Page 84 of Shadow Charms

“Okay, go ahead.”

“I don’t have a coin! Why would I have a coin? Do they even still make coins?”

Dewey flung his short arms in the air. “You said it! Why would you say flip a coin when you didn’t have a coin?”

“It was a figure of speech! Okay, okay, we just need something with two sides.” Paige glanced around, finding a flat rock. “Here, use your knife to scratch something into one side.”

Dewey exposed the blade in his walking stick and etched an X into one side of the stone.

Paige sucked in a deep breath as she held the stone out. “Okay, X side up, we go right. X side down, we go left.”

Dewey nodded, shoving the blade back inside his stick. “Toss it.”

Paige flipped the stone into the air. It rotated around over and over before it began its descent, still spiraling around until it thudded into the dirt below. They hovered over it, staring down at the stone. The X Dewey etched into the rock stared back.

“Right it is,” Paige said after a deep breath.

“Next stop, Pool of Yearning.”

“Way to think positive,” Paige said as they started down the path on the right.

They walked for fifteen minutes. The sky continued to grow darker as they proceeded farther down the path.

Paige glanced over her shoulder as the sky took on a deeper shade of blue. “Wonder how far away this pool is?”

“Well, we haven’t come across anything else so far. So, we may not have come across it yet.”

“Good point. What was the other thing on the sign?”

“Ummm.” Dewey scratched his head. “Lake something-or-other?”

“Oh, right,” Paige said as she stalked along, her sword dragging over the ground. “Lake…Placid. No, that’s in New York.”

“Right, where the water chimeras live.”

“What?”

“Water chimeras. They live in Lake Placid.”

Paige wrinkled her nose as her mind created images of what the creatures might look like.

“Lake…Depths? Something with a D.”

“So, wait, they are both bodies of water. How will we know if we’re at the right place?”

“Easy. The Freaky Fairy or whatever she’s called should pop out.”

“Oh, right,” Paige said as they climbed a slight grade.

They reached the top and stared down at the calm pond of water.

“There,” Paige said, thrusting her finger ahead. “Water!”

“That must be it! Let’s hope this is the Pool of Yearning and not Lake Whatever.”

“Yeah,” Paige said as she raced down the path. “Race you.”

“Wait,” Dewey said as his wings beat hard to propel him forward. “You cheated! You started before I was ready.”