The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 5: The Last Pendant

Chapter 29: The Last Pendant

Chapter 29

     The group made it across the stepping stones that floated upon the stream between the bank and the raised island. They walked, one by one, across the stones. When they reached the raised island they were surprised: The island was bigger than they had anticipated. It was beautiful. There were flowers and fruit trees that none of them had ever seen. The island was lush and vibrantly green, with ivy that wrapped up the trees and little statues covered in lichen and moss.

     "Wow," Star said. "This is the prettiest place I've ever seen."

     "That's the girliest thing I've ever heard you say," Sam chuckled.

     The others giggled. Star gave Sam a cross look.

     Shade laughed for a brief second. Then Shade collapsed.

     "Shade!" Rain Fox yelled. He fell forward and clinched his gut. He looked pale and wan. Rain Fox dropped to her knees and turned Shade over. "What do we do? Tell me what we're supposed to do?"

     Shade pointed to the garden. "Find... some... flowers..." he said through labored breaths, "Please."

     Rain Fox looked up at the others. "Bring flowers! Bring fruit! Bring anything you can! Herbs! Leaves! Bring it all! Go!"

     "You heard the lady!" Sam hollered, "Move it!"

     "On it!" Bria shouted.

     Echo nodded and hopped off to gather what she could. The others spread out in every direction. Only Sky Heart remained behind with Rain Fox and Shade.

     "Why are you still here?" Rain Fox asked her sister.

     "I don't really know anything about plants," Sky Heart answered. "I'm no good with that sort of stuff."

     Rain Fox grumbled and turned back to Shade. "Hold on, you hear me? I told you, I'm not letting you die."

     Shade looked at her and smiled. "You really are a remarkable witch," he said quietly. "I always knew you were."

     "Don't talk with a dying man's words," she warned him, "I don't want to hear that sort of nonsense. You're going to live. You can say flattering words to me after we've healed you!"

     Shade smiled wide. "Always business with you," he joked. "Remember that first night in Witching Way? You knew right away that we were being watched. You knew the Parasites were there. You were focused and fearless. You never backed down. I had to hold you back when you saw the Pendant of Life around Leech's neck during that attack in the park. You've always been staunch, even in the face of death. You never gave up. You never give up."

     Rain Fox sighed. "What Leech said back there on the hill," Rain Fox began, "I'm sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen to us."

     "You have nothing to be sorry about!" Sky Heart chimed in.

     "She's right," Shade agreed. "You have nothing to be sorry about. None of this is your fault. Those things on the hill; they weren't real."

     "But they said things that were true," Rain Fox said.

     "They were our fears," Shade explained. "I figured it out. Those things were our fears projected in spectral form; the mist was some kind of hex that took our fears and materialized them in spectral form."

     "So they weren't real after all," Sky Heart deduced.

     "The specters weren't," Shade continued, "But our fears are very real. We all have those fears inside of us. Things we're afraid are true, things we think about; the stuff that keeps us awake and afraid in the middle of the night: That's what they were."