Burnett's normal stern expression dissolved into something more peaceful. He stopped at the line of trees and agreed to wait outside, allowing them to have their regular falls experience. Removing their shoes and rolling up their jeans' legs, Holiday and Kylie both walked through the wall of cascading water.
Once inside, it took a second for Kylie's eyes to adjust. It wasn't completely dark, but only filtered light snuck in from behind the falls. Iridescent shadows in rainbow colors played on the rock walls. Cool water dripped from her hair and ran down her back, but the coolness on her skin felt refreshing, like walking through a sprinkler on a hot day.
Both Kylie and Holiday found their spots on smooth rocks just at the mouth of the water's edge. Neither of them spoke for several minutes. The reverence filling the space seemed to mandate a moment of silence.
The calm of quietness completely chased away Kylie's worries and concerns.
After several minutes, Holiday asked, "Do you have a new quest in place?"
The moment the question found its way to Kylie, a need for direction swelled inside her. "Have I really completed my other quest?" The question wasn't just meant for Holiday, but for herself.
"You know what you are, and you understand most of your powers. Was this not your quest?"
"Yes, but I'm not completely in control of my powers yet." She paused. "And I don't know everything."
The unexplainable need remained and a hunger to have a plan filled her chest. She had to know where to place her focus. She needed a new quest.
The flow of the falls seemed to grow a little louder. Kylie glanced up and then back at Holiday.
"You're right. I have to figure this out. How do I do that? How did I figure out what the first one should be?" She turned to Holiday, not so much panicked, but eager to get started.
"Well, you need to ask yourself what is important to you right now. Usually our quests end up being something that has weighed on your heart, pulled at your conscience, or has been on your mental to-do list that you've ignored."
Kylie inhaled another breath of calm and glanced back at the camp leader. "Okay, I know something, and I was going to talk to you about it, but I haven't had a chance to think it through yet."
"What is it?" Holiday asked.
"The chameleon teens, they ... the elders are practically locking them away on compounds. They have very little contact with the outside world. They aren't allowed to have cell phones or computers. I don't mean to make it sound as if they are mistreated. It's just that the elders are stuck in this mindset of when they were being persecuted. They think the only way to stay safe is to remain in hiding. They have a strict policy that until you can control and hide your true pattern, you shouldn't be allowed out into the world."Suddenly Kylie realized something. "They are as bad as the werewolves. With all their backward beliefs."
"It sounds like that." Holiday paused and stared at the water. "That's a big undertaking." Her expression said her mind was reeling. "It's hard to change beliefs that are motivated by justified fear."
"I know," Kylie said. "But there has to be a way, doesn't there?"
"It's for sure worth contemplating. It's a good quest."
What else? The voice inside her said. The same voice from earlier. But like before, it didn't completely scare her. It was a question she was about to come to on her own.
Kylie pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around her shins. "There's something else, too." And her heart searched for what it was, but it didn't come.
"What?" Holiday said, and inhaled as if absorbing the calm.
"I'm not sure." Her words hadn't completely left her lips when all the flickers of light in the cave started swirling and then shifted as if to dance on top of the water.
Kylie's breath caught as the shimmering of different colors formed a circle. Yet even with the movement of light, the water seemed deadly still, and the surface below became crystal clear. The circle of light appeared to frame an object below the water. Suddenly, whatever it was bobbed up to the surface with a small splash and started drifting toward the edge.
Freaked out, Kylie butt-scooted back a couple of feet. She felt a little less cowardly when Holiday did the same.
The object-floating atop the water's surface and moving as if with purpose-got about a foot from the rock's edge before Kylie could identify what it was. Oh, hell, what did this mean?
Chapter Fifteen
Kylie twisted around on her butt, searching for the ghost and trying to feel the cold. No cold found its way in the cave. No ghost, either. None that Kylie could sense, anyway.
But the sword now inching toward her had to be from the ghost, right? She'd been carrying one around for show and tell this last week and a half.
"Where the heck did that come from?" Holiday asked, her voice filled with concern.
Kylie couldn't take her eyes off the weapon as it slowly inched closer and closer. "From under the water."
"I know, I saw, but..."
"I think it has something to do with the ghost," Kylie said.
Holiday frowned. "You mean the one toting around severed heads?"
Kylie nodded. "That would be her."
"Why do you think that?" Holiday asked.
"I'm not completely sure, but I think it looks like her sword. Minus all the blood of course."
"Oh, hell," Holiday said. "What did you get pulled into?"
"I don't know. But it wasn't willingly." Kylie bit down on her lip. If not for the peaceful ambience of the falls, she'd be completely tripping out.
Holiday picked up the sword. She turned it over in her hands. "It looks real. And old. Do you really think it's the same sword?" She shook her head in puzzlement. "Ghosts can't deliver things like this."
"It looks like it. I mean, I'm not a sword expert." Kylie reached for the weapon, and as soon as she touched it, the dang thing started glowing. She flung it to the ground and did another scoot backward.
"Why did it do that?"
"I wouldn't know," Holiday said, and stared back at the sword. "Did you learn anything about chameleons making weapons glow?"
"No."
"You sure?"
"I think I might have remembered that."
"Okay," she said, still thinking. She gave the sword another puzzled look and then glanced back at Kylie. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yup." Kylie got to her feet and saw Holiday reach down for the sword. "Wait. Can't we just leave it here?"