired,
for it ain't everyday you fight a giant spider.
"Did you find anything?" Mike asked Jared.
"Besides her?" Jared said. "Naw. Well, at least nothing
besides this." And then he pulled the blade, motioning for
Brittany to pull her dagger as well. She complied, setting
down her black bag in the process.
"Whoa," Mike said, and immediately Brighty got out his
device and studied the two of them.
"What are they?" Jared asked.
"Swords, dipshit," Mike replied.
"Not just that, though," Brighty said, punching a few
buttons. "His sword is a highly complex alloy of vanadium,
adamantium, and steel, producing a nearly unbreakable
blade."
"Wait...I don't think that can happen!!" Brittany bust in.
"Vanadium steel, yes. But adamantium, vanadium, and steel?
That would be an extremely difficult combination to work
with, much less forge."
BrightHeart eyed her for a second, measuring her.
Hmmm...one of my new friends is really smart!!! he thought,
then silently handed the device to her. Her eyebrows rose
as she read the easy-to-read diagrams, then nodded and
handed it back to him. "It is true," she whispered.
"And the dagger?" Jared inquired.
"Tarnish free silver coating a blade with the same
composition of yours. No, wait...the handle is an aluminum
alloy, but I've never heard of this metal before," Brighty
said, then punched a few buttons. "No..hmm...take a look at
this." He handed the Scanner to her, and showed her the
screen. "Check the analysis of this."
"How did you learn so much about alloys and metals?" Mike
questioned. He'd never seen this side of his friend before.
"The library in Care-A-Lot is extensive, and I used to go
and study there before starting a project," Brighty said.
"It's not a metal," Brittany pronounced. "It's a crystal."
"Huh?" Jared said. "A crystal handle? Wouldn't that break
into pieces?"
"I don't know. I've never seen this kind of arrangement
before, but I've only had so much chemistry," she replied.
"So the knife is a silver coated alloy?" Mike jumped in.
"Yep," Brittany replied. "And the handle...well, it's
something strange all right. But nothing harmful on either
of them....at least, not yet."
"What does that mean?" Jared asked Mike.
"I wonder," he replied honestly. Then, "Listen, this place
is way too closed for the four of us to be sitting here
jabbering. The beach is about a couple hundred feet from
here, so why don't we go there?"
"Why don't we?" asked Brittany, who hoisted her bag. Jared
took his as well, and they started down the trail in two's,
Brighty and Mike leading with Brittany and Jared following.
Brighty and Mike exchanged some small talk, but there seemed
to be nothing coming from behind them. Well, almost
nothing; a scattered whisper or two, but that's about it.
They hit the beach, coming out by the caves where lay Mike
and Brighty's things. They both picked it up and started
down the beach.
"Hey, why don't we just stay here?" Jared asked. "Caves,
shelter...you know."
"It doesn't feel right," Mike replied. "I feel like we
should be farther down."
"In tune with the enviroment?" Brittany asked.
He gave her a look, mouthed her words back to her and then
took off down the beach. She sighed and shook her head,
muttering,"I hate it when he does that."
"Here!" Brighty announced finally, even though it was
Mike's call. "Here...right here!!"
They gathered round the mysterious spot and eyed it
carefully. It was a perfectly round, sunken depression in
the sand, and as one walked near it a buzzing went straight
up their spine.
"Why here? It's creepy," Mike asked.
"I feel like it should be here," Brighty replied. He
closed his eyes, then recited, "Close to the caves, forest,
and sea/Is where the spot to rest should be."
"Nice. Even rhymes..." Jared started, but Mike cut him off
and nodded his okay. They all threw their junk down, and
plopped down by it.
"So...it's nice meeting ya'll, but why are we here?"
Brittany asked.
"No idea," Mike said.
"Ni idea!" Brighty replied quickly. "Spanish for 'no
idea'!"
"Buenos nachos," Mike promptly said.
"Ignore him, Brighty, he wasted four years in German,"
Brittany said.
Mike began to mutter under his breath, words harsh and
syllablic. When he finished, he pronounced,"I've just
cursed all of your descendents with syphilis. Happy now?"
"Very," she replied softly. "Jared?"
His eyes lay flatly closed, lashes licking his cheek; but
he didn't appear relaxed. "I remember something...but not
all of it....just vagueness and more vagueness," he
responded in a whisper.
"Are you sure there's nothing else?" Brittany pried again,
softly.
His eyes opened now, and he stared at the sky beyond.
"Nothing..." he whispered. "Just nothing."
"Hmmmm...did anything odd happen to anyone in the last
couple of days?" BrightHeart asked. "Maybe it can be traced
to that."
"I haven't been as mean as I usually am," Brittany said
softly, staring into the pit. "And I've been able to use my
head."
"It's not normal for you to use your head?" Jared asked.
"No," she replied. "Not for me, anyway."
"Nothing really big has happened in Care-A-Lot," Brighty
said, and Jared glanced at Mike and his eyes rolled back
into his head as if to say,"Yeah, right." Brighty
continued, "It's all been routine."
"I saved some old lady from getting smashed by a car
yesterday," Mike said.
"What?" Jared said.
"I saved this old lady from getting run over. I was
walking across the street by the courthouse, and so was she.
Her walker got stuck in a crack, and I just scooped her up
and set her on the sidewalk," Mike explained. He smiled
fondly. "Then she asked...me...." he started, then stopped,
his eyes going blank for a second.
"What?" Jared seized. "What did the old lady ask you?" He
had gone from passive to fierce in one instant; it was an
amazing change.
"She asked me which three people I would take to an island
paradise," he choked out. "And I told her Jared, Brittany,
and BrightHeart Raccoon."
"You thought of me?" BrightHeart asked, cheery. "Must have
been why I was sent here."
"I wonder what the old lady had to do with it, though,"
Brittany murmured. "Maybe this was her way of repaying
you."
"But who is she? And where are we? This whole place is
strange!" Jared said fiercly, jumping to his feet. He paced
a little, visibly calming down--well, except for the sweat
on his brow--and then said,"I wonder if we are even on Earth
anymore."
"Are you saying we were abducted by aliens?" Brittany
asked.
"I don't know what I'm saying," he replied. "I remember
snatches of it...but then it's gone." He sank back to the
sand.
"Wait!" Brighty called out. He squirmed a little, then
produced another gadget which looked exactly like a
cellphone. "This is another of my new inventions. It's a
Caller, and lets me get in touch with Care-A-Lot." He
turned it to face the people, and added, "I can even get a
fix on our bearings."
"Hmmm...Motorola never offered that," Mike said, and
Brittany grinned at him.
Brighty turned it back around, punched a few of the
buttons, then held it so he could hear it and talk into it
at the same time, something that caused the three people to
start laughing. It wasn't directed at him, though; it was
just funny to see this Care Bear raccoon holding a cellphone
across his face.
"Hmmmm....somethings wrong," Brighty said. "It's not
getting a fix on us!! It keeps saying 'No Relay, No
Relay'.....but I don't understand what it means!"
"Can I see?" Jared asked, and Brighty gingerly handed the
phone to him. "Hmmmm..." he said. "You forgot switch it to
scan through all frequencies...it's stuck on this one."
"Oh," Brighty said. "Thanks Jared!!"
"You're welcome," Jared replied, his eyes narrowing at the
raccoon.
Brighty punched the buttons again, but then sighed. "Still
no connection going through," he muttered. "It's as if we
were outside Earth!"
"Hmmm..." Brittany said, getting up and walking around to
stand over BrightHeart. She gazed into the sky, then
blinked; her breath caught in her throat. "I have a
theory," she said huskily.
"What?" Jared asked. He and Brighty now were toying with
the Caller, while Mike watched in half-boredom.
"Maybe we aren't on Earth at all," she whispered.
"Brittany, please," Mike said. "If they were aliens, we
wouldn't be here! We'd be back at home, shivering through
nightmares of being prodded by nasal probes!"
"Naval," she corrected gently. "Naval. But I don't think
we were abducted by aliens. We have to apply what some
would call Star Trek rational."
The three now gave her half their attention, and Brighty
murmured softly,"Oh? What is that, Brittany?"
"The rational that aliens are not always responsible, that
the universe is strange and the Enterprise is always the
only ship in the quadrant. The rational that there exists
time and space beyond our own, that being four seconds off
could result in an entirely new view," she said quietly,
words rushing out smoothly.
"Point, please," Mike said.
"The point is that this may not be Earth. In fact, I know
it isn't Earth. But I would place bets that this is another
dimension that has enough similarites between the two to
support us," she said, her voice sounding somewhat strangled
for a second.
"How do you know this isn't Earth?" Jared asked.
"Look," she replied, pointing into the sky. He did, eyes
searching; then, they widened. He jumped up and ran down
to the waters edge, staring up at the cerulean blue sky.
"Jared? What is it?" Mike asked.
Brighty stared at the sky for a moment, then exclaimed,
"OH!! Two!!"
"What?" Mike asked.
"Two moons," Brittany filled in. "There are two moons!!"
He looked now, his eyes searching vainly through the blue
sky; finally, a sliver of white and gray came into his view.
And directly underneath is was a spot of red...a red moon
shaped spot.
"Two moons," he whispered, then turned. "Two moons!"
"Wait a second, though..if this is a foreign dimension, how
are we surviving? And how did we get here?" Jared said,
spinning on his heel to face them all.
"Maybe be we're being protected by an external force?"
Brighty suggested.
"Exactly. The same red force that brought us here," Jared
said sharply. He looked at the moons for a second, then
turned back. "When I was on the cliff, I saw over the trees
a beacon, a little light, flashing. That's why I accepted
it when you pointed me that way, Mike! I wanted to find out
what it was," he said slowly. "Still, I have this odd
feeling it's dangerous....an almost instinctual feeling."
"So you think the beacon has something to do with this
external force that brought us here? But why?" Mike asked.
"Maybe...maybe that old lady was a fleshed out
representation of that force!!" BrightHeart said, the light
bulb on his stomach brightening as his words increased in
pitch.
"That would explain her questioning, which led to this
island that we are on now!" Brittany said quickly. "It all
fits together...well, most of it..but wait..." she stopped
and looked at Jared. "A red force? How do you know it was
a red force?"
His face paled, but just for an instant. "I had a
dream...before I came here....and the force was red...and
unisex...and called itself the Guardian...." he whispered,
his voice low. He seemed caught in some kind of reviere, as
if he'd been entranced by a mystic. Then, his head snapped
to either side quickly, and he gasped for breath.
"Ouch," Brittany whispered.
None of them noticed the red band that seeped away from its
place across Jared's eyes.
"Ugh," Jared said, then sighed. "Maybe we should do some
more extensive exploring of this island," he ventured
slowly. "Maybe it'll clue us into who or what has brought
us here."
Mike and Brittany exchanged a look, and a shared thought
sprung between them: Jared has no idea what he just said.
He completely forgot.
"That's a good idea, Jared!" Brighty replied, gathering up
his Caller and stashing it away, only to produce his
Scanner. "With this, we can check for hollows in caves or
beneath our feet and stuff like that!" His cheeks seemed to
flush with excitement, and the bulb on his stomach began to
almost pulse with intensity.
"You have to admit that his excitement is catching,"
Brittany whispered.
"Yes, but it's also annoying," Jared whispered back.
"You speak truth, my friend," she replied with a grin, then
said to Brighty, "The four of us, or should we split up?"
"Definetly all four of us,"Mike replied, finding his sword
in his bag and pulling it out. "If we are going to run into
one of those...things, then we'd better have some
reinforcements."
"Jared killed...no, never mind," Brittany started, for the
beginning of her remark seemed to make Jared wince.
"What?" Mike asked.
"No, never mind!" she said emphatically. For some reason,
she'd become overly sensitive all of a sudden, and she could
nearly feel something nasty lance through Jared. She
wondered at it, but shook her head. This is not the time to
go nuts!
Mike sighed roughly, then said,"Okay. Which way do we go?"
"How about if we follow the way we came? We were heading
away from the caves, so lets continue that way!" Jared said,
rounding on Mike. His face was different somehow; not the
expression, but the way it was set spoke of danger, of not
crossing lines unless you want you're life gone.
"Okay," Mike agreed, a little taken aback. This whole
thing is weird and crazy....too bad it's not a dream I could
wake up from!
"Should I take something to defend myself with?" Brittany
asked.
"The dagger," Jared said curtly. "You have it, right?"
"Yes...sorry," she replied.
"Let's go then," Mike called, and they began to walk across
the sand.
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