While Merlynna gazed at the glowing shard in bed, wondering what it could be, Little Johnny was up a tree in his back garden once again. This time he wasn't waiting for Mr Scarlett to leave his home but for his return. Little Johnny hadn't seen the mysterious man since he had been thrown off the carriage the other night.
'Had something happened to him?' Little Johnny asked himself. 'Something bad, perhaps? Had he met his demise at the hands of this Shadow that he mentioned? Or maybe he was captured by them and needs help.'
If Mr Scarlett does, could he come to his rescue, Little Johnny wondered. But how? What could he do? Unless he could find something useful below the fountain. Maybe there was a secret superhero lair down there.
Little Johnny didn't think about it for long. He was going to check it out.
But first, he needed a disguise, something to hide his face if he were to run into anything, someone.
Across the branch he walked and through a window to his bedroom he climbed, the place void of anything that would hint that it was a child's bedroom. Little Johnny then leapt over his bed to his closet as the faint sounds of his foster parents sleeping crept through the crack under the door.
Little Johnny wondered if they would believe him if he told them about his suspicions about Mr Scarlett.
He chuckled at the thought.
Definitely not. They probably wouldn't even care. Probably wouldn't even notice that he was talking to them.
Little Johnny riffled through his clothes until he found what he was looking for, the hideous coat that had been in his closet ever since he had come to live with his foster parents. Made of thick wool that had turned brown with age, it looked like some sort of matted creature or some gnarly dead brush.
He had never worn it before, and never thought he would, but it had a baggy hood.
He quickly draped the coat over him, it smelling as if something had died inside, before covering his head. He then climbed through his window again and back onto the tree, where a branch as tall as him and as thick as his arm took his fancy.
'I may need something to defend myself if I get into trouble,' Little Johnny whispered before grabbing the branch and breaking it off. 'Excellent. A staff.'
He gave it a try too, showing off his gymnastic baton twirling skills to the owl that was perched nearby. With a thrust, he shot the staff over his head and began spinning it around and around. First with two hands and then with one.
'Brilliant,' Little Johnny said as he stared up in awe at the twirling blur before bringing the staff down and doing the same in front of him. Then with a snap, he stopped and finished off with a few lunges and sweeps.
The owl hooted at the display.
'Thank you,' Little Johnny responded as he eyed a delivery truck rolling down the street. 'And perfect timing.'
With a smile, he leapt down to the branch below, which was hanging over his fence and the sidewalk, and shuffled to the very end. And the moment the delivery truck ambled by beneath him, he jumped.
Through the air he plummeted until he hit the hood of the truck's trailer with a bang. The driver briefly stuck his head out at the noise but continued on and towards Mr Scarlett's gate. Once there, and as he turned the corner to travel down another street, Little Johnny leapt off, soared over the gate and down into Mr Scarlett's front garden.
'That was fun,' he mumbled. He gave another twirl of his staff before dashing around to the back and to the fountain. 'Now, what did Mr Scarlett do to make it go down.'
Little Johnny placed his staff on the grass and started feeling the wall of the fountain with his hands, searching for whatever activated its descent. A button, a toggle, a switch. Anything.
The wall was smooth against his skin until eventually he felt something, his fingers touching a tiny protruding knob.
'This must be it.' And with curiosity and fear, he gave it a press.
The flowing water stopped as it did the last time and before Little Johnny knew it, the fountain was moving.
'Here we go.' He took up his staff and jumped down into the fountain's pool.
And down he went, the hole above where the fountain had just been getting smaller and smaller.
But then, light beamed all around and the fountain shuddered to a stop.
Now Little Johnny was staring at an archway and down a tunnel emblazoned with flickering torches. It gave him the heebie-jeebies but it didn't deter him. He stepped out of the pool and crept forward.
The tunnel twisted and turned, dipped and crested, the air getting cooler. And it eventually came to an end, where what lay beyond made Little Johnny gasp.
'Whoa,' he breathed, gazing through another archway and into a large cave lit up by many more flickering torches.
Bows, arrows and swords hung from the walls, several carriages sat side by side, computer screens surrounded a chair in a corner and there was a huge table in the middle, its top a map and which many little figurines stood.
And as Little Johnny entered the cave, getting closer to the table, he saw that the models were men in cloaks, fairies and other creatures that did not exist. But there was one figurine that quickly stood out. It was of a boy and it was labeled with a name.
Arthur Hood.
Wondering who this boy could be, Little Johnny looked up and saw a light at the other end of the cave. It was shining down on something tucked inside a small cubby carved into the rock.
Curious, he walked around the table and crept over, soon bewildered at what he was looking at. It was a manky, skeletal quill.
'Was not expecting that,' Little Johnny mumbled, thinking he'd find something extremely valuable instead.
Despite it looking like some random feather one would find washed up on a beach, Little Johnny couldn't stop looking at it. In fact, he felt a draw to it and soon got the urge to pick it up. And that's what he did.
Now between his fingers, he brought it closer. But then suddenly, as if by magic, it did something strange. The quill began to fill out with barbs and vanes of the most vibrant of reds.
Little Johnny squinted and squinted, thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him, before the sound of turning wheels and neighs echoed down the tunnel and into the cave. The boy dropped down to the ground in terror, stuffed the feather into his coat and crawled under the table.
The noises grew louder until Little Johnny saw the lower half of a horse and a carriage, it soon stopping next to the other carriages before legs dropped to the floor.
It was Mr Scarlett.
Did he know someone was down here, wondered Little Johnny, who shook at the thought of getting caught?
Mr Scarlett meandered over to the computer screens and sat down, the electronics turning on instantly. There he stayed for ages, tapping away on a keyboard, and with Little Johnny unable to see what he was doing.
Now how was he supposed to get out of here undetected? And what if Mr Scarlett saw that his quill was missing.
Little Johnny contemplated just bolting out of the cave and into the tunnel, hoping that he could get back up through the hole, but then Mr Scarlett stood up and came over to the table, where he began shuffling the figurines around.
'Please don't notice the quill's missing,' Little Johnny prayed. 'Please don't notice the quill's missing.'
And his appeal was answered, for a voice soon blared out from one of the computer screens.
'Will,' it said, 'are you there?'
Mr Scarlett rushed over and replied, staring at the face of an old man that had now appeared on screen. 'Yes, I'm here, Lanzo.'
'The Shadow draws near to Arthur.'
'I'll be there as quickly as I can.'
'Safe travels.'
The old man disappeared and Mr Scarlett bolted over to the carriage. 'Sorry, Papplewick, but we must be off again.'
The horse neighed and the carriage was soon mounted once more. It then began to move, heading out of the archway and back into the tunnel.
With speed, Little Johnny bounded from under the table, caught up with the vehicle and jumped on its back.