STRONGER-BOOK 2- (GUARDIANS OF LA REINA)

CHAPTER THREE

Jason is woken by the warm sun burning his skin. He slowly opens his eyes and immediately knows something is wrong.

The sun should not be touching him at all. Last he remembered, he was lying on the sleeping bag in the back cave.

Looking around, he does not recognise the area.It is not anywhere he has ever been. Suddenly, Jason realises he is no longer in the La Reina or in the country.

He jumps up and turns around in a circle. Although the area is green and lush, it is warmer than it should be.

It is winter where he comes from. He sees a large tree providing much-needed shade. Not knowing where he is and, therefore, not knowing what dangers this place holds, Jason makes his way very carefully towards the tree.

Once he reaches the shade, he sighs a sigh of relief.Jason usually loves warm weather, but the sun in this place is hot.

He scans the area with the sun no longer burning down at him. There is nothing to tell him where he is. He scans the area again, and his eyes fall on a broken twig.

For a moment, Jason can only stare at the twig. Jason blinked his eyes to ensure he was seeing correctly, and when the image did not change, he quickly went over to where he saw the broken twig.

Carefully, Jason picks up the twig between his thumb and forefinger. He places the twig in his palm, and then a smile breaks out on his face.

“Lume,” he whispers.

The twigs broke in precisely the way Melissa would break little twigs if they were sitting on the grass. She always had one in her hand and formed the letter “M” with the twigs.

For a second, he wonders if it could be possible that Melissa somehow left the clue for him to find. He takes the twig as if it is a precious stone, places it in his jacket pocket, and then looks around for another one.

If this is a message from Melissa, maybe she is trying to lead him towards her. Hansel and Gretel is her favourite fairy tale, for that matter.

He found another about two steps from where he found the first twig in an eastern direction. Jason laughed out loud.

“You are a genius, my angel,” he thinks.

He collects the twig from the ground, and after inspecting it, he places it with the first in his pocket.

Feeling hopeful for the first time in almost a week, he continues his search, and with every broken little twig he finds, his heart leaps.

If he had not loved Melissa before now, he definitely loved her just for the ingenious way she found to lead him to her.

The area gets thicker with plants and trees, making walking and finding the broken twigs more challenging.

The time it takes to find the next twig grows with everyone he finds. Jason is so focused on the ground that he does not realise he is leaving the shaded area until the sun burns down on him again.

Jason looks up, and he can feel his mouth fall open. Jason finds himself in a small valley, with everything green and ferns everywhere his eyes travel.

On the other side of the valley, he can see a magnificent waterfall. It fills almost the whole side of the valley on that side, but still, the sun is burning down on everything around him.

The only place he knows where the sun does the same is in the desert, but Jason is sure he is not in the desert because nothing grows in the desert.

Deciding that it is not the time to try and figure out this strange phenomenon, he looks back down to the ground to try and find another broken twig, but to his disappointment, he cannot find even one.