Light

Eddy reached Yuwon first and was holding her, when the others got there.

“How did you do that?” Eddy asked.

Yuwon pointed to the two head lights attached to her knees pointing up at her body and head. The upside down lighting produced the ghostly appearance and made her hair and the bullroarer look as though they were glowing with their own light.

“I learned it from the shadow shows in Lechakotet,” she said.

“I thought you were committing suicide when I saw you walking toward them,” Eddy said.

Yuwon dropped the bullroarer and hugged Eddy. “I was a little scared,” she said.

Everyone was pretty jubilant and were thanking and congratulating Yuwon, which she really didn’t care for.

Eddy picked up the bullroarer. “If you don’t want this, I’m keeping it,” he said.

“Well it really belongs to Anthony. He made it,” she said.

“I’ll ask him,” Eddy said, “but I don’t think he’ll want it.”

“Why do you want it?” Yuwon asked.

“Because you used it, and … well, I just do,” and he hugged and kissed her again.

“We’ll have plenty of time for that later,” Lester teased them. He had his arm around Jasmine and gave her a little hug. We’ve lost a lot time and really should get going.

“I’d like to lead for a while,” Veronica said. Anthony joined her as they started out.

“That’s the third time you’ve saved us, Anthony,” Veronica said.

“I didn’t do anything,” he said. “It was Yuwon who actually did it. I can’t believe how brave she is.”

“I suppose that’s why Eddy is head-over-heals for her.”

“That’s funny too,” Anthony said. “I always thought it would be Jasmine. They’ve been best friends since before they started school. Eddy was always at our house, or Jasmine at yours and you almost never saw them when they weren’t together.”

“Oh, it will always be Eddy and Jasmine and they will always love each other. Neither Yuwon or Lester will ever change that.”

“Ah, so it is Lester. Jasmine’s been spending a lot of time at the Moore’s and I wondered.”

“Really?” Veronica said. “You wondered? It could hardly be more obvious. The truth is, Lester was Jasmine’s long before Lester knew it. How could you not see all the romance around you?”

“Well, I wasn’t really looking for it,” Anthony said. “Seems awfully complicated to me.”

“It is.” Veronica said.

Lester and Jasmine got a little closer to Anthony and Veronica.

“Do you think there’s a chance we’ll see any more Nebers?” Lester asked

“I don’t know,” Anthony said. “I didn’t expect to see any. I can’t imagine what they were living on.”

“Guess we’ll just have to stay alert and keep looking for signs of them.”

“I just want to get out of here,” Jasmine said. “Can you two pick up the pace a little.”

“Sure, Sis,” Anthony said. And they did.

They had no more incidents with Nebers and Anthony mentioned that the walking was getting a little harder because they were now going uphill.

“So that means we’re more than half-way,” Jasmine said, but it was a question.

“Well past half-way,” Anthony said, which greatly pleased Jasmine.

They walked another four hours, waded through a shallow stream, and decided it was a good time to stop for sleep. Veronica, Jasmine, and Yuwon volunteered for watch duty, but they were voted down, so everyone did one hour’s watch.

Nothing spectacular happened the next day. If everything went well, they hoped to reach the end of the cave and ChildIsle.

They had been walking almost nine hours when Eddy and Yuwan, who were leading both yelled, “light.”

Indeed there was a faint light ahead which grew brighter as they approached it. Suddenly just over a little rise there was full sunlight in the cave opening, and a number of men standing or sitting there.