Each door each flight of stairs could bring her closer to Starshine If he was here of course She tried to convince herself not to be too hopeful This was only one of the places that Linda Alex and she had pinpointed as a potential hiding place for Dark Core You could hide a dinosaur in that place That’s what Alex had said about the industrial complex back when everything had just been dots on a map and not real life yet She had laughed back then in that slightly intermittent Alex way that Lisa had grown so fond of Lisa missed Alex’s laugh She missed her friends because they were her friends the best friends she had ever had The only friends she had ever had Alex Linda Anne And then Lisa had arrived new to their class and to the stable She had never dared to dream before that she could have a best friend let alone three best friends She had scarcely been on the island of Jorvik for a month Even so so much had already happened If she wrote everything down in a short story maybe for English class her teacher would probably accuse her of being unrealistic Or he just might praise her imagination There were so many unanswered questions but Lisa didn’t have time for them not now She forced herself to sneak farther into the building slowly but surely The hum was louder now than it had been in the storage room The air felt charged with electricity as if the atmosphere itself held a charge She heard the sound of heavy footsteps above her Lisa stopped holding her breath listening anxiously Then she heard something new that crept into the rhythm of the sounds along with the footsteps Something familiar Could it be No impossible
Then a loud piercing whinny echoed through the dark corridors corridors and Lisa no longer cared whether she was detected She ran ran ran toward the hope of Starshine Her cowboy boots echoed on the hard floor until she was no longer rushing forward She was stuck Something compact baggy and rough had hit her and stopped her legs which wanted to keep running It felt like her heart stopped too She had just enough time to see the DC logo on the green cloth before she collapsed Is this the right way Meteor Linda asked The first light of dawn was just barely visible The trees in Pine Hill Forest rose out of the dark cloak of night slowly greeting the day The whole world was gradually awakening still clinging leisurely leisurely to the cool silence of night One lone girl on her horse rode through the chilly morning forest The shadows that fell over her were dark blue Not even the birds were singing this early It would be easy to take a wrong turn and get lost riding in this silence Linda thought This was the sort of silence that belonged to thick drifts of fresh snowfall not an autumn autumn forest A muffled bundled-up silence Each time she opened her mouth to talk to her loyal horse who was walking along the scrubby forest trails she thought her voice sounded more uncertain uncertain more childish somehow Obviously she knew that Meteor could not answer her but he was the only one she could talk to now the only one who could make the horrible stifling silence go away even for a moment We should have stuck together Meteor all four of us just like Herman said I have such an awful feeling that something is going
to happen soon something really terrible And I know we’re the only ones who can stop it Linda said Linda didn’t know exactly how her ability worked Yet She couldn’t choose which small glimpses of the future came to her nor could she distinguish the dreams from reality Possibly because reality was increasingly starting to seem more like a dream Meteor stumbled over a large rock Linda lost her balance and almost fell off but successfully grabbed Meteor’s thick white mane She could feel the heat from his body Her fingers grew damp from his sweat Sorry pal she said These aren’t exactly like the riding trails around Jorvik Stables but it shouldn’t be far now Meteor pricked up his ears Had he heard something that her human ears could not detect that she heard in the distance Linda too listened attentively now Was that a faint birdsong What is it Meteor she wondered and stroked his soft shaggy neck But of course Meteor did not answer her Instead he broke into a trot on the trail Linda noticed that the narrow forest trail had suddenly begun to open up into a big clearing and that something light and sort of flowing could just be made out through the dense dark spruce forest It was the pale shimmer of the new moon just visible in the lavender-blue morning sky The moon seemed to be suspended poised unusually low in the sky She felt like she could almost raise her hand and pluck it from the sky In the faint gleam of the fading moon she saw the silhouettes of flapping bird wings There was a heavy fragrance of flowers The fresh cool forest scent was gone This was a completely different sort of smell that made her think of unfamiliar places and hot nights more southerly latitudes
She looked at the moon and a feeling blossomed in her that was just as familiar as it was unexpected It felt like clearing a tall jump with Meteor Meteor whinnied unexpectedly Linda blinked hastily Suddenly she was overcome by the strange feeling that she was being watched Invisible eyes burned into her back Should she turn around and stare straight into the whites of the monster’s eyes What monster There’s no monster she reassured herself quietly without actually believing it She did not turn around and simply urged Meteor onward He carried them away from the forest at a gallop away from scornful scornful watching eyes With every galloping step the feeling of being watched drifted off behind her She let Meteor slow his pace and straightened up in the saddle She wouldn’t arrive at her destination destination for hours The sun was breaking through the clouds Morning had arrived and with it the feeling that anything was possible True she missed Alex and her friends but she did have Meteor her bestie who understood her better than any two-legged human in the whole world Together they were unbeatable She thought about the secret mansion waiting to be discovered Pine Hill What if Starshine was there Or at least an important clue that could help her find him Maybe it wasn’t likely but what if For a moment Linda allowed herself to picture Lisa’s joyful smile as she came riding in on Meteor with Starshine beside her Her heart swelled moved by the thought Oh Linda how will I ever be able to thank you She suddenly felt free and easy alone with her horse on an early crisp clear fall morning out on an adventure that had only just begun
