Chapter 9: A... Known secret?
(Picture of the 3 dragons at the end of Merry Icicle Road.)
My name is Sunny Luana Crumpet and we're finally on our way up the mountain to my home, I mean, I could have walked... It would have only taken me a few hours, but anyways...
"Hey!!!" I exclaimed when we started to climb the first hill of our mountain road, "They already have 3 dragons up at the end of Merry Icicle Road!"
"Yeah!" Dad chimed in, "Why, it's a surprise to us too Hon." He looked at Mom and said, "See! The town really does like the festival that we started together the other year!"
Mom shifted gears to go up the hill and grunted, "Un huh."
"Your Mom didn't seem to think that they'd welcome us at all." Dad laughed, and then he added with a chuckle, "She WANTED to keep the dragons in the mountains a secret!"
I... Stared at the back of his neck and asked, "It is a secret though isn't it?"
"A known secret!" Mom exclaimed, "There have been stories for hundreds of years!"
"Ha ha ha." I looked at the mountains and thought of something, "Hey, I wonder if there's elfs that are hiding in these mountains..."
See! I know that Mandy wants as many rumors as possible and this might it! "Follow the elves to the Christmas dragon!"
"Well Honey," Dad just smiled at me like I actually said something meaningful and told me, " you might find some sawdust when we get to the farm because Santa's elves have been using the tunnels underneath the barn."
(Picture of rough outline of indication the barn has a basement.)
"Wait, what???" Number one, I really don't care if the house is clean.
Number 2... Okay, I take that back, I really don't want to walk into a cloud of old spiderwebs again! But then again..! I did that right before I found Missy's secret tunnel and magical garden so...
Yeah! Ha ha ha! Let's hope that I DO walk into a spiderweb soon!
Why? So that then I will find something really cool, so amazing, so that none of my friends will ever doubt me even again. That and...
My cellphone went...
Ping!
*
Well...
Anyways. My name is Sunny Luna Crumpet and I'm on the way home! To my REAL home, not that invalidating, "Fairy day's not a real thing." town on the tip of dragon pond where my uncle Randy lives...
But, I got him to come with us back to Noel so that we can celebrate the holidays!
Is the only reason because my parents run the dragon festival every year?
Possibly... I waved goodbye to the blow up dragons while the car turned around the corner and as my phone buzzed again... I thought about this silly little competition that I have going on with my best friend Narrie Middlecreek.
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(Picture of Sunny's cellphone with a picture of a rainbow fish and "PING!!!")
Narrie: "Look, found the rainbow!"
Basically... Narrie just sent me a photo of a fog rainbow where a fish is going "in" it... And there's even a shadow reflecting off the wall??? Like, is this even a real possible photo..?
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
"WELL!!!" I looked up at my house through the trees and imagined how many dust bunnies would be in a dusty house! And you know those prisms that Mom puts in like EVERY window?
Well she does and I did the totally natural thing and brag texted Narrie Middlecreek about how...
Sunny: "I'm gonna get a better, cooler dust rainbow photo than YOU!!!"
That's about the time I started to relax and had one of those instant thoughts that are really funny! "Ha ha!"
"What's funny Honey?" Mom casually drove up the mountain and well...
"I was just thinking," I started to tell her, "Like what if I had a real photograph of the Christmas dragon, huh? And like... You know how their snot sometimes looks like bubbles? And like, rainbows live on bubbles!"
She ignored me... Anyways,
Basically, I thought that if I had a photo of a dragon blowing a rainbow in the mountains to send to Narrie, she would believe me without a doubt!
"So like, I just needed a really good telescopic camera lens from home so that I can take a real photo of a dragon, because then like... Narrie will believe me."
"Oh honey," Dad blurted out, "I think you might be surprised, everyone in this town seems to like dragons!"
"Really?" I asked and... Okay, here's what I was thinking... Like, what adventure seeds of exploration is Dad planting in my mind??? Huh???
See Dad plays these educational games with me where he sometimes pretends to blurt out things that he's, "not supposed to say".
But the thing is, he makes certain that I not only hear it, but I think about it. And sometimes, he's so funny that he even helps me solve the adventure and I think that he and Mom makes bets on me and..!
Anyways... I really need to ask Aunt Missy about that sometime!
"I mean like," I started to mutter on about why I thought that Narrie would easily believe me about the magic and dragons, "See, Narrie does believe in things that others don't see like..."
I... Don't want to make my best friend look bad... But, Maybe my parents can give me a new perspective, like... Why she doesn't care about the magic at all! "Like she thinks that her grandparents haunt the bed and breakfast."
"And they might." Mom smiled at me in the rear view mirror, "Didn't you tell me that Joey was haunting Missy's house?"
"Yeah, but that was just some old photograph." I remembered the boy who stared out the window, "I.. Think it was dust the dust and the sunlight though..." I remembered how he repeated the same loop. "It was just..."
"And didn't you say that soon after someone sent Joey a bunch of birthday cards."
"Yeah?" And they were marked from my TEACHER!?? And it was Missy's address, and it was Joey's home, and when my aunt grew up, she wanted that house BECAUSE it was rumored to be haunted.
Basically..? What is she saying?
"Well..." Mom started to get kinda mad at me, "Just because Joey might have been a ghost, does not mean that he wasn't real."
I looked out the windows, if I turned my head I could see town, The chimneys. some of them have smoke coming out and... WAIT
So like just because some people don't believe in ghosts, some people don't believe in Gaia? Or magic? And like maybe, if they do accept that some people believe in ghosts, maybe they'll accept what I tell them?
Is real?
I looked at Mom and Dad and a pathway in the woods that seemed to be Santa Clauses workshop? Up here? Well anyways! I told her, "Cheshire said he might come to visit!"
"Yup!" Dad smiled at me, "And just like when you found your necklace addressed to you at your grandparents place. That proves it's all real."
See, I got a necklace addressed to me in the Algonquin language, and like it really does change shape! "So, maybe Narrie really does believe me about the dragons?"
"Maybe!" Mom pulled into the yard and...? Lawn raked, wet grass mowed, and then she exclaimed, "Wait! Are these car tracks?"
"Yeah." Dad answered, and then without missing a beat he added, "Might be a good day to check out those tunnels"
"Ha ha ha..." Mom stopped the car, "Maybe later."
I... What are they talking about!?? Like...
"What's wrong Sweetheart!" Mom stopped at the end of the road and looked at me, "You don't think the tunnel is a Gaian secret do you?"
"Tunnel?" I whisper gasped, "A real tunnel???"
Basically? I didn't even actually think that magic even really existed until we moved AWAY from here and well... I'm starting to think that Mom planned it that way!
Dad nodded at me and... I held my breath to make absolutely sure that this is not just some silly dream that I'm having!
"So these tunnels..." I Dared to ask out loud..! "They're real right?"
"Yes..!" Mom laughed as she turned into the driveway, "And that's where I used to work at my top secret job."
She just reminded me something that she kept secret from me all of my life! "See, dragons tend to get injured in the mountains around here, and your dad's home town of Noel is a very nice and friendly place, so we help displaced people from Gaia find new lives here too."
"Like Mr Candydish?" He's the town inventor. How much he actually invents though... (Since Gaia has pretty advanced technology.) I don't actually know. Anyways, Mom opened her car door and said, "Yes."
Well... Next stop is... The farmhouse! To drop off things and look for any secret tunnels around the house!"
***