river in order to flood the area. Granny Mabel had been around for a while, and she knew that the hornets could not swim. Poseidon could see that the drones were just about in position and threw his trident, knocking out the drone in the middle. The unconscious drone spiraled down into the water, floating down stream, never to fly again. The other two, noticing their companion had vanished, flew down after their beloved warrior friend. Freda knew that this was the moment of truth. Down she dove after the drones. The Pukwudgie had their bows and light arrows drawn and waiting ready for the perfect shot. They let ten arrows fly aiming for the two remaining drones. Instantly, all we vaporized into the sky. The blue herons landed next to Princess Celia, Poseidon, Bev, and Marsha. The Pukwudgie hunters jumped down off the backs of the Blue Herons and the group was met by both tribes. It was a wonderful, victorious feeling of winning over evil. The celebration had begun, however both Marsha and Bev knew there was one more thing they needed to do; they had to go back to the lab. Princess Celia asked if they would like to be Riders of the Light again, and the girls politely replied, “Yes.” They all touched the Princess’ wand, and in a burst of light, they were back at the lab. When they arrived, Dr. Mottice was already up and mixing chemicals with Mr. Garman acting as his assistant. Morgan watched with great hope as Mr. Garman took the last sliver of the meteorite gemstone and melted it on the Bunsen burner. He took all of the appropriate chemicals and mixed everything together, putting it back in the container to be irradiated once more. “Well, team,” said Doc, “This is the moment when we learn if humans can take this type of step with no aftereffects.” There was a slight pause before he continued. “Are you ready to give this a try, Morgan?” He replied, nodding in a frantic yes, eager to return back to his human form. Dr. Mottice picked Morgan up and laid him onto the metal table furthest across the room. “I am not sure, but if I were a guessing man, I would say the laser will hurt, Morgan, so prepare for that. I do have medicine to give to you once you are back to your human form.” Morgan gulped at Dr. Mottice’s recent comments. “Alright, I am ready. One more thing, in case this goes wrong. I would like to thank everyone that has ever supported me. I let down a lot of people and understand there are consequences to every decision I made. I am ready to meet those today, right now.” Looking over to Dr. Mottice, Morgan exclaimed, “Doc! Pull the trigger!” Dr. Mottice pulled the trigger and Morgan began to glow a wonderful blue color. The fluid in the back end of him pulsated rapidly and as the pulsing grew stronger, Morgan grew larger, and the metal on him melted. Suddenly, there was a burst of purple and blue lightning, followed by a clap of thunder. Everyone in the room turned quickly towards the door to see Poseidon pointing his trident at Morgan. “Thought you would need the extra bit of electricity to help this ‘gone wrong’ experiment in the right direction.” Poseidon chuckled at his most recent comment. When they turned back to look at Morgan, he was standing tall and strong and fully human again. Morgan ran to Dr. Mottice and shook his hand hard, thanking him exuberantly. He even shook the Titan Poseidon’s hand, which is quite rare considering mortals do not get to touch the Greek Gods. The Titan exclaimed, “One small step for humanity!” and in a burst of light and clap of thunder, he was gone. “Wow,” Marsha said, “How come everyone leaves in light?” Morgan smiled, “Because that is where we will always find the truth and uncover wicked lies.”
Part IV
Forest Guardians and the Fire Maiden
1
The Gathering
Cleg and the tribe were on a mission to gather blackberries, persimmons, and paw paw fruit. Bitty always looked forward to autumn for this reason. “Dad,” the little hairy girl exclaimed, “stop eating all the berries! Save some for the rest of us!” Cleg responded with a grunt that masked a deep chuckle from his large, fur-covered chest. Their carved-out wooden basket was toppling over with the juiciest, most delightful mix of fruits that the national park had to offer. Cleg began to make his way back to the clearing with Bitty closely following, snatching up and munching on the berries that fell from the overflowing container. When they arrived back at the clearing, all members of the tribe were there with their collections of the fall harvest. Cleg gazed around and saw an abundance of apples, pears, persimmons, and an extraordinary crop of paw paw fruit. The paw paw is their favorite fruit which tastes like a cross between mango and banana. It grows in abundance in the Northeastern United States. He looked at his wife, Ja’al and noticed that she returned with an abundance of cabbage and potatoes. He knew that they would need at least three more harvest trips like this to make it through the winter. Cleg roared out three short whoops, signaling all members of the Hairy Tribe to go out to the fields once again to collect additional fruits and vegetables. He signaled for Tas and Vue, the skilled hunters in the tribe, to track down some white tail deer. It was extremely dry this season, so the tribe would need to be very careful to avoid any floating embers from campfires that the humans had made. Most humans were careful to prevent forest fires, but there always seems to be one bad egg that shows up every hunting and gathering season. The tribe responded with a whoop back to Cleg and disappeared through the blooming hydrangea bushes.
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