Samuel sat up. He looked around his room, dark save for rays of morning sun slipping in through the blinds. His thoughts turned instantly to Clover and Melilot. If Clover can start that fire, he thought, maybe Melilot will be all right until we can return. I need to get to Sarah’s house and make sure nobody wakes her up. Samuel hurried to his closet, and dressed as quickly as he could. He headed downstairs, greeting his parents in haste, and he went out the front door. When he reached Sarah’s house, he made sure to knock, rather than ring the doorbell.
The door opened, Sarah’s mother on the other side. She invited Samuel in, offering him breakfast “if you have haven’t eaten yet.”
Inside, Samuel sat down at the table. Sarah’s mother said she should see why Sarah isn’t awake yet. Samuel called out to her, saying he wanted to ask a question before Sarah came downstairs.
“See, it’s like this,” he said. “Sarah’s been my best friend ever since we were little. I wanted to get her a gift. You know, something to say, ‘thanks for always being there for me,’ something like that. But, I have no idea what to get her. Do either of you have any ideas?”
“A gift for Sarah?” Sarah’s father thought for a while.
“Don’t give him any ideas,” Sarah’s mother said. “A gift for your best friend should come from the heart. He should decide for himself. Besides, anything we think probably wouldn’t suit the situation.”
“Can’t I even hint at anything, Honey? Remember that one year when I didn’t know what kind of gift to get Sarah for his birthday? Samuel’s the one who suggested that magical wand that she liked so much. It would be the least I can do to repay him.”
“And just what do you know about what an 11 year old girl would like? Samuel, if you have to ask someone, ask Arle.”
“Who?” Samuel asked.
“Arle,” Sarah’s mother repeated, pointing behind Samuel.
Samuel turned and looked. Arle rested against the wall of the dark cave. Her face had become blue from the cold. Freezing winds blew against Samuel on his left. The only warmth came from a fire to his right. Samuel turned to his side, seeing Sarah adding another small piece of wood to the fire.
“I’m glad you’re back,” Sarah said. “I fell asleep after you did. I thought I was home when I woke up, but something wasn’t right. I don’t know what it was, but something wasn’t right, and somehow I ended up back here. You weren’t here, so I wasn’t sure what was happening. Now that you’re here, I feel a safer.”
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s unconscious, but she’s breathing. Barely. Bring her closer to the fire, please.”
Samuel lifted Arle in his arms. He set her near the fire, holding her body up against his. He looked at Arle’s shivering face. “She must have changed back because of the cold, or maybe because she was asleep for so long.” His arm around Arle, he rubbed his hand against her side, and pulled her close, trying to help her warm up. He looked back up at Sarah. “How’s your magic doing?”
“My jewel is with me, but I can’t transform with it. Normally I can feel a pulse from it, but not now. I thought it was because my hands were so cold, but even after I warmed them by the fire, there’s nothing. Arle’s jewel is the same.”
Samuel reached a hand into his pocket. He felt his blue jewel, and he rolled it between his fingers. “Nothing… But, how’d you start the fire?”
“Samuel Seamair, just how many times have I gone camping with you and your father? I think I know how to start a fire with two sticks.” She poked a stick into the fire, moving the ashes around. “It wasn’t just for her,” she said, resting her chin on her knees. “The coat you gave me vanished when I woke up, so after I came back here, I was really cold, too. She has her heavy coat, but I knew she’d still be cold, too.”
Arle’s eyes slowly opened. “Where am I?”
“You’re on the violet continent’s planet,” Sarah said.
“How did I get here? I don’t really remember much after being in the museum. Piñole gave me the yellow jewel, but then…nothing.”
“I remember you were in the snow,” Sarah said. “Then I remember being in here. I think maybe I fell asleep because it was so cold outside. Samuel and I came here to find the violet jewel, since it should be around this valley, but it’s too snowy for us to go anywhere and look for it.”
“We need to use the jewels to go back home,” Arle said. “Back to Aureum.”
“The jewels aren’t working,” Sarah told her. “I think they’re too cold, too. I’m keeping mine by the fire, but it’s not helping. We’re stuck here.”
“What’ll we do?” Arle asked. She turned to Samuel. “You have an idea, right?”
Samuel bit his lower lip. He breathed in and out, trying to think. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” He reached into his pocket again, this time pulling the blue jewel out. He took a piece of wood from the fire, and blew the flame off the end. He walked to the cave’s entrance, and there he placed the end of the stick in the slow. Burning embers inside the stick died out as the snow melted, and the end of the stick soaked through. With the two girls watching, Samuel returned, and set the stick on the ground. He placed his jewel on the wet end of the stick, then he slid the stick halfway into the fire, the jewel disappearing into the flames.
“If being next to the fire isn’t enough,” Samuel explained, “than maybe being in the fire will be enough.”
“Samuel, look,” Sarah said. “The fire’s changing color!”
Flames danced around and over the blue jewel, turning blue as they reached up high. The flames created a blue streak from within the orange and yellow fire.
“Won’t it be too hot to use?” Arle pointed out. “If you put it into the snow, it might become too cold to use.”
“I don’t think so,” Samuel replied. “I think the core is the problem. If the jewel is frozen to the core, then being beside a fire won’t help much. I need this to warm up all the way though, then being in the snow long enough to cool the jewel off won’t be too cold for the core.”
Samuel pulled the stick from the fire. This time, no flame or embers remained on the still wet stick. Samuel took the stick to the cave entrance, and place it in the snow. The snow quickly melted, and Samuel placed more snow on top. As this snow melted, he added more, and more, until the snow stopped melting around the jewel. Samuel pulled the stick out, and tapped the side of the jewel with the back of his hand. Satisfied, he returned to the girls with it.
After tapping his fingers against the side of the jewel to test it, Samuel took the jewel in his fingers. He concentrated, and a blue light surrounded him. He became Shamrock.
Sarah cheered to see Shamrock’s blue hair and clothes. “Here’s my jewel,” she said, taking hers from her pocket. “Arle, get your jewel, too. You can use Samuel’s stick. I’ll take another one and put it in the snow, and we can warm up out jewels next.”
As Sarah blew the flame off of another stick, and headed to the cave entrance with it, Shamrock set the used stick beside Arle. She placed the yellow jewel on it, and Shamrock slid the stick back into the fire.
Sarah returned, but stopped, dropping her stick to the ground, upon seeing the fire. Yellow flames surrounded by streaks of black flames rose from the fire. The fire increased in size, causing Shamrock to get up and step away from the fire, pulling Arle back with him. Large embers spit out in all directions, forcing Shamrock and Arle to farther move back, moving to beside Sarah.
“What’s happening?” Sarah asked. “The fire’s getting too big. I think it’s trying to attack us.”
“Get against the wall,” Shamrock instructed. “Both of you. Arle, you go against the wall there. Sarah, on the other side.”
The girls backed against the walls, the fire growing larger, and more violent, with more and darker black flames. Shamrock stepped to the side, and he touched his earring. He motioned back with his hands, then forward, pulling a few balls of snow through the air, and into the fire. He repeated the process, and larger snowballs jumped from the deep snow outside into the fire. Larger and larger snowballs went each time he gestured, causing the flame to start reducing in size. After a few minutes of piling snow–melted quickly by the fire–the flames died out. The yellow jewel glowed from the head trapped within, with a black haze around it.
“We should leave it here a little while,” Shamrock said. “We’ll go deeper into the cave. We can start a fire in there, before my jewel gets too cold.”
The trio walked deeper into a cave, Shamrock leading the way with a lit torch. Sarah and Arle shared Arle’s heavy coat. After about ten minutes of walking, Sarah noticed an increase in the temperature. Arle and Shamrock confirmed it, and the girls took off the coat.
A little deeper in the cave, the three found a room filled with sunlight, the trunks of trees (which broke through the ceiling of the cave as they grow), grass, and other plant life. The sunlight came in through a break in the ceiling.
“This is amazing,” Arle said. “It looks like the vegetation back on the purple continent, in this valley area.”
“I think it is the vegetation back on the purple continent,” Sarah said. She picked a clover from the grass. “I’ve never seen this kind of clover before. And look at those flowers. Their petals are weird shapes. I think I saw some like it before we came here.”
“You’re right,” Shamrock said as he kneeled down and looked closely at some of the flowers. “I remember this specific color, too.”
“It’s not unnatural for the purple continent and its planet to share the same types of plants,” Arle pointed out. “Still, there’s something about this cavern. This is very strange somehow.”
“I feel it,” Shamrock said, putting a finger and thumb to his earring’s jewel. “I thought it was Sarah’s jewel, but that just started right now. There’s also another jewel I’ve been feeling. It’s over there, at the other end of the cave, by that waterfall. It must be the violet jewel.”
The kids hurried through the green life inside the cave, moving under the warm sunlight. They reached a small river, and followed it to its waterfall source. The water came from over the broken roof of the cave, falling in a thing stream down the rocky side of the wall, and to the ground where a river formed.
“It’s very close to here,” Shamrock told the girls. “I can feel it. It’s… It’s over this way.” He stepped through the shallow river, but turned back when he reached the other hand. “It has to be here.” Shamrock reached in near the bottom of the waterfall. A hole in the wall held a small, round object. Shamrock pulled it out, and the sunlight reflecting off the splashing water sent light glistening through the violet jewel.
“No wonder,” Sarah said. “The jewel must have been homesick, so it made this cave be like the valley back home.”
“Can a jewel do that?” Arle asked.
Shamrock wiped the jewel on his shirt to dry it off. “Don’t you know?” He dropped the jewel into his pocket.
“Ceciliate knows more about the jewels than I do. I actually know only a little.”
“We should go back and get you your yellow jewel,” Shamrock said. “But I’d be careful with it. It seemed a bit dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Crimson’s voice echoed off the cave wall. She walked through the cave’s forest, toward the group. She held the yellow jewel up in her fingers. “I don’t know why you left the jewel behind or why you think it’s dangerous, but it sounds like a lot of nonsense to me. Come, Arle. We have to plan to get the orange jewel before these two get it.” Crimson touched her tiara, then she waved the same hand out, reaching toward Arle. Arle faded away, and Crimson faded after her.
“She took Arle with her, and she took that dangerous jewel,” Sarah said, facing Shamrock. “I’m worried about her.”
“I’m worried, too, but we should go home first. We don’t have any idea what time it is. I don’t even know if we should have woken up yet.”
Using her jewel, Sarah became Clover. The two magical kids vanished from the cave, and reappeared in the valley on the violet land. They hurried to Aureum, then to the green land, and there they both faded away.
Sarah stretched her arms out. The morning sun filled her room, and her clock showed her awake a few minutes before her normal time waking up. “I really thought I’d wake up late,” she said to herself. “What a long dream. It kept going and going. I wonder if it’ll continue again tonight.”
In the house next door, Samuel looked at the blue and green jewels on his desk. A third, violet, jewel appeared next to them. “It followed me here after all. Is it really all right to have this?” A bad feeling kept passing through Samuel’s heart. “I shouldn’t have so many magical jewels with me. I need to give this new one to somebody else. To somebody who’ll keep it safe, and–if needed–put it to good use.”
Back in the palace in Aureum, Arle followed after Piñole. “I don’t know what happened,” she told her older sister. “Maybe it was too cold, and that’s why I don’t remember it.”
“Never mind. Those kids have three of the six jewels now. We only have two. You’ll be joining the expedition along with Bernard and his slave. We’re going to make for the orange jewel at once.”
“Can’t I even stop to rest? I still feel tired.”
“You have one hour,” Piñole said. “I’ll wake you after the hour’s end. I’ll expect you to be ready to leave soon after that. The orange jewel will no doubt be found on the orange continent, and we’re going to go after it before the magical boy and magical girl can return and look for it. I’ll prepare anything we’ll need for the trip, and I’ll tell Cecilia to have her brother and the slave meet us at the edge of the orange continent.”
