The Lost ( A Sequel To The Forgotten )

Expedition Exploration

The second riddle said exploring might help us solve it. There's water right next to the Collection House, which is what we've decided to call the stone building, Anyway, exploring can't hurt. ( But, knowing our luck, it probably will anyway. ) So we set off, in parties of two, headed to find something that's big, small, heavy, light, hollow, filled, and all that confusing nonsense.

"Wood," Rolly suggests. "It could be hollow, or big, or... you know. All that stuff."

"Nice," I sighed. "Now we just have to search every tree in the woods."

"Maybe not. There could be a, I don't know, peculiar tree. Maybe something like-"

"Like that?" I ask. Off in front of us, there are two trees bent to make a X. Rolly shrugs.

"Worth a try." We jog over to the trees. There's a cave of some sort near it, but that's not unusual.

"So how do we tell if this is these are the ones?" Rolly asks. We look at the trees. X hasn't been a special letter in the riddles and codes. 2 hasn't been important either. So it seems like we'll have to keep searching until-

"Uh, Wrive? I know how to tell which trees are the right trees," he says. I walk to the other side of the trees, and I see what Rolly's talking about.

R2 solved. Here!

A while later, we've gathered the entire gang around the X trees.

"Riddle two solved. Here," Tarna reads. "That sounds promising."

"It's here," Ray agrees. We all turn in surprise. "Cause the pigeon ate the cucumber." We all sigh.

"So... now we have two trees that we have no idea what to do with. What do we do?" Person asks.

"Not trees," Ray says firmly.

"Yes trees," Rolly corrects firmly. Ray frowns, but doesn't argue. We all refocus on the trees.

"We could cut them down," Rolly suggests.

"We could climb them," Cass suggests at the same time.

"We definitely shouldn't do it in that order," Tarna notes. So Cassie climbs the trees. She sees nothing. After making sure we won't damage anything, we decide to cut them down.

"Let's do this the right way," Tarna instructs. "We don't want another Ray." Ray waves and grins. "So, does anyone have an idea?"

"No swords," Cass says. So that leaves us the options of kicking the tree down or using our powers. I don't think any amount of gymnastics will fell the tree, so that makes Cass of no use. Ray's fire would be a catastrophe. Tarna has no power over trees. Person's lightning would be as bad as Ray going nuts. That leaves me, and darkness can't do anything...

"We don't have anything!" Cass cries in frustration. "Give us something, Wrive, give us something!"

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Build," Ray says, starling us. "Shadows are build-y!" I shake my head.

"No, they aren't, Ray." Ray just grins.

"How do you know?" Rolly asks. I give him a what-are-you-talking-about look. He just continues talking.

"I mean, we have crazy powers. Why wouldn't you be able to... to... I don't know, do something!"

"Because... because...fine! I'll try doing something." Of course, nothing will happen, but if it makes my friends happy... I focus.
Okay, power. We need to cut down a tree. So, uh, cut down a tree or something. Nothing happens, of course.
Yeah, that's what I- But suddenly, I can feel my power starting up. Invisible gears turn inside of me, and energy runs to my hands. I hold them out, and dark sparks begin to fly. Liquid black energy runs loops around my arms. My friends stare at my hands, and now things get weird. I stand, darkness around my arms, and somewhere in my mind, I'm not in the woods. I'm in empty-land again, but this time there's no Collection House. There's just a rock- no, a cave. So I walk toward the cave. About halfway there, I realize there's someone next to me. Turning, I see it's once again Ray. He walks calmly, showing no emotion.