by S.J. Drew
night/but it's easy to hold back/if you have a bright light.'"
Leah pulled a large, heavy hand-held flashlight out of the emergency kit. "This one is for hiking and fishing. It should do the trick."
"'The Shadow will lie/and twist what you say/do not take its bait/do not be lead astray. The old wounds have not healed/the Shadow is still weak/while resting in its cave/its blood flows like ink. With a fluid dream-like form/words hold it to the page/recite and write/and make a paper cage. Any words will do/at least that's a theory/whatever comes to mind/once upon a midnight dreary. Leave the cage of verse/it should never get free/but the future is wibbly-wobbly/so don't quoth me. All this is not in vain/or jumping through hoops/you hold Time's Arrow/and will close the loop.'" The king then rolled up the scroll. "That's the prophecy, all written in human, and all rhyming. Any thoughts?"
The band was silent for several minutes.
"Wibbly-wobbly?" Leah repeated. "It seriously says 'wibbly-wobbly?'"
"Yes. I have no idea what that means."
"Of course not! No one says that! Well, except the Doctor, but no one really says that."
"It's all garbage," Nora said irritably.
"I had a thought," Maryann said, ignoring Nora. "Did any of you ever keep a dream journal?"
"No," Isabella answered.
"Never bothered," Nora said.
"I tried, but none of the dream symbolism I could find ever explained what a green cargo van with orange flower decals was supposed to mean, so I gave up," Leah replied.
"Well, I still keep one. And whenever I wake up and try to write my dreams down, it's kind of this jumbled mess. There are so many things I'm trying to get down at once, but I'm sure I never write it all down. I write it all down so I can remember it, but if I didn't write everything down, then my memory becomes what I wrote, right?"
Nora just shook her head. Leah looked confused.
Isabella did too, but then she nodded. "I understand. Whatever you were dreaming is reduced to what you can write down before you forget it. Then when you re-read your entries, your memory of the dream is influenced by what you wrote down. So in a way, you're trapping the dream."
"Great. One mystery solved," Nora said acidly.
"That will hopefully be enough," the king said. "The third star is turning violet. You need to go now to the cave of Shadows."
"What? But-but we haven't figured out what to do," Maryann protested.
"I'm sorry; you'll figure it out as you go. You must leave now or you will not reach the cave in time," he said.
"We don't even know where this cave is," Isabella said.
"I will lead you. I cannot fight, though, but I will try to wait for you so I can lead you back here. These woods are not safe for those who do not know the paths."
"We aren't ready for this," Nora warned.
"I don't think we have a choice," Isabella countered.
"We always have a choice," she shot back.
"Please, let's just go and try to help the greenlings," Maryann said.
"I'm not going to get myself killed fighting a dream monster!"
"I don't think that will happen," the king said. "Words shape the world, and these words say you are victorious."
"I'm not going to bet my life on that!"
"Nora, please, we can't just leave them," Maryann pleaded.
Nora was about to protest, but then she sighed. "Fine. I don't like it, and I think it's stupid, but it's not the craziest thing we've gone through, and they do need help."
"Many thanks," the king said.
"Don't thank us until we've won," she replied wryly.
"Can I copy that prophecy before we leave?" Maryann asked. "We haven't figured out all the clues yet. We might need the prophecy again to figure it out."
"I-I don't know. No one has ever asked such a thing." He paced back and forth for a few minutes. "Very well. I will recite it again, and you write it down," he said. Maryann dutifully copied down the entire prophecy. When he finished, he returned the scroll to its box and hid it away. "Since you cannot fly, I'll return you to the ground and you can walk to the cave."
"That is fine by me. Take me back down first."
"Very well." The king took Nora's finger and pulled her into the air, then guided her back down to the ground, for which she was very grateful. As soon as she landed by the stump, greenlings started to peek out of their houses. By the time all four were on the ground, they were surrounded by a crowd of curious and somewhat frightened creatures. The king addressed his people and they clapped and cheered, then sobered as he continued to speak. Finally the fell silent, and then the crowd opened a path the band was clearly meant to follow. "Let us go," the king said, flying in front of the band. He lead them by a twisting path and soon they were in the forest proper and the Hidden Hollow was nowhere in sight.
"This place felt unfriendly when we got here," Isabella said in a hushed tone. "Now it feels outright hostile."
"These woods are not safe for those that do not know the paths. But they are not always safe for those that do," the king said.
What little sunlight reached through the canopy seemed to fade and the forest grew dark. The band members started to have trouble walking through the tangled undergrowth. Maryann tripped and landed awkwardly.
"You cannot see in darkness?" the king asked as Isabella helped Maryann stand up.
"No, we can't. Is it safe to pull out a flashlight?" Leah asked.
"It may help ease our passage," he answered.
She pulled the flashlight out of the emergency kit and aimed it mostly towards the ground so they could see the treacherous roots and vines.
"What wondrous magic," the king remarked. They said nothing else until they abruptly came up against a sheer cliff face. It was covered in unhealthy black vines. "This is the cave of darkness," he said in a whisper, pointing to some loose vines that were moving as though by a breeze. "I dare not go further. You should call upon wind, water, and Earth, I think, before you enter the cave."
"I really don't know how," Maryann replied.
Isabella snapped her fingers. "Now I get it! You don't have to. We're already with you."
"Please be explaining," Leah said.
"The queen fought this thing with fire, wind, water, and Earth. The champion with a soul like fire is supposed to fight with wind, water, and Earth. That's us. Maryann's fire, Leah is Earth, Nora is water, and I'm the wind."
"Oh, the four elements!" Maryann said.
"You know there are more than one hundred elements, technically," Leah countered.
She sighed. "Magical elements in the Western tradition. But that means part of the prophecy is already true! That's a good sign, right?"
A bone-chilling wind blew out of the cave with a dreadful moaning sound. They shivered as their costumes were not really meant for cold weather.
"You had to say it," Nora said acidly.
"She always says it," Leah agreed.
"Give me the flashlight," Maryann said firmly. "I'm the champion so I'm going to lead. Earth, wind, and water are supposed to be at my back."
"Hey, you won't get any argument from me," Leah said. "Of course, in horror movies, the person in the back is sometimes picked off first."
"I'll be in the back," Isabella interjected. "Maryann, if we're going to do this thing, let's do it."
The redhead straightened her spine and stepped past the sickly ivy. The others followed with less confidence but no less speed. The cave was cold but dry and aside from the initial blast of wind, it was completely still. The other three pulled small flashlights out of their purses.
"I really should get a head-lamp or something," Leah thought.
The floor of the cave was smooth and the ceiling was about twenty feet high. There were no stalactites or stalagmites. It was more like a winding tunnel than any cave they'd ever seen. As they walked, they could see drops of a black liquid on the floor. The furthe
r they progressed, the drops changed to puddles, and the puddles changed to a thin river. The cave, or tunnel, terminated in a huge, roundish room. Coiled up inside was an enormous black snake creature. Its green eyes with slit pupils were as large as a human. It seemed to be constantly moving and coiling around itself. But for all its great size, it did not appear to like the light very much. The eyes blinked and the massive head shot towards the band but stopped a few feet away before they could even react.
"So," it said in an oily, hissing, and slightly echoing voice. "You have returned."
"What? We've never been here before," Maryann said.
The eyes blinked. "You think not? Then you do not know. Interesting, for one supposedly a champion. I have read your prophecy and it is full of nonsense. It is nothing more than empty words and signifies nothing. Have you any idea how to defeat me? Have you any idea of my capabilities? You come not with magic but with vague notions of an ill-defined victory."
"We aren't listening to you," Maryann said defiantly. "You lie."
"Lie? I can lie, and I can tell the truth. I know all that is written down so surely you can see I know much more than you do. And I know right now you have no idea how to defeat me. I am gathering my strength and soon I will devour you and the Hidden Hollow."
"What do you have against the greenlings?" she demanded.
"Is that what you call them? It matters not. They are small, and in my way, and they dared to fight me."
"They kind of won, you know," Leah said snidely.
"For a time. I am patient. And now the queen who defeated me before is not here and you four are here again to try to defeat me
