That night, Sarah finished her math work as quickly as possible. Although the sun had barely begun to set, Sarah’s room faced east, and little light entered her room. She closed the curtains, and went right to sleep, anticipating her first night as a magical girl.
In her dream, Sarah greeted Samuel, and the two transformed. The two traveled to a few different dreams, but their jewels failed to react to the pulse of anything other than each other. From jungle to school to under the sea to a smoggy town to a mountain village, nothing reacted.
“I don’t understand it,” Shamrock said, sitting down on a bench near a house in the village on the mountain. “I was certain it would work like this.”
“I’m sorry if I mislead you,” Arle’s voice said. Arle stepped out from the house by the bench. “You can’t find another jewel easily if no one’s using it.”
“That’s right,” Shamrock said, hitting his palm to his forehead. “I forgot about that. We’ve been looking all night, and all we find is each other. Maybe we should split up, and check different areas far apart. We’d probably still find each other, though. And if we use only one jewel, it’ll be harder to pinpoint anything.”
“Actually, there’s someone who knows some things about the jewels,” Arle said.
“Who?” Clover asked. “We can just go and ask them, right Samuel?”
“Shamrock, it’s Shamrock.”
“Oh! Right, right, sorry about that.”
“Well, Arle? Is she right? Can we just go and ask them?”
“She also speaks English. She’s an attendent to my family, so seeing her won’t be a problem. The only problem will be hiding you from my sister.”
“Who’s your sister?” Clover asked.
“And why do we need to hide from her?” Shamrock added.
“She’s the one who sent Bernard and that other guy. She thinks you’re going to use your jewels for bad things, but I know that’s not true. You’ve saved me twice, now. A bad person wouldn’t have done that. I’ll take you to see Cecilia. Rather, you’ll address her as Ceciliate Medic. She’s Bernard’s older sister.”
“And we can trust her?” Shamrock asked.
“Of course we can,” Clover snapped at him. “Would Arle take us to someone we can’t trust? Arle trusts us, so I trust her.”
“I guess you’re right. Still, let’s keep good hold of our jewels while we meet with her.”
“Actually,” Arle said, “there’s something else I should tell you. If you take those jewels with you, you’ll stand out. Everyone will know you have them, and that would be a disaster. You should have them with you, but you must go as Sarah and Samuel. And you’ll still want to avoid my sister. We’ll meet with Cecilia in town somewhere. Now, I’ll explain how to use your jewels to Aureum. That’s the name of my home, by the way. In your language, it means roughly ‘land of slumbering’.”
“Slumberland?” Clover thought for a moment. “I’ve heard of it somewhere before.”
“We should go soon,” Arle continued. “Time acts strangely for those who dream, but for the people of Aureum, it moves consistantly. If we arrive soon, you can find a diner t wait in, and I can summon Cecilia. Now, ready your jewels, and follow my instructions.”
The two followed Arle’s words, as Arle explained scenery for the two to picture in their minds. By their imagination, the village around them faded out, and a wooden table and wooden chairs faded in.
“Quick, transform back,” Arle told the two. They did as she said, and changed back into Sarah and Samuel. Moments later, more tables and chairs appeared around the three, surrounded by the building walls of a diner, and people filled the room. The two neighbors quickly pocketed their jewels.
Arle signaled for a waiter. The waiter handed out three menus. As Sarah and Samuel tried to decipher the foreign writing, Arle signaled for the waiting to lean his ear closer to her. She whispered a message to him. The waiter stood, nodded, bowed, and then headed out of the diner.
“He’s going to call for Cecilia to meet us here. In the meantime, order whatever you want. Consider yourselves my quests during your stay in Aureum.”
“Um, Arle,” Sarah started. “Can I ask a tiny favor?”
“Ask anything you’re like. You are my guest here.”
“Can you read this menu to me? I can read just fine in English, and I can decipher Korean, Chinese, and Japanese letters a little, but this is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. The order of the brush strokes are different from anything I’ve learned.”
Arle apologized for her rudeness in leaving the two to work through unreadable menus. She recommended a few choices, then the two visitors gave her their orders.
When the waiter returned, Arle gave him their order. The kids talked for a while, until the waiter returned with four plates. At about the same time, an older teenager with blond hair joined the three at their table.
“This,” Arle introduced, “is Miss Ceciliate Medic, attendant to my sister and myself. I’ve asked her to keep this meeting a secret, and have no reason to expect anything less than her fullest cooperation.”
Sarah and Samuel introduced themselves. Ceciliate bowed before the three, and introduced herself. She continued to speak: “Miss Arle has filled me in. I have learned the locations of only four jewels. The red jewel was hidden in the red land, but it has now been recovered. The green and blue jewels were both kept in the green land, and I hear they have also been recovered. The yellow jewel lies in the yellow land. I don’t know the whereabouts of the orange and violet jewels, but it wouldn’t be far-fetched to believe the lie within the orange and violet lands. I realize this information may see obvious, but consider if you sought the blue jewel within the blue land. You would be searching and never find it.”
“So, that’s all?” Sarah asked. “We go to the yellow land, and find the yellow jewel there? That sounds simple enough.”
“Not really,” Ceciliate said. “My brother and our slave were in the red lands for five years before they found the red jewel.”
“What’s with these colored lands?” Samuel asked. “You said the green and blue jewels were on a green land, right? For a moment I thought you meant Greenland, but that doesn’t explain the other place names.”
“Each land is a separate continent here,” Ceciliate explained. “These lands connect our world with other worlds through dreams. The green land connects with Earth, your home. Those two jewels were taken to Earth long ago.”
“When we go to the yellow land,” Sarah started, “how do we find the yellow jewel?”
“I have information on the yellow land continent it should be on. Miss Arle has studied the continents of the different worlds. She’ll be able to guide you around, I trust. Unlike the red, blue, and green jewels, the yellow jewel hasn’t been activated yet. It probably hasn’t even been found. It could take years to find without a jewel of your own. If you had a single jewel, you could get a faint signal of the jewel’s location. If you had two jewels, you could narrow down its location. With three jewels, it would be trivial to pinpoint.”
“How can someone do that with one or two jewels?” Samuel asked.
“I don’t know,” Ceciliate admitted. “This is all information I’ve heard as a child. I never thought much of it until five years ago, when it was announced that the green and blue jewels were both found on the green land. It matched with what I had been told.”
“Bernard and my sister have already left for their next jewel,” Arle added in. “I’m sure they must have gone to the yellow land. We’ll go there and find the jewel before they can.”
