Striving For Love (THIRD BOOK OF REACHING FOR THE LIGHT)

Chapter Two

I stand up and storm down the stairs. "Rae, what's wrong?" Zaan asks. "He isn't dead." I growl as I open the door, there stood the man with the cocky smile. "Hello, Zaan, Rae, look at how you've grown." I hiss at him, a shocked expression is plastered onto his face. "Rae, you don't know do you?" I narrow my eyes. "Know what?" I turn to Zaan. "That's the actual General, the one you killed was the Frueth leader." He explains. I nod and plant a smile on my face. "Sorry." The General returns the smile. "I have a prize for you." I raise an eyebrow. He lifts up a metal box. "What's that?" He smirks. "It's how you got here." He says. "And it can bring you and your friends back to Earth." I stare at the box and smile. "I accept your gift."

Edith, Jace, Zaan, Ashby, and I stand around the box. "Now, you'll still won't age, but you'll be back on Earth." The General explains. We all nod, behind me, Heiland nudges my shoulder. "Can she come, too?" I ask. He nods. "But she will be a regular sized wolf." I nod. "As long as I have her." He nods and presses the button. The familiar blue light swallows all of us up, the wood where I first wandered into and been taken to  Honeyrasd comes into view, and I'm home again. "Zaan?" I whisper. "Rae." Jace's voice whispers back. "Huh?" I turn to him in the dark. "They're not here." I look around rapidly, searching, searching. "No." I breath. "No, they had to have come back." A hand lands on my shoulder. "Rae, we're back where we were taken. Perhaps they're where they were taken." Then a particular wolf comes to mind. "Heiland." I call out. I see bright blue eyes peek through the brush. "Oh thank God." I breath out. Heiland trots over to me and lays her head on my lap, she's a smaller wolf now, but her personality didn't change. "What are we supposed to do?" Jace asks. "Well, lets go to Pet Smart and get Heiland here some things." I say. "With what money?" I turn and smirk. "Well, the money Mom and dad hid in the backyard, of course."

In my old backyard Jace and I searched for the spot where the money was hidden. $10,000 just for us kids if something went wrong. They didn't tell anyone else but us. "Rae! I found it!" Jace whisper yells. I run over to where he was, and sure enough, there lay the box that held our money. I open in and it was all there. A light flashes on from behind us, whoever bought our house was up. "Hey! Get off our property, you dang kids!" I grab Jace and shield him with my body, hiding the box between us, I squint towards the light, and elderly man stood there, waving his fist in the air. I push Jace along into the wood behind the house to where Heiland waits for us. "To Pet Smart!" Jace exclaims.

We were lucky we got there just as it opened. Heiland trots inside like the best behaved dog there, even though she's a wolf. I walk beside her, Jace on the over side with a hoodie on. "Excuse me!" A employee says as he approaches, his face was dotted with acne and his voice was squeaky. "Yes?" I ask. "Your...uh...animal needs to be on a leash." He says. "That's why we're here. To buy a leash." He nods awkwardly and walks away. We walk to the leash aisle and grab a bright orange collar and a black leash. "Lets make a dog tag!" Jace exclaims. "Okay." We go to the machine and type in Heiland into a bone shaped piece of metal. The cashier didn't look up into my hooded face as we checked out, then we walked out with our wolf friend and went to search for our friends.