“Shaylee was swept downstream,” Rachel said. “Maybe we should follow the riverbank downstream and look for Marisol.”

  “Maybe you’ll find my boat, too.” Stripe said grumpily. He was huddled in the sand next to Shaylee, though well away from the wet spot marking Shaylee’s upset stomach.

  “Some of us should stay here with Shaylee and Stripe and try to set up camp,” Rissa said. “It’s going to be dark soon, and it doesn’t look like we’re going any farther today. We need a fire before Shaylee freezes to death, and some way to get out of the cold wind before it gets dark.”

  “OK,” Kaida said. “Since Aly can talk to plants, she might be helpful with camp. Why don’t Rachel and I look for Marisol?”

  “And my boat!” Stripe yelled.

  Rachel nodded, gave her sister a quick hug, and headed downstream. It was slow going as they carefully picked their way through the roots of the trees and the underbrush. At first they didn’t talk, and the silence was broken only by the sounds of hungry insects buzzing and the girls’ hands slapping at them.

  “I think the river made Marisol crazy somehow,” Rachel said finally. “It almost seemed like she called that monster, and she definitely jumped in on purpose.”

  “We can ask her when we find her,” Kaida said. “I know I have a few things to say to her.”

  “Like what?” The voice came from the river. The girls turned sharply and saw Marisol treading water not far from the bank. She was smiling brightly and somehow had managed to avoid getting her hair plastered to her head with the silt-filled water. In fact, as Rachel moved closer to look, she spotted shells woven into Marisol’s hair.

  “What are you doing?” Rachel demanded. “You had us worried half to death!” She closed her mouth with a snap, suddenly aware that she sounded just like her mother.

  “Don’t worry about me.” Marisol spoke in an odd rhythm, almost as if she were singing the words. “Water can’t hurt me.”

  “Well, it almost drowned Shaylee,” Kaida snapped. “And Stripe’s not exactly a great swimmer either.”

  “Yes, I’m sorry about that,” Marisol sang sadly. Then her voice brightened. “But you saved them all!”

  “Marisol,” Rachel said, “the river is doing weird stuff to you. You’re not acting like yourself at all!”

  Marisol laughed merrily. “This is exactly like me—the real me!”

  As Rachel took a step toward the water, her foot slipped on the bank, nearly pitching her into the river. “Look, just get out of there. We need to find Stripe’s boat and figure out how we’re going to get dry again.”

  Marisol frowned slightly. “I can’t come out, but I would be glad to help find Stripe’s boat!”

  “What do you mean, you can’t get out?” Kaida asked. “Just swim over here and climb out. We’ll help you.”

  “You don’t understand,” Marisol said. “I will show you.” She leaned back in the water as if to begin a backstroke and lifted what should have been her feet from the water. But they weren’t feet. She had a tail. A scaly tail with a broad, flat flipper at the end. Marisol laughed cheerily at their shocked expressions. “I’m a mermaid! Isn’t it wonderful? I’ve always, always wanted to be a mermaid!”

  Rachel just shook her head numbly. A mermaid. What were they going to do now?

  Suddenly the water just beyond Marisol began to churn. The huge head of the river monster burst into the air, water streaming from the weedy fins on the sides of its head. As its head dipped toward Marisol, Rachel screamed, “Marisol, look out! Behind you!”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Full of Surprises

  Kaida scooped up a rock on the riverbank and threw it hard toward the monster’s face. “Duck, Marisol!” she shouted as she bent for another rock.

  But Marisol raised her hand, and, as if at her bidding, a wave rose up from the river to slap the rock away before it could hit the dragon’s face. Then Marisol’s laughter rang out across the water. “Don’t be scared. The river dragons won’t hurt me. They wouldn’t hurt anyone.” The huge head bent low and Marisol patted the end of his snout.

  “That thing tried to drown all of us!” Kaida shouted. “It isn’t some kind of puppy, Marisol!”

  “He only wanted us to come into the water and play,” Marisol said. “Especially me. He didn’t know we ... well, you ... might drown.”

  “It’s dangerous!” Kaida insisted.

  “No, it’s not!” Marisol said, just as firmly. “Don’t you recognize him? He’s the river dragon from my key. I was supposed to meet the river dragons—it’s my destiny!”

  “So you can talk to those things?” Rachel asked. As Marisol patted it, he river dragon seemed to wriggle with pleasure. Rachel had to admit that it didn’t exactly look vicious, but it sure was big.

  “Not exactly,” Marisol said. “River dragons don’t think in words like we do—just in feelings and pictures. I can share their thoughts and send them mine.”

  “Do you think it could find Stripe’s boat for us?” Kaida asked.

  “He could do more than that,” Marisol said proudly. “They’re very fast. He could tow the boat for us. I think we could reach the Guarded Forest sometime tomorrow. When I pictured the bear Guardians in my thoughts, I got the feeling it wouldn’t take long to reach them.”

  “Could we just go now?” Kaida asked.

  Rachel looked around and shivered. The gloom over the water was deepening. It would be fully dark soon, and she really wanted to dry out and get warm. “I think it might be better to wait until morning. But we need that boat.”

  Marisol nodded and turned toward the dragon. She leaned close to it and, in a moment, the dragon had turned and flung himself downstream. Just before he disappeared under the water, his tail broke the surface and slapped it, sending a cold wash over Rachel and Kaida.

  “I think I could really hate those things,” Kaida grumbled, wiping water from her face and arms.

  “We need to get back to the others,” Rachel said. “Can you swim up to where we left them?”

  “I can swim anywhere!” Marisol said happily. She turned and, with a flip of her tail, raced upstream at an amazing speed.

  “Wow!” Kaida said. “I bet the swim team would love her in this condition!”

  “I’m sure there’s something in the rule book about tails. I just hope the Guardians have some good ideas on how to turn her back into our regular Marisol again.” Rachel turned and began pushing back through the underbrush. As she stomped and squished, she was suddenly struck by a thought that made her laugh.

  “What?” Kaida asked as she paused to pluck a briar from the trailing hem of her skirt.

  “I just remembered how much I liked pretending to be a princess when I was little,” Rachel said. “But I don’t remember ever imagining this much squishy stuff, and I know I never imagined these bugs. My princess phase was more about tea parties and tiaras.”

  Kaida laughed. “What’s a tea party without mud, muck and bloodsuckers? I never played princess. I was too busy playing Olympic athlete and gold medalist—my family is kind of into sports.”

  “Oh, really?” Rachel teased. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “Hey, I’m not all about the sports, though—I really like to cook too.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Rachel said. Then she yelped and stopped while Kaida helped her untangle her hair from a hanging branch. “You know—ouch!—Aly likes to cook too. Maybe you guys can get together and make a roots and berries soup for supper. Ouch!”

  “Yum,” Kaida said, pulling the last strand of hair loose. She slapped at something flying around her head. “Maybe I’ll throw in some buzzing bugs for protein.”

  “Who says princesses can’t live off the land?”

  Finally, the girls broke through to the clearing. They arrived to find their friends dragging ferns into what looked like a vine igloo. “How did you make that?” Kaida asked, clearly impressed.

  “It made itself,” Rissa said, “with a little help from Aly, the Plant Princess.” Then she frowned. “You guys couldn’t find Marisol?”

  “No, we found her,” Rachel said. “I thought she would get here a long time before us.”

  “I did,” a voice called from the water. “I just waited for you down here.”

  “Marisol!” Shaylee rushed to the edge of the water. The other girls followed, but in the gloom, they could barely see their friend.

  “Why are you still in the water?” Rissa asked. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m terrific!” Marisol sang out. “And look what my new friend found.” She gestured downstream and the group turned to see Stripe’s boat slowly moving toward them.

  “My boat!” Stripe yelled. “Who’s driving my boat?” Just then, the boat drew close enough so that they could see the scaly creature that was nudging it along. “Monster!”

  “River dragon,” Marisol corrected him primly. “And my friend.”

  “You still haven’t told us why you’re in the water,” Rissa said, folding her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.

  Marisol, Rachel, and Kaida explained Marisol’s scaly transformation from girl to mermaid. “I wish I could see your tail,” Shaylee said. “Is it beautiful like the tails of the mermaids in the movies?”

  “It’s gorgeous,” Marisol said. “And you should see the fantastic stuff the river dragons are finding for me! You could make jewelry for a year out of these shells and pearls and even gems. The colors are awesome!”

  “Right now, we need to make a fire before we freeze to death in these wet clothes,” Rissa interrupted. “And we need food—all Stripe could find were some berries he said were safe to eat, but it’s certainly not enough to fill us up.”

  “Oh, right—I forgot that you must be cold. I don’t seem to get cold anymore,” Marisol said. She paused, then added, “The river dragons don’t make fire, but they could catch some fish.”

  “Can you make a fire?” Rachel asked Stripe.

  “Of course,” Stripe said. “I have been building fires since I was a baby. But my fire kit was in my bag, and I lost that when we fell into the river.”

  “Can the river dragons find it?” Rachel asked Marisol.

  “It wouldn’t help. It would be ruined by the water.”

  “You know, I’ve been camping lots of times,” Kaida said. “All you need for a fire is a spark and dry tinder. I’ll give it a try.”

  “Here, I found some dry lichen,” Stripe said. “It burns easily.”

  “We’ll finish filling the vine tent with ferns for sleeping while you do the fire thing,” Rissa said, turning to go back to the shelter. Aly and Shaylee followed her.

  “I’ll help with the fire,” Rachel said.

  “And I will stay here and get the fish from the monsters,” Stripe said.

  “River dragons!” Marisol’s voice carried across the water, but it had grown too dark to see her.

  Rachel shivered as she arranged a circle of rocks on bare dirt to contain the fire they hoped to start. She laid small dry sticks carefully, leaving room between them for air—she knew it was important that a fire get air. “So how are you going to start the fire?” she asked.

  “Well, you either need friction or a spark,” Kaida said. “For a spark, you need the right kind of rocks.”

  “Do we have the right kind?” Rachel could barely see the rocks, and she had no idea what kind they were—except that they were hard.

  Kaida sighed. “I don’t know. I guess we bang them and see if they spark.” She began banging rocks together while Rachel watched closely for any sign of a spark. At one point, Kaida nearly caught the end of her friend’s nose between the rocks she was banging. Rachel didn’t watch quite so closely after that.

  Finally, Kaida had tried all the rocks they had. “I didn’t see any sparks,” she said.

  “Me either.”

  “So, it’s time to try friction,” Kaida said. “It’s like rubbing your hands together to make them warm. Only you rub sticks together hard enough to make a fire.”

  Rachel didn’t think that sounded very likely, but she sat quietly as Kaida found a dry stick with a deep indentation where a smaller branch had broken off it, leaving a thin crack. Then Kaida put the pointed end of another stick into that crack. Bracing the bigger stick between her knees, she began to twirl the thin stick back and forth, back and forth, between her palms.

  Long after Rachel would have given up, Kaida kept spinning the pointed stick.

  Eventually the other girls finished arranging the bedding and joined Rachel and Kaida. They all sat silently while Kaida focused persistently on the sticks. The night air was getting cooler and Rachel shivered in her sodden clothes.

  “I have the fish!” Stripe called. As he walked up to the group, they could see that he had turned up his shirtfront to form a basket, and it was loaded with small fish. “The water princess says she will be sleeping in the river tonight,” he said. The other girls shuddered slightly at the thought. The night air was cold enough; the river must be freezing!

  Stripe stood over Kaida and Rachel. “I’ll need firelight to clean these fish.”

  “I’m working on it,” Kaida muttered through tightly clenched teeth.

  “What are you going to use to clean all those fish?” Rissa asked.

  Holding his shirtfront with one hand, Stripe reached down with the other to lift one pant leg and pull a short knife from its sheath. “This!”

  “You have a knife!” Rissa crowed. “Let me see that.”

  Stripe passed it over reluctantly and Rissa used the sharp blade to cut off the bottom of her dress until it was little longer than knee length. “Now I won’t be tripping over the dratted thing anymore.”

  “Do mine, please,” Aly asked, and Rissa soon had her skirt shortened.

  “So you want me to do yours?” she asked Shaylee.

  The smaller girl shook her head. “No, I don’t want to ruin the dress.”

  “I think the river already did that,” Rissa said, then turned to Rachel. “Want me to do you?”

  Rachel had been hunched close to Kaida, ready to feed dry lichen at the first hint of smoke. “Do you think I have time?” she asked her friend.

  “I think you have all night,” Kaida said, throwing the sticks across the clearing in frustration. “I tried everything I could think of. I don’t know what to do.”

  “We need a fire,” Stripe snapped.

  “I know we need a fire!” Kaida yelled. “What do you think I’ve been doing right here?” She pointed toward the neatly stacked twigs. As her voice rose to a shout, the tiny pile of sticks suddenly burst into flame. All the girls leapt back.

  “Wow,” Shaylee said. “I think you made a fire.”

  Rachel recovered enough to begin piling more sticks on the fire before it could burn out. While Stripe set to cleaning the fish and the other girls gathered sticks for holding the fish over the fire, Kaida sat very still, staring into the flames.

  “Are you OK?” Rachel asked.

  “I made a fire,” Kaida said, then she grinned. “I am Super Camper!”

  “I think we’ll be more comfortable without the gowns.” Rissa stood up and shucked off her gown, leaving on the long linen camisole and underskirt. “If we hang the dresses on the branches, they should dry more quickly.”

  Soon all the girls had stripped down and hung their gowns in the tree branches. They huddled around the fire, roasting the small fish and snacking on sweet berries. “It’s starting to feel like real camping,” Kaida said.

  “Thanks to you,” Rachel said.

  Shaylee looked out into the darkness in the direction of the river. “Do you think Marisol will be OK?”

  “She should be,” Rissa said. “She’s got the world’s biggest guard dog.”

  “Do you think we’ll be able to change her back?”

  “I don’t know,” Rissa admitted. “Maybe I should have tried a spell.”

  “Not a good idea,” Kaida said. “She would have ended up as all tuna instead of just half.”

  Rachel could feel another argument coming on, so she said the first thing that popped into her head. “I wonder what our families are doing.”

  “Freaking out completely,” Kaida said. “By now, they must know we’re not in the clubhouse.”

  “They’ve probably called the police,” Shaylee said.

  “My dad is the police,” Rissa said. She and her dad had moved from Indianapolis to Portal so that he could take a job as chief of police. “He worried so much about me growing up in a city. He must be totally panicked over this.”

  “I hope my mom isn’t crying,” Shaylee said. At that, all the girls fell silent, thinking about their moms. Rachel felt tears sting her eyes. Were they ever going to see their families again?

  Kaida cleared her throat. “Well, this isn’t helping anything,” she said. “We need to get some sleep so we can finish our mission tomorrow and go home. We’ve gotten this far. I just know we’ll get home.” She stood and scooped up a handful of sand to begin putting the fire out.

  “Don’t do that,” Stripe said. “I’ll stay out here and watch it.” He wrinkled his nose as he looked at the vine hut. “It’s a little small in there.”

  The girls crawled into the vine hut. They all huddled together while Aly focused her powers on the vines that formed the hut. The girls watched as the vines slowly wove together to close the opening and keep out the cold. Snuggled close together for warmth and comfort, they began to drift off.

  Just before she fell asleep, Rachel thought of Kaida’s confident words about getting home. She certainly hoped her friend was right.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Speed Boat

  Rachel woke up as the soft morning light crept into the vine hut. She sat up and stretched, then watched as the vines began unweaving themselves and withdrawing into the forest. “Being woven like that isn’t really good for them,” Aly said softly near Rachel’s ear. “I don’t want to leave them that way.”

  “Maybe you could get the vine wall at the Guarded Forest to do that,” Rachel said.

 

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