It’s time for the next mystery challenge. We’ll head back out to Cashes Dade and join Josiah, Casey, and the ghost strikers for the story about the fort at Ghost Peak which is now under siege. Josiah is looking for his dad’s final message to him. There is a secret power in this mountain that can be used to defend the fort against the aliens, making it too strong for them to destroy. The clues will be there. The four lines that Josiah’s dad told him about the mountain are the main clues. Is it a stone? Is it a jewel? Is it a mineral? What do you think? This is what he told him:
“You will find my final message at Ghost Peak
There is a mysterious power the aliens seek
Look closely and wait to see the pieces appear by light
Then you can solve the puzzle to hold the fort at night”
If you haven’t read chapter one, go back and check it out. Leave a comment below if you think you know the answer. A new chapter will be released right here every other Friday leading up to the next story in this series coming out this Memorial Day:
MYSTERY OF THE COLDOR CRYING GHOST
Can they hold the fort long enough to complete a critical tunnel back to Cashes Dade? What if the aliens find the secret power first?
Their eyes glittered in the distant slow rising lights. They just stared up at the sky. David looked away, turning his concerned gaze back to the dark night sky over the mountains. Perfect circular gold lights rose up over the distant rounded mountain tops, one after another, slowly rising, burning, leaving a blazing gold trail.
The brilliant gold lights just hung silently at various points in the sky. David stood at the fort top balcony, leaning over the edge. Callie slowly walked up to him.
“What are they?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered. Cade leaned over the edge to their right. Josiah paced behind them, singing quietly about singing lights. Just then three neon green arrows rolled across the sky overhead. David quickly struck a match. He lit up a burning dark orange torch and waved it slowly back and forth.
Various soldiers yelled out across the lower and upper slopes. Shadows moved frantically in and through the neon blue glowing Sunday Evergreens.
“Are those ships?” asked Cade.
“They don’t look like it,” said Josiah appearing next to him, for a moment. The arrows just passed over, before fading away. Cade turned his intense gaze back to the bright gold circular lights. Just then, a blood red teapot appeared in the sky, lighting up the black waves rolling slowly across the sky.
The DadeStar flag set between David, Callie and Cade remained completely still, the gold colour softly glowing in the night. The massive flag hung from a large black marble pole rising up high, angled slightly to the left away from them. A pile of large marble oval shaped stones held the flag in place.
The teapot poured gold liguid into the gold spheres. They began flashing in a brilliant rhythm.
“Why are they doing this?” Cade asked David.
“I don’t know,” he answered.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be looking at it,” said Cade. David nodded, still gazing out across the lower slopes. Many people stood staring directly at the fast flashing lights. Several more green arrows blazed across the sky overhead. A single boom from the lights shook the mountain.
David waved the light back and forth again. Soldiers took their positions across the lower slopes. Just then, the circular lights began flying around the sky in all directions. They each turned a different colour, glowing bright in the dark night.
“This is crazy,” said Blake, stepping up to Cade.
“They’re up to something,” Drew said in a low voice behind them.
“Casey’s ready down there,” said Blake pointing down to where Casey laid flat and still behind several rocks, holding a small cylinder shooter. He wasn’t watching the sky, but was staring out with calm intensity over the lower mountain.
The lights flew faster and faster through the sky. Green arrows slowly passed over. As everyone watched, the lights changed shape. They stopped cold, scattered all across the sky. They formed large ovals, looking like shimmering glass in various sharp colours.
David waved the lights back and forth again.
“What does that mean?” asked Cade, turning to him.
“It’s a signal to be prepared for a major, all out attack,” he answered. Josiah stopped for a moment, staring curiously at David waving the lights, then started pacing again, singing faster.
After awhile, intense neon green fires began exploding out in the large ovals in the sky. The miners and the soldiers just kept staring intently at the oval lights just hovering in the sky. The silent explosions raged on, while everyone watched, for awhile longer, until finally the fires burned out. The bright, colourful ovals remained for a few more minutes, then faded into the black, flowing sky.
The next morning, Josiah raced Blake to the rock cluster called, “The Point.” Blake jumped from rock to rock, angling left and right under the Sunday Evergreens. Gray light rays flickered past him. Fast paced, energetic singing blended with the whistling birds just ahead.
Blake gazed up at the upper dark green mossy slope littered with random sleek black stones under the trees. The gray lights spiraled down through the numerous clusters of bright blue leaves each in unique shapes. He caught a momentary flash.
Josiah sang out louder and louder, faster and faster as he shot straight up the slope in a direct line to The Point. The three large flat black rocks with a small one on top holding a long, thin rock jutting far out from the cluster, pointing toward the white and gray hazy rolling mountains stretching far off below.
Blake dove for the cluster. Breathing hard, he struggled up to the flat top of The point. He sighed heavily as he turned to see Josiah sprawled out flat next to him, eyes closed, looking like a dying fish. After awhile, the two kids sat up, and gazed out toward the mountain tops directly in front of them.
A sleek blue alien ship dropped fast from behind one mountain to another. The kids watched the fast rolling gray sky closely. Blake kept shifting position on the rough, powdery black stone. Josiah slid back and forth, humming a fast constantly changing tune. Another sleek, triangular alien ship appeared momentarily, dropping diagonally from right to left.
“They’re going to attack tonight,” Josiah said in a low voice, “and they’re planning something big.”
Glittering small jewels embedded in the slick blue walls reflected across the dark blue water. Cade, Blake, Drew, and Josiah stared out at the long water channel flowing through the multi-coloured rocks in the upper caverns.
“You see anything?” asked Blake.
“Nothing’s happening,” Cade answered.
“Keep watching,” said Josiah, pacing behind them.
“How long are we supposed to watch them?” asked Cade.
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” answered Josiah. “But some kind of light is supposed to appear in them if they’re the ones. They should light up like puzzle pieces.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” said Blake. Faint singing drifted into the cavern.
“I don’t know, they’re supposed to light up and look like puzzle pieces.” Cade turned away with a long sigh while the others kept staring at the reflections.
“What about when the tide goes down?” asked Drew. Cade ran his hands over the slick blue wall, touching the small bright jewels in different colours.
“That’s another possibility,” said Josiah, “if we time it right, maybe it’s one of these rocks along the channel, changed by the waters.” Just then, Cade looked over to see an intense, gold flashing light spilling out from a nearby tunnel entrance.
“You guys keep watching, I’m going to check this out,” said Cade. The kids just kept staring quietly. “Cool,” he added with a quick nod. Cade entered a long, slick blue staircase dimly lit by widely spaced dark orange lanterns. The gold light flashed at a slow rhythm from high around the corner.
The lantern lights grew dimmer and dimmer as he jogged up the long staircase. Chilling green mist rolled down the steps. Cade got down low. The cold mist silently spilled down the steps for several minutes. Strong, but peaceful singing cut the silence.
Cade crept up the steps reaching a wide, dark tunnel where the lady’s singing came through clear. Glittering gold light flashed from the top of the steps. Cade got down low, and peered into the long tunnel. Still, distant gold lights flickered momentarily in the distance.
Cade smiled, then jogged down the empty tunnel. His shoes scraped across the dusty black rocky ground. He followed the lady’s sweet, pure singing, not growing louder, but coming in more clear. She sang a bouncy, fun song about going to different beaches.
Dim, gold lights began to appear ahead. Miners came into focus, hammering away and cutting into the rough rocky walls. Many of them were old, a few were middle aged, and a few were kids. Cade stared intrigued at the glittering small gold glowing marbles showing up in the wall.
“I haven’t seen these before.”
Cade jumped, then turned around fast. “Cows and beans, how did you…have you been behind me this whole time?”
Josiah flashed him a confused look. “Cows and beans?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I got bored,” Josiah answered with a shrug, before walking fast up the tunnel, humming to Callie’s song. Cade sighed, following him up the slope, turning slowly to the right.
“Trying to give me a heart attack,” Cade muttered. He passed a long line of miners working hard and fast, then stopped cold.
David grabbed a large stone and walked it fast dumping it into a large wheelbarrow. He quickly grabbed another one from the rubble along the crumbled left wall and took it to the wheelbarrow. Once it was full, he quickly wheeled it up the tunnel to another entrance.
“What are you looking at?” asked Cade.
Josiah just stood watching David quickly take another stone to another wheelbarrow. In the background, Callie worked her way quickly up the rubble, digging through and picking out small, smooth black stones and dropping them into buckets while singing her fun, energetic song.
Cade gazed over at the kids working close to Callie, helping find small stones. The chilling, green mist rolled into the active tunnel, quickly covering the floor. He glanced over at Josiah. He kept standing there, standing still, watching David with a solemn, intrigued gaze.
“What are you looking at?”
“He works just like my dad did,” Josiah answered in a still tone. Josiah walked over to David as he filled the wheelbarrow. “Can I help?”
“Sure,” David answered, wiping sweat across his forehead. “We need to fill as many of these as possible.”
“For the attack tonight?” David just nodded.
“Cool, let’s roll.” Just then, Cade noticed the gold flashing light high around the bend.
“Catch you later, Josiah,” he said before taking off up the slope. Green mist rolled faster and faster, pumping out in fast crashing waves. The gold lights flashed stronger and brighter. A small cavern opened up. Cade slid to a stop, gazing up at the glittering gold rocks embedded high in the slick black stone wall with various narrow ledges.
Several young adults were setting up ladders, preparing to mine the brilliantly flashing gold lights. “This is it, this is it.”
“I believe we just found what David couldn’t.”
Glittering gold ships hovered in the dark blue evening sky between the mountains directly across from Ghost Peak. David stood calm at the fort top. Josiah paced behind him, humming nervously. Cade stood next to the DadeStar flag, holding completely still in the chilly breeze.
“What are they waiting for?” asked Cade. David just stared out at the lower slopes. Blake and Drew gazed at the intensely shining ships, intrigued. The four ships moved slowly across the sky, blazing gold trails, creating small ripples through the dark blue streaming clouds. They disappeared behind the mountains.
David raised one dim blue lantern light, shaking it slightly. Cade watched below as several cannons were set in place. He looked over to where Casey sat low behind a hidden fort wall, just staring straight ahead calmly, but intensely. Eerie waves of gold lights began pulsating from behind the mountains.
They crashed and collided from various directions. Sour horns blared out. Josiah glanced up at the rippling night sky directly overhead, then walked up to David.
“I think they’re preparing something big behind those mountains,” he said.
“Possibly,” answered David.
“Where’s Callie?” David pointed to the back of the deck where a staircase led down into a lower part of the mountain wall.
“She stays with the young kids during the battles, to help them stay calm.”
“That’s why she was singing during the last battle?” David nodded. Josiah nervously watched the exploding glittering gold lights behind the mountains. “What if they have a new, massive weapon back there that can wipe us out?”
“We can’t control what they have,” David answered in a quiet tone, “only what we have, and how we respond.” Just then a massive explosion rocked the mountain from a short distance behind.
They all turned to see a large fire break out across the upper slope to the far left.
