This one's by Teh-Drabbler!

---

Chapter 3

The two girls stared blankly at the huge mountain of rock candy. Neither was sure what they had been expecting, but they had not been expecting this… this…

This tourist attraction .

Bright banners were draped from pillars. Colorful dragons guarded the entrance to the temple. Foreigners paused to snap photos at every opportunity. The shrine was crowded and noisy with visitors and monks alike. But these were not just any monks. These monks were selling things.

Abby sighed. Her Chinese had always been weak, but she knew enough to translate the banner advertising "lucky rock candy" from the sacred caverns for only 40 Yuan.

Henrietta's blue eyes were icy. "Is zis vhat you call 'candy hunting', Abigail?"

"Save it, Heiny," Abby spat. "I'm just as disappointed as you are."

"Somehow, I doubt it."

You have no idea, Abby thought, leading the way into the temple. They came all this way, so might as well pick up some souvenirs.

"Welcome, young travelers." The young monk sat behind a long table, bags of rock candy scattered across the table with even more displayed on the counter behind him. "You are here to sample the legendary rock candies of Móshù Táng Caverns, yes?"

Henrietta snorted derisively, earning a soft elbow in the side from Abby. Henrietta merely crossed her arms as her frown deepened. "Sorry," Abby apologized to the monk. "My friend and me… well, we were expecting something a little less…public."

"You mean you didn't hear about us in the brochure?"

Abby grimaced. "No… we had a map." A fake map, she thought bitterly, remembering all the trouble it had been to get. Maybe it's for the best. It was a dumb idea, anyway.

"A map?" the monk asked, suddenly losing interest in his sales pitch. "Might I see this map? We might be interested in… buying it. For our museum."

Henrietta's head snapped around, blue eyes narrowing suspiciously. Abby felt her spine tense, but kept her face blank. Abby knew she and Heiny were thinking the same thing: no one bought—or even offered to buy—a worthless map.

This guy—this monk—might know something. Letting him see it might get them information, or they could lose the map entirely. And if this place wasn't the real caverns, if Móshù Táng was somewhere else, they wanted to find it. They had to.

But… was it worth the risk?

Abby studied the monk for a moment, then pulled the map from her backpack and handed it to him.

"Abigail!"

Abby yanked her shocked friend close and hissed in her ear, "We're stuck right now. If we're even gonna have a shot at this thing, we gotta see if he knows something."

Henrietta glared at the monk for a minute, then crossed her arms and said nothing.

The monk unfolded the parchment carefully, studying the ancient markings like someone who knew what to look for. His expression was blank. Unreadable. After a long, silent minute, he folded the paper, placed a sign featuring a pair of characters on the table, and looked at the girls.

"Come with me."