Mirandah didn’t speak all morning. Benny was whining of a stomach ache, and the boy was still unconscious. Mason slapped Benny and gave her a good talking to while Mirandah packed up the camping materials and put everything back into the wagon. Eventually they moved onwards. They made several more camps along the way, finally reaching their destination. Benny stopped, and pawed the ground.
   “Why did she stop?”
   “We must be ‘ere” Mason climbed down from her hay bale and snatched something from the boy’s neck. She stood in front of the donkey and held it up. It was a vial of green liquid. The liquid was thick, and blobbed rather than splashed, but it seemed to glow.
   “What on earth are you doing?” Mirandah said incredulous. Mason stretched her tiny body towards the sky, holding the necklace up as high as she could manage. Benny snorted in her face and she stepped back spitting. Mirandah found this amusing but knew better than to laugh, and was glad she held it in when Mason's hand cracked across Benny’s muzzle. Benny snorted a few more times and the two got into an argument. Mirandah turned to check on the boy. He was still unconscious, his body was limp. She loved this boy as much as she loved Philip. She loved him like he was their son. She felt a pang of guilt and pain at the sight of him and turned back to the feuding pair.
   “This is the right way!” Mason screeched, “You can't even read ya jackass! Tis in the prophecy!”
   “Mason…” Mirandah said quietly.
   “What?!” Mason fired up at the wagon angrily; Benny turned her head to face her. Mirandah suddenly felt like she had stepped in front of a charging bull.
   “What were you trying to do?”
   “Open up the door!”
   “The door?”
   “Yes! The-” Mason threw the necklace down onto the ground fiercely, “I’m surrounded by stupid bitches!” she stepped back and the necklace caught the sunlight. There was a great white light so bright Mirandah had to shield her eyes.
   “Mason move the necklace! ah! Mason!” Mirandah closed her eyes tight, “Mason please!” suddenly everything grew dark, and Mirandah opened her eyes.
   “Welcome to The Underground World!” Mason chimed breathing deep.
   “What?” Mirandah climbed down, noticing the lush green grass was halfway up her calves. “How…?”
   “This necklace is the key!” Mason grinned. Benny snorted and Mason glared and warned “don’t make me ‘it you agen!”
   Mirandah looked around. The place looked so peaceful. “Hey! There’s a house over there!” she started towards it but Mason caught her arm hard.
   “Don’t go there. No one lives there. It’s empty.”
   “But…” Mirandah protested childishly.
   Mason glared, “’elp me wit’  ‘im… ‘e'll wake up when we leave.”
Benny snorted as the boy’s limp body was hauled off the wagon. They laid him on the ground on his back, but he rolled over on his own.
   “Is he waking up?”
   “Yes. We must go…” Mason climbed up onto the hay bail and grasped the reigns. “Mirandah! Now! Stop being a lump!” Mirandah climbed into the back and the light came back. She held her hands over her eyes until the pink color faded to black, and then she uncovered them. She was in the clearing they had been in the first time the light came. Mirandah looked up at the hay bail for Mason, but she wasn’t there. She climbed down and went to the front of the wagon.
   “Mirandah…listen to me” Mason gasped from the ground
   “Oh my goodness!” Mirandah fell to her knees beside Mason's limp body
   “Listen to me! You have to go back. You have to marry Philip. Oh there's someone here for you!” Mason smiled, “You had a child at sixteen! Oh my. Malli. Yes dear I'm listening go ahead…” Mirandah was already taken aback at the proper English Mason was speaking, but at the mention of her past that she had hidden so well she shrank back. “You were only seven?! Mirandah, Malli wants you to help Philip endure the same loss you have…”
   “My baby?” Mirandah sobbed silently. Benny snorted and Mirandah noticed Mason's mouth wasn’t moving.
   “My destiny has dried up Mirandah. I am done, my role is done. You must marry Philip. There is great destruction ahead, monsters, darkness…fire…you must be with him. Leave me here, do not dare inter me.” it was at this point that Mirandah noticed she had been holding Mason's hand. Her mouth had never spoken those words. She stood and climbed onto the wagon. Carefully she navigated around Mason's body and set off for Philips church.

   *                       *                       *
Rishi tried fruitlessly to open the book but the leather bound button wouldn’t budge. He pondered using a knife or his teeth, but it wasn’t his book. Frustrated, he decided to explore the library. He put the book in his pocket and got up, the cat springing to life on the hanging chair and leaping off it to follow. Rishi smiled at the irony. The chairs had eyes and teeth, and tails…The image was of a cat sitting on the enormous lolling tongue of some giant aquatic animal.
   “Why is that cat so intent on following me?” he continued down the hall, and opened the library door. The cat was strolling lazily behind him and Rishi began to close the door, locking the cat out.
   “Let the cat follow” his guide whispered fiercely. Rishi sighed and opened the door again, the cat walking in wheezing like it was a great joke. Rishi rolled his eyes and walked towards the desk, noting the cat curling by the lit and inviting fireplace. He noticed the open book on the desk and flipped it over to see the cover.
   “Diary” he read aloud.
   “Congratulations” the guide interrupted, Rishi sensing him roll his eyes. He flipped through it and upon realizing it was empty his guide added, “Now write in it”
   “Write what?” he looked behind him at the books on the shelves lining the wall opposite the fireplace and behind the desk. Each one was leather bound and marked “diary” with the same gold lettering used on The Prophecy and Mustafa.
   “Write what you write in a diary”
   Rishi looked for a pen on the desk. He sighed, “I can not use these. I have never been taught to use fountain pens…”
   “Try it” the guide whispered as normal. Rishi stood there pondering for a second. The cat watched intently as he sunk into the chair and flipped to the front and attempted to write.
   “Dear Diary,” he mumbled as he wrote. Shaking his head he sighed, “see…I cannot read a single letter…it is all blotchy. The ink went everywhere!” Rishi stared at the book as the ink moved, standing fast and sending the heavy oak chair backwards yelling “WHOA!”
   “It corrects itself. It’s a Soothbook.”
   “That is beyond correction! It is making all the unnecessary ink go back to its intended place! This is amazing!” he grinned mischievously and wrote “my name is Jenifer” he smirked as he pulled the chair back underneath him. The cat was wheezing. “OH MY GOD!” he jumped onto the chair as though he had seen a large rat. The cat sprang to his feet and jumped on the desk. The words on the book were morphing; fitting perfectly with Rishi's handwriting the words now said “my name is Rishi”. The cat sneezed and Rishi sunk back into his chair “this is so uncanny!”
   “It’s a Soothbook Rishi” the guide informed
   “It only tells the truth?”
   “No it lies profusely”
   Rishi wrote “I woke up ere yesterday evning,” and watched the sentence correct itself. The cat wheezed making Rishi uneasy and jumped down to curl up by the fire again.

   “I woke up here yesterday evening, and spent it exploring this house…This Mustafa place.”
   He looked up as he re-dipped his pen into the glass bottle. The cat was snoring.
   “There was a cat at the door, and he's almost human. Well I think he is a he. He is always following me around…he makes me so uneasy and I am already feeling out of place. I have not been myself lately…Well I do not even know who I am. I cannot remember anything from before I woke up. This feels like a dream, but it has been too LONG. Maybe I am in a coma. Last night I found a book called “Mustafa: Read on the Second Day” but it will not open and this IS the second day!”
Rishi watched as his words capitalized. “Cool” he breathed.
   “You used emphasis”
   “Subconsciously”
   “But you used it”
   “This book is awesome!”

This is an interesting story, I like it.

Ha ha thanks, you started at the end though . To the right and below each work are arrows tying together the series in order, making it easier to find parts and chapters .