A/N: Not much of a summary for the last chapter, except to say that Danny and Sam have come up with a unique code word, to say the least. Hope you're still enjoying this story. And, finally, Shadow, we're back to the puzzle! Now IDOAC! Here is Chapter 29. Enjoy!
Shadow of a Doubt—Chapter 29—Frustrating Search
After a very refreshing lunch—which, for Tucker, at least, is always refreshing—Tucker took out his PDA and said with a satisfied grin, "OK, my stomach and I are finally able to get back to all of this, so let's look at that clue again, shall we?"
Sam and Danny were just finishing their last bites when they nodded in agreement.
Tucker then said, "OK, we all know about the 'brown mount', but here's the rest of the riddle again: 'Look for the blue sea, and the first black count'.
All three looked at each other and blinked again. They still had no clue.
"Well, of course, we'll still have to go the mountain to look for the next clue," Danny said.
"So, then, what are we waiting for?" Sam excitedly asked, as she stood up to throw her trash away…
In no time the three friends had retrieved Sam and Tucker's boosters and then they headed to Mount Melancholy. They landed at its base and were silent again.
"Look for the blue sea…look for the blue sea," Danny mumbled, grabbing his chin. His friends were also just as busy beating their brains. Danny then reached into one of his pockets in order to pull out the scroll to get to the map when he suddenly gasped.
"What's wrong?" Tucker asked.
"The last scroll—it's gone!" Danny gasped again, frantically checking the rest of his pockets. "I must have lost it during the fight with that Spectre!" He sighed a little and added, "At least the rings are still here!" He pulled them out and showed them to his friends. Then he put them carefully back into their separate pockets.
"Well, we can't worry about it now," Sam insisted, placing her hand on Danny's shoulder, trying to cheer him. "That's why we backed it up in Tucker's PDA!"
Danny calmed down a little and said, "You're right, Sam. But it's just that I was so careful with it!"
"We know, dude," Tucker chimed in, looking sympathetically at his friend. "It's just that we don't have time to look for it. It could be anywhere!"
"I know you're right, too, Tuck," Danny agreed. He reopened the map and barely glanced down at it because he was still upset about the scroll. "Well, there's a lake nearby. It's called Lake Shadesville. Maybe that will give us a clue. Let's go look for it."
He began to soar upward toward the lake. Since his friends didn't have any other ideas, they shrugged and followed the ghost boy.
As they flew toward the lake, they saw the valley below. It wasn't, of course, green right now because of the time of the year; but it was there. Finally, they spotted the lake, which was about a mile from the mountain.
As they flew nearer to the lake, Danny cocked his head and looked at it from that angle. He thought of the map. Then he frowned in surprise when he thought of the part of the riddle about the river where the pier had been. "Duh!" he uttered to himself as he brightened with the thought. "Hey, guys," he excitedly said, "Let's go up higher. I want to check something out!"
They obliged him and they soared even higher with Danny leading the way. Finally he stopped and hovered directly above the lake.
"OK, I give, Danny," Sam said as she caught up with him.
"Yeah, me, too!" Tucker agreed, right on Sam's heels.
"Look down!" he commanded with a triumphant look on his face.
They did, and then they both gasped before their faces quickly mirrored their friend's satisfied smile.
"No wonder it's called a 'riddle'," Tucker muttered, a little annoyed with the clue.
And when they started to float downward toward the shore, they just knew that they had to be in the right place. Like the "sea"-shaped bend in the river, the 'blue sea' had to refer to the 'C-shaped' blue lake! The Spectre had spelled "c" as "sea"!
As the three friends skirted along the banks of Lake Shadesville, they talked in haste, trying to figure out the last part of the riddle. Their hearts pounded with excitement, knowing that they were closer to solving this mystery of the Prophecy's Omen.
"OK, guys," Danny said, his voice obviously excited as they flew closer to the bank of the lake. "Don't forget: 'And the first black count'." He just knew that they were near the end of the mystery.
The other two teens nodded and they proceeded ahead, not knowing, of course, what they were looking for.
After about a half-hour, Danny signaled for them to land. They landed on the bank of the middle part of the "C".
"Well, guys, here we are being good at being completely lost again! I have no clue what that clue means!" Danny admitted.
"Neither do I!" Tucker moaned.
Sam added, "OK. I'm stumped, too. But let's try something else. We know we have to look for something 'black'. The lake is not that big, so why don't we all start on our own part? Maybe Danny can search the top third of the "C"; Tucker the middle third, and I the bottom of the "C". Then we can concentrate a little more in each of our sections and not feel rushed all at once. We might find something black that way.
"Or we might find lots of black 'somethings'!" Tucker moaned again.
Sam frowned in irritation, but Danny said to her with a smile, "I think it's as good a plan as any, as always!
She smiled back and suggested, "How about if we don't find something that's an important kind of black..." —emphasizing the word 'important' for Tucker to take notice in particular—"…in about an hour, we meet back here?"
"OK!" both Danny and Tucker said in unison.
All three of them separated and headed to each of their 'assigned' section. But the hour passed slowly and painfully and they rendezvous in disappointment.
"Maybe the 'blue sea' meant the 'sea' and not the 'C'," Tucker said with a sigh.
"No, this has got to be it!" Sam insisted with a determined look on her face.
Danny sighed and then suggested, "Well, maybe we all need a big break from this whole thing. It does take a while to get home and it's not like we can just dart back here tomorrow, because after all, we still have school. Even if we tried to come here after school, it's too far and we would be getting here in the dark and couldn't see a thing even if we wanted to! So, then, we don't have much choice, I guess, but to head home for now."
His friends nodded weakly.
"But we can get back here on Friday because it's the beginning of Christmas break!" Tucker said with a smile as he checked his calendar on his PDA.
Danny and Sam looked at their friend and smiled. Tucker had kept a calendar like that way before all of this and when he was once mayor of Amity Park.
"Ok, then, are you two ready to just forget everything for now and have a fresh outlook on it by next Friday?" Danny asked.
Sam and Tucker nodded and they all started for home.
And they tried to forget the clue; and had actually forgotten about the lost second scroll.
