The cave looked to be just a regular cave, though this one extended back maybe about fifty feet and opened into what looked almost like a large room.
"You know, if I'd known this was here before, I'd have suggested that we use this to camp in," Hannah said, as she walked along the edge of the 'room.'
"Maybe, but who knows how sound this cave is," Amelia commented.
"How long did it take us to find this cave?" Tim merely asked. "I'm pretty sure that we'd have still be wandering around when that storm hit before we even found this cave."
"Hey, I didn't say that we should have come directly here," Hannah protested. "I'm just saying that if we knew that this cave was here, then it would have been a nice place to have camped."
"Whatever you said, it still doesn't change anything," Beth remarked. "We still have to consider how long it would have taken us to walk here in the first place."
Hannah scowled at Beth. "I wasn't saying we should have camped here," she stated heatedly.
"Whatever you were saying or meant, that's what they heard," Wes said. "After all, Amelia's the only one who had a valid argument. Hannah didn't say that we would have found this cave in time if we had explored the island before the storm, so it all doesn't matter anyway. We still had to wait for the storm before we found this cave."
"Whatever," Hannah merely said annoyance clear in her voice, walking directly towards the exit to the cave.
She was almost halfway across the 'room' when she bumped into something. Charlie at first thought Hannah was just either messing around or that she'd stubbed her toe. However, when she stopped and found what she'd bumped into, she climbed on top of it, which looked like there wasn't anything there.
Charlie looked towards the ground by it and was a little surprised to see how it extended into the ground, which wasn't very clear with how dim the light they had to work with was. So, she held out her hand and let a bright flame appear in it, to let her see more.
"What is this?" Hannah asked.
"What's what?" Ralph asked.
"This," Hannah said, jumping up and down on whatever it was that was there that they couldn't see.
"Are you using your magic?" Wes asked.
"Nope," Hannah said, a smile spreading across her face. "There's something here that we can't see."
Charlie walked over and put her free hand on what it was that was there but wasn't. Or at least as far as she could tell. Though, while she couldn't see it she could feel it. It had a temperature, texture, and substance. What it didn't have was anything that could be seen in the visual light spectrum that Charlie and her friends could see in. Or at least without the aid of other means to see in the ultraviolet, infrared, or any other means there were. As Charlie did recall seeing something somewhere about some animals that had markings that couldn't be seen outside of a particular visual spectrum that wasn't ultraviolet or infrared.
"Is this natural?" Wes asked as everyone was surrounding whatever it was that Hannah was standing on, their hands exploring what they couldn't see.
"It feels like it," Amelia said. "It doesn't feel smooth or anything. It kind of makes me think of- ow!"
Charlie turned to see what made Amelia cry out like that and saw that she'd gotten a cut on her right forefinger, blood already dripping from it. As the blood fell on the surface of whatever it was, it didn't seem to let anything stay on it. The blood was already flowing down it, not leaving anything behind, like it did on most any other surface that Charlie had seen.
Though, Charlie looked at it again, a realization coming to her. There wasn't any dust or dirt on it either. If nothing else, dust should have accumulated on it, regardless of how much might have been blown off by the wind from the storm that had just gone by. It gave Charlie goosebumps as she realized it.
"What were you saying, Amelia?" Hannah asked as she hopped down off of whatever the stuff was.
"Sorry," Amelia said as she took a breath after healing her finger. "I was saying that it felt like some kind of metal, but what's most weird is even my blood doesn't leave behind any traces as its flows down it. Almost like this stuff really is 'stainless.'"
"I noticed that part too," Charlie admitted.
"Well, whatever it is and no matter how fascinating it is, it's not going to help us right now, so maybe we should get back to the mountain world so we can get a good night's sleep and head over to the next gate on that world," Beth said, sounding like she didn't care to leave, but also sounding like she felt like someone had to be the 'adult' in the group.
"Can't we at least gather some food from this island?" Wes asked.
"Like what?" Beth demanded.
"You know, coconut for one thing. I mean, there's several trees. It wouldn't take much to use our magic to pick a few," Wes answered.
"Well, as long as you don't take too long, I can't see a problem with that, but we should get going. Who knows what other surprises this island might have for us," Beth said, sounding like she had a bad feeling about the island in general.
Not that Charlie could disagree with her. It just felt like they shouldn't be on the island. Or at least not yet. What that was about, she couldn't say, but with her flame in her hand, she could see the ground better and didn't like how far down it looked like the clear substance went. She was pretty sure she could fit a fifty-foot ladder down it and still not reach the bottom of what she saw.
Whatever this stuff was, there was a lot of it. Charlie couldn't say if that was a good thing or bad at the moment. Though, it did feel almost like she knew something that would have been better left unknown. Or at least for the moment. It didn't seem like the kind of thing that she should know right now for some reason.
As she turned to head towards the exit of the cave with her friends, she shook her head, trying to dispel the sensation that she was learning too much too early from herself. She didn't know what it was about, but certainly didn't like it. It was giving her an unsettled feeling in her stomach and she couldn't say what it was about.
However, as they returned to the gate, Charlie began to realize her friends were a lot more subdued themselves as they walked along. There wasn't as much conversation, no music playing, and no one pushing to read more of the book they were on. It almost felt like her friends might have experienced what she had in that cave.
She couldn't say for sure without looking into their minds, but even if she hadn't decided to not do that without her friends' permission, she didn't care to know right now. It didn't seem important and she was starting to feel rather tired herself and part of her wondered if maybe that was why Beth was directing them back to the mountain world. Because she was feeling tired and needed everyone to return so they could all get to sleep and continue on with the expedition in the morning.
Which when it came, Charlie was surprised to find how much better she felt than she had for the past few days. She had tried touching the rocks to see if her magic just felt low, but that didn't seem to be the case. Though, her friends still didn't care for the fact that she was the last one to wake up again of their group. Charlie was getting the feeling that they weren't happy with how much she'd been sleeping.
Though, whether they were getting upset with her or if they were merely worried about her, she couldn't say. She just got the sense that they weren't happy with her about it. Not that she could really do anything about it. She'd always just slept longer than what she'd gotten the sense her friends did. Not that it had been as apparent before this expedition, as whenever Charlie had slept over at one of her friends' houses, rare as that was, she tended to get up closer to when they got up. She just merely took a nap later in the day to make up for the loss of sleep.
So, on this expedition, she never got the chance for the nap, so she tended to sleep later and that seemed to be getting on the nerves of her friends. Not that she tried to broach the subject herself. If they didn't want to mention it, then she wasn't going to either. After all, the only reason she knew for sure that it seemed to be a problem was because of catching stray thoughts on occasion that she couldn't stop herself from hearing.
She'd gotten good at not hearing the thoughts of anyone she didn't want to, but sometimes she just couldn't avoid it. No matter how much she really didn't like it when it happened.
"Look, there's a palm tree with several coconuts on it!" Wes cried as they reached the gate.
"Yeah, your powers of observation boggle the mind," Beth remarked sarcastically.
"You're just jealous because I can spot the obvious better than you!" Wes replied.
"Not sure that's something to be so proud of," Hannah chimed in.
"Whatever," Wes said, sounding pretty annoyed. "I'll just get the coconuts and we can head out."
"Don't stay too long," Amelia said as she walked through the gate.
Charlie followed quickly after, but she wasn't sure whether or not she really shouldn't have helped Wes. Partly because while coconut wasn't her favorite food, it was at least something she hadn't had in a while and it would be nice to have something different from what they'd been having.
However, she hadn't been able to let go of her hostility towards Wes for his comment from the day before, so she pushed the matter out of her mind. Maybe she'd be able to let it go eventually, but right now her feelings were still rather tender.
Charlie quickly made her way to her tent and laid on her sleeping bag, wanting to go to sleep, if only for a nap, but feeling rather restless at the same time. She didn't know what the reason for being in this position.
"What do you think you're doing?" Beth asked Charlie with a smirk on her face.
Charlie looked up and scowled at Beth halfheartedly. "I was thinking of taking a nap," Charlie answered. "Why?"
"I was wondering if you'd like to go for a walk. We won't go very far, but it'll let us to talk for a minute without the others overhearing us," Beth said.
Charlie sighed. She really didn't want to, but she couldn't help but wonder what Beth wanted to talk with her about. Especially since she was still feeling restless. Maybe if she walked with Beth that feeling would go away.
"Alright," Charlie said, as she got up.
Charlie then followed Beth walking a distance out, away from their campsite. The sun was setting, but there was still plenty of light and the temperature wasn't too cold at the moment.
As they walked, Charlie couldn't help but feel like they were almost back on Earth, by where they lived, where they would walk together, usually when it was from School to her home. It felt so nostalgic that she felt a little surprised that she didn't have a backpack on with her school books and homework.
"What were you thinking when we entered the cave on that island?" Beth asked after they'd been walking quietly next to each other for a few minutes.
Charlie couldn't help but be surprised. She hadn't thought anyone had paid attention to her when they'd reached the cave.
Charlie had to essentially reboot her brain in order to get it from spasming like a muscle that couldn't stop twitching. She took a deep breath as she did so, wanting to make sure that her words would actually make sense when she let them come out.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "I didn't think anyone was paying attention to me then."
"Oh, I noticed. I just didn't say anything," Beth answered casually. "Though, I did wonder why you fell behind anyone else."
"Uh, well…" Charlie hesitated. While she trusted Beth and couldn't think of why she shouldn't trust her with this, she also wasn't sure if she wanted to really admit it to herself at the moment. However, she couldn't come up with a reason to resist, so she sighed. "Yeah, when I was going in the cave, I couldn't help but feel like I was there too soon."
"What? What do you mean 'too soon?'" Beth asked, surprise clear in her voice.
Charlie shook her head. "I have no idea," Charlie admitted. "I don't know why and I have no idea where it came from. It just felt like there was a reason for me to be there, but it wasn't time yet, I guess."
Beth nodded calmly. "Well, let me know if you figure out what that reason is when you do, okay?" she asked. "We can figure out any other details then, alright?"
Charlie nodded, uncertain if she'd be able to do that. If she did leave the group, even if it was just to remove Beth from being an element in the scene in her dream, then she might not be around Beth when it was 'time' to do whatever she may or may not be supposed to do in that cave.
After that, the conversation shifted to casual subjects, ones that Charlie had no problem with joining in on, as they didn't have any real significance to her. Though, it did help her relax and let her worries about that feeling disperse. Then by the time they returned to the camp, Charlie had lost the restless feeling and was ready for a nap, if not to go to bed for the rest of the night.
Yet, it was about then that Amelia wanted to continue with their reading. Which Charlie recognized that she wouldn't really have a choice in opting out. Which was something she'd already resigned herself to since they'd started. None of the arguments that she'd come up with had had any effect.
Not that the reading lasted that long. It was actually Amelia who first started to fall asleep, though she still wanted to continue reading. However, Wes, Tim, and Hannah overruled her on calling an early ending to their reading that night.
Over the next three days, Charlie found that she felt more relaxed than she had since they'd left the elven world and she couldn't think what the reason was. She was happy that she felt that way, but couldn't be sure that it would last.
As they got closer to the next gate, Charlie also couldn't help but feel like something was going to happen. How she knew that, she couldn't say, and so didn't want to say anything, just in case nothing actually happened. She was sure that it would only encourage the teasing from her friends about the 'spore incident,' as Charlie thought about it.
Part of her wondered if it was merely the fact that something had pretty much happened to them on each world they'd come to, so not having anything happen on this world might just be making her feel like something was going to happen when they least expected it. Just like it so many different movies. Where the main characters thought they were safe only to find that they were the moment they let their guard down.
When the gate came into sight, they almost missed it. Partly because it required a little bit of a winding path along a small cliff, that was about ten feet high, that had them backtrack a little on the path that they'd taken. Even Tim had been a little confused at it.
Then at the edge of a cul-de-sac, the gate could be seen. Charlie was wondering what surprises the next world would hold for them and couldn't help but wonder if there would be a world in which they wouldn't be able to enter, such as because of toxic gases and other inhospitable environments. Although, she also couldn't help but wonder what they could do to avoid ending up dead from such worlds just from taking a look. Especially since they weren't likely to be able to tell until they went through themselves.
Or at least in most cases, Charlie thought to herself, recalling how the oxygen had come through the gate into this world from the elven world, which made her wonder if other worlds might have similar features.
Yet, studying the gates would have to wait until they had completed their objective for this expedition. Which was to get the crystal that contained Petals' memories of being Alairna back. Which would be at the bottom of the griffin canyon.
When they reached the gate, they didn't go through immediately. Instead, they had a quick lunch, with the sun high in the sky, where Charlie allowed herself to have fun with her friends discussing their favorite parts of the worlds they'd come across so far. Their lunch didn't last long, but Charlie couldn't help but feel it lasted longer than it should have, which she was happy about.
Then as they filed through the gate, Charlie suddenly felt a stab of homesickness. Why she suddenly felt that way, she had no idea, but she suddenly found herself thinking about the things with her family that she missed the most. Even the things that drove her crazy.
It was almost like she was struggling to hold herself together. Not that she had any idea why that would be the case at the moment. After all, she'd always been fine by herself, so why should she worry about being away from her family for so long, when she'd expected that it would take a while?
However, as she passed through the gate, the second thing she realized was that she could pick up the sensation of an item she'd used as a focus. It was incredibly faint, to the point that she couldn't tell which direction it was in, but it was clear that it was on this world. Which meant that they'd somehow stumbled on the world that had the griffin canyon a lot sooner than she'd expected to.