Journey to the Crystal Cave Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Hide-and-Seek

  Chapter 2: A Light in the Dark

  Chapter 3: Now You See It, Now You Don’t

  Chapter 4: Mrs. Mouse’s Good Advice

  Chapter 5: Search Party

  Chapter 6: Believe It or Not

  Chapter 7: Which Way?

  Chapter 8: A Missing Explorer

  Chapter 9: Don’t Mind My Manners

  Chapter 10: The Secret Crystal Cave

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Hide-and-Seek

  “Ready or not, here I come!” Sophie shouted.

  She opened her eyes and looked around. Owen and Hattie were gone. The three friends were playing hide-and-seek by Owen’s house. Sophie was the seeker.

  She listened for a rustle of leaves or a snap of a twig. She sniffed the air. Really, though, she didn’t need any clues. There were only two good hiding places in Owen’s yard.

  First, Sophie checked inside the hollow log. It was a tight squeeze for Hattie or herself, but Owen fit easily.

  Sophie peered inside. “Found you!” she cried.

  Owen wriggled out. “Aww,” he moaned. “That was quick.”

  Next Sophie scurried over to a baby fir tree. Hattie was pretty well camouflaged by the needles. But Sophie could see her shoes.

  “Hi, Hattie,” Sophie said casually.

  Hattie sighed and climbed out of the tree. “We need a new place to play this game,” she said.

  “Yes,” Sophie agreed. “Somewhere we don’t know as well. With different places to hide!”

  “Like where?” Owen asked.

  The three of them were quiet as they thought it over.

  A picture popped into Sophie’s mind. Lots of large evergreen trees grew along a brook. The lower branches arched down to the ground, creating sheltered areas underneath.

  “How about Butterfly Brook?” Sophie suggested.

  “Oh yeah!” Owen cried.

  Hattie agreed. “All those little hideaways!” she exclaimed. “They’ll be great for hiding!”

  Owen ran inside to tell his mom where they were going. Then they set off together for Butterfly Brook.

  They took their time getting there, stopping off at fun places along the way. They played on the rope swing at the playground by Sophie’s house. They took a few rides down Birch Tree Slide.

  By the time they arrived at the brook, Sophie was eager to start a new round of hide-and-seek. “Who wants to be ‘it’?” she asked.

  “I got found first last time,” Owen said, sounding a little mopey. “So I guess it’s me this time.”

  “Okay,” Hattie agreed. “How far can we go to hide? What are the boundaries?”

  Hattie liked to have all the rules spelled out clearly.

  Sophie shrugged. “Don’t go out of earshot?” she suggested. “That way, if Owen can’t find us, he can call us to come out.”

  Owen nodded. He sat down on a piece of driftwood. “Okay!” he said, closing his eyes. “I’m starting to count! One, two, three . . .”

  Hattie raced off toward the trees. Sophie scampered upstream, filled with a sense of adventure.

  She was determined to find the best hiding spot ever!

  A Light in the Dark

  Sophie came to an area where several large rocks rose from the water. She hopped from one to the next to cross the brook.

  Then Sophie dashed into the trees.

  Her eyes darted around frantically, looking for a good hiding spot.

  She noticed a cluster of large mushrooms. Sophie managed to squeeze herself underneath one of them. She sat there, motionless, for a few minutes.

  This is good, she told herself. I think. Though maybe I should have gone a little farther. Nah. I bet Owen won’t cross the brook right away.

  She was quiet and still for another minute.

  I wonder if he can see my feet from far away, she thought.

  The minutes passed. Sophie got more and more restless.

  I need a better spot! she decided suddenly.

  She crawled out from under the mushroom and scurried off.

  Sophie stopped for a moment by a tangle of tree roots. Not enough cover, she decided—and kept on going.

  She came to a dense thicket of brambleberry.

  Ow! she thought, trying to crawl in. Too prickly. There was no way she was hiding in there.

  So Sophie kept looking, changing direction a few times.

  At last, she saw a large rock formation. Hmm, she thought, hurrying closer. She walked around one side, only to find an opening.

  Sophie peered inside. It was a cave! Or maybe a tunnel?

  Perfect! Sophie decided as she stepped inside. It’s so dark. Even if Owen looks in here, he won’t be able to see me.

  A few steps in, Sophie could barely see where she was going. She used her hands to feel her way along the craggy wall. She stretched one foot forward carefully before taking each step.

  Just a few more, Sophie told herself. Owen will never come this far in.

  Then, strangely, the way ahead started to get . . . lighter. And . . . brighter.

  At first Sophie thought she was imagining it.

  But no. There was a purple glow coming from inside the cave. Now Sophie could make out the outlines of the rocks. Up ahead, the path curved to the left. The source of the glowing light was somewhere around the bend.

  The light grew brighter with each step, until—

  “So-phie . . .”

  Her name echoed faintly off the cave walls. Sophie turned around. It sounded like Owen and Hattie, calling out together. But they sounded so far away.

  Sophie was torn. She wanted to see where the light was coming from. But she also didn’t want her friends to worry.

  She knew she had to go.

  Sophie backtracked to the cave entrance. Out in the sunlight, she blinked as her eyes adjusted. Hattie and Owen were nowhere to be seen.

  Sophie called out as loudly as she could. “Owen? Hattie? Where are you?”

  Now You See It, Now You Don’t

  Sophie walked and walked, following the sound of Hattie’s and Owen’s voices. Their calls were louder now. They sounded closer. Sophie kept expecting to find her friends around the next tree.

  “I’m here!” she called. “Hello?”

  “We’re over here! Walk this way!” came Owen’s voice.

  Which way?

  It felt to Sophie as if they were all walking in circles around one another. Finally, Sophie poked her head around a stump and there they were!

  “Sophie!” Owen cried. “We’ve been looking all over for you!”

  “You definitely win,” Hattie told Sophie. “Owen found me almost right away. Wherever you were, you were really hidden!”

  Sophie smiled mischievously. “I was,” she said. “I’ll show you.”

  Usually, Sophie would keep a winning hiding place a secret. That way, she could use it again the next time they came to play. But the cave was too special. She had to show it to her friends.

  Maybe we can find out where that glow is coming from, Sophie thought.

  Sophie turned and led them through the woods. Then she stopped and looked around. “I thought this was the way,” she said. “But . . . now I’m not sure.”

  She walked on slowly. Did this look familiar? In her quest to find Hattie and Owen, she had been using her ears to follow their voices. She hadn’t paid attention to landmarks.

  Sophie saw a wall of rocks up ahead. “Oh! Here it is!” she cried.

  She rushed over. But there was no cave opening.

  “Huh,” said Sophie. “That’s funny. I could have sworn this was it.”

  �
��What?” Owen asked.

  “The cave!” Sophie replied. “The cave where I hid.” She walked the full length of the rock wall. “But it’s definitely not here.”

  Hattie shrugged. “Maybe this isn’t the right rock wall,” she said. “There are a lot of them around, especially closer to the brook.”

  They walked on and kept looking.

  Along the way, they found a few more rocky groupings.

  But no cave.

  Sophie sighed. “I have no idea where it is,” she admitted.

  Eventually, they heard rushing water. They followed it and came out of the woods on the bank of the brook.

  By now, the sun was sinking lower in the sky. The autumn days were getting shorter. Sophie knew she should head home for dinner.

  “Oh, I wish we’d found it,” she moaned on the walk home. “It wasn’t just the cave I wanted to show you. There was something inside—something glowing!”

  “Glowing?” Hattie said doubtfully.

  “Really!” Sophie cried. “Not like a firefly kind of glow. It was different—like a purple light.” Sophie sighed heavily. “But I didn’t get a chance to see what was making it. Maybe I never will.”

  Mrs. Mouse’s Good Advice

  Sophie got home just before her mother. Mrs. Mouse had worked a long, busy Saturday at her bakery in Pine Needle Grove.

  Mr. Mouse had dinner ready—a thick potato-parsnip-pumpkin stew. Sophie’s little brother, Winston, had set the table.

  Soon they were sitting down to dinner. They took turns sharing the events of their day. “Did you have fun with Owen and Hattie?” Mr. Mouse asked when it was Sophie’s turn to share.

  Sophie nodded. “We played hide-and-seek at Butterfly Brook.”

  Before she could mention the cave, Winston interrupted. “Aw! How come I couldn’t go too?”

  Mr. Mouse reminded Winston he got to go apple picking with James Rabbit and his family. But Winston was still jealous. He always complained that Sophie’s adventures were more exciting than his.

  After dinner, Winston cleared the table and Sophie washed dishes. Then she went up to her room. She propped up a blank canvas on her easel.

  She wanted to paint what she remembered of the cave.

  She mixed up a special shade of gray for the rock walls. For the shadows, she pulled out a black paint she made from black-eyed Susan seeds. And I’ll need hyacinth purple for the mysterious glowing light, Sophie decided.

  Ready to paint, Sophie opened her box of brushes. It was empty.

  Sophie remembered: She’d brought them to an art workshop at the library the other day. She’d packed them in her travel pouch.

  But where was the travel pouch?

  Sophie looked all over her room—on her desk, shelves, and nightstand. She checked under her bed, inside her satchel, and on top of her dresser. No luck.

  Sophie heard her mom’s voice in her head. Go to the last place you remember having it. Then retrace your steps. That’s what she always said when Sophie or Winston couldn’t find something.

  So Sophie went down to the front door. She knew she’d had the pouch on her walk home from the library. She remembered putting it down somewhere to take off her shoes. Sophie looked around the entryway.

  The pouch was nowhere to be seen.

  Sophie remembered she’d been hungry. She’d gone to the kitchen for a snack.

  Sophie checked the kitchen counter. No pouch.

  She had taken a snack plate down from the dish cabinet. So she checked the cabinet. The pouch wasn’t there, either.

  Then Sophie had opened the bread box to look for muffins. Now she peeked inside again.

  “Aha!” she cried.

  The pouch was there, behind the scones.

  Sophie smiled. Her mom’s trick was a good trick! It almost always worked for finding things.

  Halfway back up the stairs, Sophie stopped in her tracks.

  Could it work for finding the cave?

  Search Party

  The next morning, Sophie invited Winston to go with her to Butterfly Brook. She’d told him about the cave and her mission for today.

  “If I start from where we began the game,” Sophie said, “maybe I can retrace my steps to the cave!”

  Winston trotted along at Sophie’s side. “I’ve never been in a real cave before!” he said excitedly.

  Sophie hadn’t exactly told Winston what it was like inside. She thought it might scare him off. And she kind of wanted some company.

  I’ll warn him before we go in, she decided. If we even find it!

  At Butterfly Brook, Sophie marched straight over to the driftwood Owen had sat on.

  “Here’s where Owen was counting,” she told Winston. “From here, I went upstream and crossed the brook.”

  She led the way, showing Winston a good route to take across the rocks. On the other side, they went into the trees.

  Sophie pointed at the cluster of mushrooms. “I hid there at first,” she said.

  She passed the tangle of tree roots and the brambleberry thicket.

  Then, with Winston right behind her, Sophie came over a rise.

  There!

  Up ahead was the large rock formation. She knew right away. This was it.

  Sophie picked up her pace.

  “Wait for me!” Winston cried, trying to keep up.

  But Sophie reached the rocks first. She walked around the side and . . .

  “Look, Winston!” she cried.

  Winston caught up. He stood at Sophie’s side, peering into the cave.

  “You found it!” Winston exclaimed. Then he kept right on going, straight into the darkness. “What’s inside?”

  “Winston! Slow down!” Sophie called after him. “It’s hard to see in there!”

  Sophie went in after him, trying to catch up. She looked down to find solid footing. When she looked up again, Sophie could barely make out Winston’s shadowy form up ahead.

  “Winston!” she said. “Wait up!”

  Just then a high-pitched noise filled the cave.

  Sophie froze as it echoed off the rock walls.

  She heard Winston whimper. “What was that?” he whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Sophie whispered back. “But I think we better not go any farther—”

  Squeak! Squeak! Screeeeeech!

  That time, the sound seemed to come from right behind her. Sophie spun around.

  Squeak! Now it was by her ear. Sophie swatted at it, and then she tripped over a rock and fell.

  Squeak! Squeak! Screeeeeech!

  Winston tripped over Sophie and landed next to her.

  It seemed like the noise was all around them—all at once!

  Sophie got to her feet, then helped Winston up. Holding hands, they stumbled along the rocky path. Sunlight from the cave entrance lit the way forward until—finally!—they were outside.

  Sophie stood catching her breath, staring back into the cave.

  Winston looked at Sophie, his eyes wide with fright.

  “Sophie,” he said, “what was that?”

  Believe It or Not

  When is recess? Sophie wondered, watching the schoolhouse clock.

  It had been a busy Monday morning at Silverlake Elementary. Mrs. Wise had gone over the answers from Friday’s math quiz. She had led them through a science lab on different types of rocks. Then she’d handed out a new list of spelling words. Writing in their notebooks, students had to use each word in a sentence.

  All of Sophie’s sentences had something in common.

  Sophie was itching to talk to her friends! There had been no time to tell them her news before school started.

  When Mrs. Wise rang the bell for recess, Sophie practically jumped out of her seat.

  Outside, Sophie ran over to Hattie and Owen. They were starting a game of hopscotch with Ben and Ellie.

  “We found it!” she told them. “The cave! Winston and I found it yesterday!”

  “You did?” Owen replied.

  “
What was making that glowing light?” Hattie asked eagerly.

  Sophie’s whiskers drooped. “I don’t know,” she said. “We ran out of there as soon as we heard the shrieking.”

  Hattie and Owen stared at Sophie. Ben and Ellie, who were looking for good hopscotch rocks, turned to look at her too.

  “Shrieking?” cried Hattie in alarm.

  Sophie reconsidered. “Okay, maybe not shrieking, exactly,” she said. She described the high-pitched sound that had scared them out of the cave.

  “It was so startling!” she said. “Especially because we couldn’t see anything. So now there are two mysteries to solve in that cave!”

  Ellie threw her rock into the first square and started hopping. “Glowing and shrieking?” she said. “Are you sure you weren’t imagining that? The mind can play tricks, you know. Especially when you’re scared. And caves are spooky!”

  “And echoey,” Ben added. “Little noises sound bigger in caves.”

  Sophie frowned. Didn’t her friends believe her?

  “Well, I know what I saw and heard,” she insisted. “And I’m going to find out what’s in there.” She looked at Hattie and Owen. “You’ll come with me, right?”

  They didn’t answer right away. Owen looked at Hattie. Hattie shrugged.

  “Isn’t it more fun if it just stays a mystery?” Hattie tried.

  Sophie put her hands on her hips and shook her head no.

  Owen sighed. “All right. We’ll come.”

  “But,” said Hattie, putting up a hand, “this time, we’re going prepared.”