Chapter Fourteen

When Jennifer realized that she had forgotten to pick up a new-moon stone, her heart skipped a beat. She looked quickly down on the ground, but she had the terrible feeling she was already much too late. A moment later she was sure. All the new-moon stones had disappeared. There was nothing left to find.

Then all at once she noticed a small, rather ordinary stone lying there on the ground next to her shoe. As she looked at the stone she suddenly remembered the falling feeling she had felt when she fell through the moon. For a moment she wondered if she might fall again, perhaps through the stone this time. But when she took a good look there didn't seem to be anything special about it after all. She picked the stone up anyway and put it inside her pocket. She sighed. It was better than nothing, but not by much. It was all very sad.

"Very nice," said a voice right by her ear.

It was the sprite. He had been watching as she picked up the stone. Jennifer wished that he hadn't seen.

"Don't tell the others what I found," she said and she pushed the stone away down deep in her pocket.

"It's a secret," agreed the sprite and he put one of his long stick fingers to his lips. "Shhhh! "

Suddenly someone was calling from across the clearing.

"Hey Jenny! Hey look! I found one!"

It was Jamie. He came bounding over, holding out a new-moon stone in his hand.

"I don't know how it happened, but I just saw it glowing so I picked it up! It has rainbows inside," he told them excitedly. "Isn't it amazing? What do you think? What kind of magic does it do?"

Before the sprite could answer another voice called to them from across the clearing.

"Hey, you guys, look! I got myself a new-moon stone!"

It was Rachael. She ran over to join them.

"It worked, it was real, I always knew it was," she told them. "There were new-moon stones all over the place! The one I picked up was the brightest of all. It's the biggest and best and it has the most magic, look!"

She held up her new-moon stone for everyone to see. It was quite big and it shone in the sunlight like gold. The sprite held up his new-moon stone as well. It wasn't as bright but it shone with a strong and gentle light that was beautiful to see. Jennifer thought about the old, unshiny stone she had just picked up and winced.

"What about you?" Jamie asked her. "Don't you want to show the sprite yours?"

"No," said Jennifer.

"No need," said the sprite. "I've seen it already."

"It isn't as shiny as mine is, is it?" asked Rachael.

"It isn't very shiny at all," admitted Jennifer.

"Oh, well that's okay," Rachael told her. "Maybe we can shine it with some polish or something when we get back home ... Now what in the world's gotten into him?"

The sprite was doubled over in a fit of giggles. He was trying very hard to contain himself, but every time he tried to go shhh! he started to laugh again instead. Finally Rachael couldn't stand it any longer.

"So okay, let us in on it too, why don't you?"

"Can you keep it a secret?" asked the sprite.

"Of course we can," said Rachael. 'What do you take us for, yo-yos or what? You can definitely tell us, okay?"

"You three are very lucky," said the sprite and he leaned a little closer, whispering behind his hand. "Very, very lucky. The very first time you come to find new-moon stones and one of you picks up the source stone."

"That's the one the dwarves wanted!" said Jamie.

"What is a source stone anyway?" asked Rachael.