"Hey, I'm here." Jade yelled as she ran into the church with Dylan behind her.
"Great! Look what we found!" Hailey said excitedly as she handed Jade a red leather book.
"Wow! This book is really nice any idea how old it is Mr. Klark?" Jade asked Hailey's grandad.
"Hmm, I'd say maybe seventeen years old? Maybe more." Mr. Klark replied.
"That's exactly how old I am!!" Jade said excitedly.
"Maybe it was brought here with you!!" Hailey said loudly.
"Brought here? Jade?" Mr. Klark asked.
"Uh, never mind." Hailey said.
"Haileeeeey." Jade said quietly.
"Sorry." Hailey replied.
"Um, Mr. Klark do you mind if I borrow this for a couple days?" Jade asked.
"No not at all, take as long as you need." Mr. Klark said.
"Thanks!" Jade said. "C'mon Hailey wanna have a sleepover? We can find out more!"
"I guess I'll see you guys later." Dylan called but neither Jade nor Hailey turned back to say goodbye or even look at him.
•••••••
Later at Jade's house:
"Okay, so if this book came with me or whatever what was it doing in the church library?" Jade asked Hailey.
"I have no idea." Hailey replied. "Maybe your mom donated it or something."
"Great idea lets go ask if she has seen it before." Jade said as she rushed out of the room. "Mom!" She called. "Where are you?"
"Down here in the living room. What do you need?" Mrs. Pent called as Jade and Hailey came into the room.
"Have you ever seen this book?" Jade asked.
"Yes! I have actually. It was given to me when the mysterious man gave you to me." Mrs. Pent recalled.
You see Jade was adopted by the Pents when she was only one year old. Her mother and father had both died in an accident but mysteriously she had survived. A man by the name of Darmoorious E. Magi had brought the baby to Mrs. Pent hoping that she could take care of her. He had also handed her the red leather book telling her that it was important and would protect the girl.
"You see Jade I didn't think you would actually need it so I gave it to the church library hoping someone would read it." Mrs. Pent said.
"Wow! So it actually does belong to me!" Jade said excitedly.
"Thanks Mrs. Pent!" Hailey said as they rushed back upstairs.
Jade and Hailey spent the next hour studying all the things they could find about the dragosaddle, Dragoria, Darmoorious E. Magi, and everything else that was strange. They learned about what the statue symbol on the map meant. But nothing about the other symbols. The book seemed like it was missing pages, there was no ending.
"So there is a trapdoor with this symbol on it on the bottom floor of the church next to a lamp which has to be lit to reveal the trapdoor." Hailey said when Jade's phone rang.
"Rrrring rrrrrriiiinnnnnng!" Went the phone.
"Hello?" Jade said.
"Hey, Jade its me Dylan."Dylan said.
"Ugh." She said as she went to press the end call button.
"No! Wait!" Dylan yelled. "I wanted to apologize I should' t have just kissed you like that it was awkward and rude."
"Yeah it was! But I guess I can maybe forgive you." Jade said slowly.
"Thanks. See you tomorrow?" Dylan asked.
"Yea, bye." Jade said as she hung up.
"What's the matter?" Hailey asked.
"Boys!" Jade said with a smile as she flopped back onto her bed. "They never learn."
"Tell me about it, so where were we? Oh, yea the door. We need to go find that tomorrow and then we can find out what the tree symbol means!" Hailey said.
"Well church goes from 10:00 to 12:00. Maybe after the services we can sneak around and try to find the door." Jade said.
"Won't our parents wonder where we are?" Hailey asked.
"Um, ok lets just say we signed up for a service project and we are going to help clean the church." Jade replied.
"Great idea! We should go sleep now its almost one in the morning." Hailey said.
"Yes!" Jade said as she started to drift off to sleep holding the red book tightly.
