December tried not to smile, "No, we didn't notice but chances are he was because everyone else was. All the guys anyway."
"All the guys except Chris, Walter and Zoltan that is," added Lilly as she circled her coffee cup with her finger.
"Do you think she's one of us?" whispered Crystal.
"What? A witch? Changeling?" said December, "I really don't think so, but I guess it is possible. Wouldn't we know about her if she was?"
"Not necessarily, not if she's new in town."
Taking a long sip of her coffee, Crystal turned to look at the people in the café, "What did you say her name was again?" she asked.
Absent-mindedly, Lilly opened her mouth to speak but before she could say anything, a hand was placed firmly on top of it as December gave her a stare.
"Don't you dare... we don't want a repeat performance of earlier," she almost shrieked.
Lilly nodded and pushed her hand away, "Sorry, that was close. Here, I'll type it into my phone instead," she said showing Crystal the woman's name on the screen.
"Why, what happened earlier?" asked Crystal.
"You won't believe it....just the mention of her name makes all the men go insane. Even our teachers were swooning. Crazy, just crazy."
"I want to see what happens," replied Crystal before the girls even had the chance to shut her up.
"Calliope," she said at the top of voice.
Suddenly, the three men that had been sitting in front of the window not far from them turned and stared.
"Did you say, Calliope? Wow... what a woman. Is she here? Have you seen her? Where is she?"
"C.A.L.L.I.O.P.E... Mmmm"
"That woman is mine," said the third, causing uproar to begin.
"Girls... we need to go, now..." said December, standing quickly as the two male staff members rushed from behind the counter towards the three men.
"Oh no you don't... she's mine."
Just as the three girls closed the door behind them, they heard a loud crash as a nasty fight ensued.
"Okay... I get the drift now," cringed Crystal.
"Well, we did warn you," said December as they rushed away as quickly as they could and hopped into Crystal's car. "Come on, let's go back to my place... maybe my Mom can shed some light on what's going on."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Nick cooked the mushrooms over a small fire he'd effortlessly prepared an hour earlier. Zalea and Jack looked on as the orange hues of the sky began to darken.
"I almost forgot about the things Gwynethea gave me just before I left Moharth," said Jack, reaching into his bag, pulling out a small leather pouch.
"Whose Gwynethea?"
"She is one of the wise women that live in the forest. She helps us whenever we need someone to turn to. In fact she helped Jack to remember his lost memories shortly after we found him."
"She sounds amazing. What did she give you?"
As Jack opened the pouch, a few small items dropped out, one of which was a small dagger.
"That's beautiful," said Zalea, picking it up, inspecting the exquisite tiny jewels that were embedded in the handle before handing it back.
"Why would she give this to me? It must be worth a fortune," Jack muttered quietly.
"It might be worth a fortune for you, Jack, but things like this don't really hold any value in our world."
"But it's full of such beautiful jewels?"
"These might be jewels to you, but they're all around us here. Have you really not noticed them?" she asked with a laugh in disbelief as Jack's mouth dropped open and he shook his head.
"You've been here all this time and you've never noticed you've been surrounded by some of the world's most valuable stones?" asked Nick, adding, "When I first found myself here, I began collecting them, but then, after a few years when I realised I would probably never get home, I stopped. I figured, what's the point, you know?"
Jack, still in shock, nodded softly as Zalea and Nick looked at each other in understanding.
Suddenly, as if realising that this could mean something important to his family, he decided he needed to tell them and the only way to do that was to try and get in touch with December again.
"Excuse me for a moment... I need a few minutes alone, if that's all right," and he stood and walked away from the cave.
"Is everything okay, Jack?" asked Nick.
"It's fine... I just need a few minutes to myself. I'll be right back."
Zalea gazed at her friend as he stood up and walked away, but said nothing.
Walking around the corner away from sight, Jack sat down on the nearest rock and concentrated hard on the young girl who had become his only connection to his old life. His only connection to his daughter.
Soon enough, a dull ache began to rock the back of his neck. Pain shot through the base of his head until it drilled through to his forehead.
"December?" he whispered, "Can you hear me?"
After a minute of nothing, he tried speaking again, "Are you there, December? Please hear me. I just wanted to tell you something. It might be nothing but then again it might be something.... please answer me. Okay, perhaps you are unable to speak to me but there is a chance you can hear me. If you can, I just wanted to tell you we are surrounded by valuable stones. I never really noticed. God knows why, considering they're glittering away right in front of me, I was so focussed on everything else that I didn't see them. I know it sounds crazy, totally crazy, but it just might help you understand where I am. I hope it helps, I really do. I need to get home, you know? Look, I know you're probably not hearing this, I'm probably just talking to myself here but if you can hear me, please tell Lilly ... that I love her and I miss her and when I get home I'm going to make it up to her, okay? Oh... and December. Thank you. If you can hear me... thank you..." Jack didn't know what else to say so he chose to say nothing more. He stayed sitting there in silence for a good twenty minutes or so, doing nothing but thinking about his daughter, hoping December, his family and the Elders could figure out where he was and help him get home before he found his way to the Nephilim. He hadn't said anything before, but the idea of reaching the caves of something so evil terrified the life out of him.
"Jack?" said a voice in the relative darkness, "Are you all right?"
Struck out of his solemn thoughts in a flash, Jack looked up to see Zalea approaching slowly, "I was getting worried."
Smiling sadly he stood and faced her, "I was just thinking about Lilly... I tried to get through to December but she didn't seem to be hearing me. I guess I just needed to be alone for a while."
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said turning quickly away from him, "I'll leave you."
"No... please don't go."
She turned back to look at him and he noticed her small wings fluttering as she moved. She smiled and took her hand in his.
"Thank you... for being here Zalea. I know you want to find your sister, but I appreciate the company."
When she shivered, he pulled her to his side and placed his arm around her shoulders, careful not to harm her wings.
"Let's go back and get warm by the fire and then I guess we should get some sleep. We've another long day ahead of us tomorrow."
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
As December came to, she felt groggy. Her head wasn't quite as clear as it should be as she recollected the odd dream she'd had during the night.
She'd dreamed of a lone stranger trapped in a strange place where the atmosphere around him maintained an orange glow. He'd been talking to her, telling her about jewellery. No, that's not right, she thought. He'd been telling her about the place where he'd found himself. Everywhere he looked there were shiny stones glinting in the dusky light. Valuable stones. Valuable jewels.
Suddenly, December sat bolt upright in bed. It hadn't been a dream at all, it was Jack. Lilly's father had tried to communicate with her but, because she'd been asleep, he'd come to her in a dream instead.
He was trying to tell her something.
; Bounding out of bed, she grabbed her purple nightgown and threw it on while she pulled her bedroom door wide open so fast that it banged hard against the wall.
Halfway down the stairs, she realised she was only wearing one slipper, so she turned back, running upstairs two at a time until she was lying flat on her front on the bedroom floor, looking for the missing shoe under the bed.
"There you are," she muttered to herself, grabbing it and putting it on her cold foot before hot footing out of her room once again, only to run slap bang right into Lilly on the stairs.
"Lilly, what on earth are you doing here? It's barely even seven 'o' clock in the morning!" she exclaimed, startled.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know... I've been up all night reading about the Nephilim and I think I might be on to something..."
"You're insane, you know that? You know what though? I really need a cup of tea... is Mom downstairs?"
"Yeah, she let me in."
"Okay, let me wake up first and then we can talk," yawned December, pulling her night gown tightly around herself, forgetting why she was in such a hurry in the first place.
"...and then I found another website that said pretty much the same thing, well, the same theory anyway..."
December yawned once more and rubbed her eyes before taking a long gulp of her hot English tea. Both she and her mother were sitting quietly, eagerly waiting for Lilly to finally get to the point.
Before Lilly could continue though, Ruby appeared out of the living room wall with a huge smile on her face, "Well hello, darling. It's lovely to see you here so bright and early. How is everything with you and your family?"
"Erm, hi Ruby. They're great thanks..."
"Mother, Lilly was just about to tell us something important, if you don't mind?"
"Well, sorry. Please go on, Lilly," she said, hovering around the room, clearly feeling a bit put out.
"Oh, yeah, the theory. Well, I then went on to find a load of other websites which claimed the Nephilim do live in caves..."
"Well, we already came to that conclusion, like ages ago," interrupted December.
"I haven't finished yet," said Lilly, before continuing, "They do live in caves beneath us."
"What do you mean beneath us?"
"Beneath the earth."
"What, this earth?"
Lilly rolled her eyes as she looked at her best friend, "Do you know of any other earth?"
Ruby chuckled.
"I guess not. So you reckon there is a whole new world underneath our own, then?"
"That's what these sites seemed to point at, so then I started reading about the centre of the earth..."
"It all sounds very far-fetched, though, don't you think?" asked Moira who was fluffing up the cushions on the settee.
"This coming from a woman who is a witch, who descends from a long line of witches that have always practised magic, whose daughter is best friend's with a changeling and has close friends who are vampires, faeries... should I go on?" asked Ruby who was relishing the conversation.
"Okay, I get your point," smiled Moira as there was a sudden crash from the basement.
"What on earth was that?" asked December who jumped up in surprise.
"Oh not to worry, it's just Monty," said Ruby with one of her trademark cheeky smiles.
"What's he doing?" asked Lilly.
"Probably trying to get out."
"Well shouldn't we go and let him out if he's locked himself in there?" she asked innocently.
"Oh my, we can't do that?" Ruby replied.
"And he hasn't exactly locked himself in there," said Moira, "We had to lock him in."
December gasped, "Mom! You can't do that."
"Yes, we can and we must...he's trying to get out to that Calliope woman," she concluded.
"Ohhh, we get it," said the two young girls in unison as they looked at each other.
"Did you manage to find out any-more about her yet?" asked Lilly.
"Unfortunately, we weren't able to get through to Carmelo last night so Crystal has gone with Tabitha and Zoltan up to the Elders to discuss it. She said she'd call us when they had something to report."
"I can't believe Monty has been affected too," said December with a sigh, "Who the heck is this woman and why does she have such a hold on all the men in this town?"
"Not quite all the men, only the human men," corrected Lilly. "Zoltan, Walter and Chris have all been fine which would suggest whatever power she has only affects humans."
"So until we figure out what she's doing, we'll have to keep Monty tied up down there. But don't worry girls, Millicent is down there keeping him company for now and I keep on popping in to check on him," said Ruby, "He'll be fine."
The girls glanced at each other before returning to their initial conversation: the Nephilim.
"So what are we going to do about my Dad?" asked Lilly.
"First and foremost we need to verify whether there is any truth in the information you found. If there really is another world beneath our very feet," said Moira, standing up. "I'm going to get dressed for starters," and she walked out of the room as her mother drifted out behind her.
"I'm going to check on Monty."
"Why don't you go and get dressed and we'll go out for a walk, get some fresh air?"
#
As the morning sun rose slowly into the pale blue sky, December and Lilly walked through the forest wrapped up in their warm winter clothes, gloves, hats and scarves. There was a light dusting of frost on the ground, with the occasional icy patch hidden beneath their feet, causing them to tip toe carefully. Their warm breaths hovered in the air before disintegrating into cold.
"Did you ever read Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of Earth when you were younger?" asked December after she'd been quiet, deep in thought for a while.
Lilly shook her head and looked at her friend questioningly with a smile. "But I've heard of it, obviously. What about it?"
She shrugged her shoulders and pouted her lips before speaking, "I don't know... I just wonder whether there is more to it than meets the eye, you know? Maybe Jules Verne knew more about our world than people know. Perhaps he really did travel down there?"
"Yeah, and maybe Alice really did visit Wonderland and James really did go into the giant peach," laughed Lilly.
December stood still and raised her eyebrows, "I would expect you of all people to be a bit more open minded, Lilly."
"I know, I know, I was just messing with you. If you are right, if that book was based on fact, perhaps we should get a copy and read it, then try and get through to Dad. See if anything rings true."
"Good idea. Let's go to the library..."
"Erm, it's a bit early. They're not going to be open for a while."
"Well then, how about a coffee while we wait?"
Lilly nodded and the two turned around, walking out of the tall green trees and back towards Powell River.
When they eventually walked into the town, there were few people on the streets as it was so early. Heading towards Starbucks, there was a note on the door saying 'Closed for renovation. Open again soon'. December peered through the window to see if anybody was about, but was greeted by an enormous mess. Broken tables and chairs were scattered all over the floor and the coffee machines were smashed to pieces.
"Oh dear," she sighed, moving aside to let Lilly have a look at the damage. "I guess we left just in time yesterday... those guys must have got really violent."
Suddenly a police car sped past them, followed by an ambulance.
The girls ran behind to see what the commotion was and were faced with yet another fight between about five or six of the town's men.
"Oh no... I bet that woman's caused this too. Let's go and speak to the police," said Lilly, pulling her friend along by her arm.
As they approached, four female police officers jumped out of their vehicle and ran into the commotion, eventually placing handcuffs on all of the men who continued to curse and swear at each other, ki
cking out and spitting like wild animals.
Two female paramedics were soon on hand to tend to the wounded man who lay unconscious on the side of the road. The girls watched in shock as they placed his body on a stretcher before wheeling it into the back of the ambulance, climbing into it themselves and then speeding off towards the hospital.
A small crowd of women was beginning to develop by their side and the girls listened to what was being said.
"My John's gone mad too. Last night he told me he was leaving and he ran off into the night. He didn't even say a word to the kids. I don't know what to do," cried one woman.
"Peter did the same thing. I've no idea where he is..." cried another.
"Evan broke it to me this morning. He told me he was in love with another woman. I can't bear it. What am I going to do?"
"I don't know what we can do, girls. It all seems so weird, don't you think?"
"Is there a full moon at the moment? Some people do strange things when there's a full moon," said a well known elderly lady whose husband had died a few years earlier.
"Break it up," shouted one of the police officers to the men who were still trying hard to get out of their cuffs and head butt each other.
"This is insane," whispered December as Lilly nodded and they crept out of the group, leaving the commotion behind them.
"I think we need to get the Elders down here... I'm not sure Crystal realises how bad things are getting," said Lilly as a half naked man ran through the town whooping and waving with glee.
"Holy Cow", yelled December, "He's gonna get pneumonia. We need to stop him."
"And how do you suggest we do that?"
"Come on," December yelled, runnning off after the poor man, Lilly in tow.
"What do we do?" yelled Lilly breathlessly as they followed him out of town.
"If we can corner him somehow, perhaps I can try a spell," she said quietly as they stopped for a moment to catch their breath.
But suddenly, the man turned from the side of the road right into the centre of it, just as a truck was coming. He didn't even see what hit him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
They'd been walking for a couple of hours when Zalea collapsed to the ground without a word.