The Magical Secret of the Crystal Kingdom

Chapter 2 - The Discovery

"This is going to be such a cool holiday isn't it Rose" said George. Rose looked at her brother and looked back at the house. She definitely wanted to have a cool holiday but she also knew that this was a good chance for her to find out more about her parents. She knew that George wanted to help her with that too. But now was not the time to remind him, they would have a chance to find out as much as possible after the initial excitement had calmed down. For now she was just happy to be there with her friends and family. Instead she just said "Yes George, this is going to be a very cool holiday."

They were full of excitement as they walked into the thick woods. Rose walked a little slower than the others and was listening out for any wildlife. They were probably making too much noise for any of the animals to come close but she hoped they would spot something.

"I wonder what we'll find" said George.

"I hope we find treasure" shouted Alex.

"This is so exciting" Ruby cried.

After a while the pathway started to branch in different directions and they decided to walk away from the path and just go as deep as they could into the woods. That's where they found the cave.

At first they just stood there staring wondering if they should go inside.

"Who wants to go first?" Issy asked. They all looked around. Suddenly it seemed a bit different, maybe even a bit scary. What would they find in there?

"Oh come on you scaredy cats" laughed Issy. "This is England you know. There won't be anything scary. Let's go." Issy ran into the cave and the others followed, albeit with a bit less enthusiasm but once they were inside they realised they had nothing to worry about. The cave was large and spacious and surprisingly light as their eyes adjusted. Actually once they had been in there for about five minutes they were a bit bored and were ready to head back when suddenly Rose let out a cry.

"Guys, I think I've found something. Come and look." She was standing over a patch of earth that to the others looked just the same as the rest of the ground around it. "I can see something glowing under there. Look." The others looked at her and shrugged trying not to giggle. They were used to some of the stranger things that Rose came out with. They crouched down and started scraping the earth around it and before long they could see that there was something there after all. It was actually some kind of dark, sparkly crystal.

"Wow, it's amazing. It's beautiful, look at it sparkling" Violet gasped. "What is it do you think?"

"It's some kind of crystal and it's really heavy" Alex replied as he dug it out and lifted it up.

"I wonder where it came from" said Issy.

"I wonder if it has any special powers" said Callum.

"I wonder how long it's been here" said Ruby as they all excitedly talked over each other.

"I wonder if there's any more" George said suddenly. They all stopped talking, looked at each other and dropped to their knees, digging in the ground. One by one they started calling out as they found more and more crystals. All different colours and shapes, all beautiful in their own right.

They gathered them all up and counted eight in total. The large black one and seven smaller ones of all different colours. They decided to take one each. One was a deep red which they gave to Ruby. There was a blue-green one that went to Alex. A beautiful pink stone went to Rose. Callum took a greenish stone and a purplish stone appropriately went to Violet. George's one was dark purple and finally a dark blue stone went to Issy.

"I wonder what's making them glow like that" said Rose. The others looked at her.

"What do you mean 'glowing'?" asked Issy.

"Can't you see them glowing?"

"No, they're not glowing Rose" Issy replied and they all giggled a bit this time, they couldn't help it, Rose had such a vivid imagination.

The thing is, they really were glowing. It was just that the others couldn't see it. Only Rose was able to see them coming alive. What she couldn't see was that on top of her head her tiara had also lit up. It shone so brightly but none of the others could see that either, nestled into her thick blonde hair. They had all fallen very quiet for a few minutes as they sat there examining the beautiful treasure that they had found. They all agreed that they would keep what they had discovered a secret from their parents for now and that they would hide the crystals once they got back to the house.

"We should hide the black crystal somewhere in the garden" Alex suggested. They all nodded and started walking back towards the house to clean themselves up ready for dinner.

Once back at the house it didn't take them long to clean up and they headed out into the garden for their first feast of the holiday. They had such a great time and ate their weight in jacket potatoes, burgers and marshmallows. Anthony decided to give them all a great history of the area and all of the adventures and activities they had in store for them. He explained that the woods were full of lovely animals and wildlife but that it was perfectly safe. They would spend lots of time exploring and that there were many interesting things all around the area and even some caves that they could explore. The children exchanged excited glances. Anthony continued by explaining that there had been many rumours over the years that the woods were magical and although that was an exciting thought, there had never been any evidence of this.

There was something in the way he said this that made Rose think twice. It was almost as though he did believe it was magical but didn't want them to know. After Anthony had finished his story he told the children that they had a busy day planned tomorrow and to make sure that they got plenty of sleep that night.

"I know you guys will be excited to be sleeping out in the garden in your tents and sleeping bags but please be sensible and don't make too much noise" said Alice. The children all looked sheepish and they laughed. After they'd cleared everything away and got ready for bed they said goodnight to their parents and went outside and got into their sleeping bags. Rose was certain that none of the adults had seen them hiding the black crystal earlier. Did they know they had found them? No, that was silly, there was no way they could have known at all. It had been a long day and although they spent a few minutes talking among themselves and looking at their precious stones it wasn't long before they all fell asleep.

Now that would have been the end of it under normal circumstances; if this was just a normal wood that they had walked through; and if they had just found a normal cave with normal crystals. But the truth was it was not a normal wood, it was not a normal cave and the crystals they had found most certainly were not just any old crystals. In fact as the children lay there sleeping and the night moved on into the quietest hour, when the only sounds that could be heard were the rustling of the trees and the creatures scampering around who lived in them, something amazing started to happen. A soft glow started to appear from a corner of the garden. It was coming from the black crystal. It started off very small and barely noticeable at first but soon there could be no mistaking the light coming from it and it was growing bigger and bigger by the minute; until soon it covered the whole garden and engulfed all of the children in its soft white light.

One by one each of the crystals inside the children's sleeping bags started to glow and a light matching the colour of each crystal surrounded the children.

Gradually, inside each light the shape of different animals started to appear. First an eagle unmistakably appeared above Violet's sleeping bag, followed by a butterfly above Alex's. Next a dolphin was clearly visible above Ruby. A deer over Issy and a duck above Callum. Finally a dragon appeared above George and a horse above Rose. The animals were fully formed and were the same colour as the light from each of the crystals. The animals began to merge with each of the children, entwined into the beam of light from the black crystal and gradually the animals started floating one by one up into the sky inside the beam of light.

Aroundthe garden the light faded and the children stillappeared to be laying there sleeping but atthe same time they were being carried off, each oneof them inside a fantastic animal speeding up through a tunnel of light,heading into the unknown.