Anne and I were spit out of the rock.
“Augh!” Anne complained. “I swear, they should make this more comfortable!”
“Who?” I asked.
“The...the....you know...whoever made this!” She finally decided. I laughed.
“Who did make this?” I wondered. “Someone magic? Or did the magic make it on its own?” Anne and I got up.
“We should probably hurry.” Anne sighed. “We really do need to rush.” Rush, rush, rush. The word echoed around us.
“I never noticed any echos before!” Anne puzzled, before yelling, “Echo!” The word did not echo. I could still hear the Rush, rush, rush around us. It got louder.
“Aren’t echoes s’posed to get quieter?” Anne quipped. I looked around in fear. I looked at the ground.
“Anne, look.” The ground, some grass and dirt had cracks spreading across it. Small cracks. I stepped back, so did Anne. The cracks spread wider, into one big crack, until it was about three feet wide, and a foot deep.
“What the-?” I gasped. Then, with the rush, rush, rush around us, I heard the rushing of water. Water suddenly tumbled through the crack, which I could now see stretched around the boulder one way and around some trees the other.The water tumbled through, slowing down into a soft rush. Rush.
“Did you hear all those ‘rushes’? I swear-” After Anne said rush a second time, I heard the Rush, rush, rush again. Another wave of water came through, and I prepared for the brooke to overflow, but it didn’t. Instead, now there were rocks at the bottom. Magic stones.
“Anne! These are some of the stones!” I exclaimed. “We...we got more!”
Anne’s excited face turned into hesitation.
“Kate, people might see these! We have to put them in the vault!” Anne said. “It’s...it’s our job.” We collected the stones, there were about fifteen in each of our dresses. We stood against the rock and shouted ‘other stones’. We laid the stones with the others. We then exited quickly and ran home.
“We made it! Undetected!” Anne celebrated. “Oh yeah!” I laughed.
“Yeah, if our parents didn’t see us!” We walked around the village to the path to Marcus’s, turned around, and walked down the path to Marcus’s.
“Can’t we just go back now?” Anne complained. “I’m tired.”
“Hold on, I just need to check one thing.” I reassured her. I ran in.
“Hi, Marcus!” I greeted the new store owner. “Um, weird question, how much are your rings?”
“Well, glad you stopped by. It depends on what kind of stone you want-”
“No, sorry, I meant just the metal part.” I corrected. “The band.” Marcus nodded.
“Well, I’m not technically in business until tomorrow, but the bands are two pigs.”
“What? Marksmurk had it at only a chicken!” I complained. Marcus’s eyes narrowed. He obviously didn’t like to be compared to the previous jewelry maker.
“Well, I’m sorry.” He sniffed, rather rudely. “If it’s so easy, why don’t you make one yourself?” “Maybe I will, so I don’t have to pay two pigs for some metal shaped in a circle!” I shot back. “And for the record, Marksmurk was better!” I hated rude salespeople. “Come on, Anne! Let’s go!” Anne and I marched out. Anne and I walked home, kind of slowly.
“Well, this is kind of bad.” I sighed.
“Yeah, and for two reasons! One, we don’t get jewelry, and two, we need to find a new excuse for going back in the forest.” Anne conceded. I agreed.
“We’ll find a way.” I said. “I promise.”