Chapter 7: The Shield of Heart

At the heart-shaped table, True Heart and Noble Heart got right down to business. Grams and the cubs brought out some snacks for everyone to nibble on, and then joined the meeting themselves.

"The Caring Meter is at 6 points now. A few bears have completed their caring missions, but are going right on to other ones." Tenderheart explained to True Heart and Noble Heart. Clearly what they were doing wasn't enough, but they were all trying their hardest.

"Every bear seems pretty busy." Noble Heart said.

"Even the cousins are off on missions most of the day." Brave Heart added.

"Good. Well… we have been secretly investigating No Heart while we were away. He is teaching Emily, Vera, and Tanya the ways of evil. They grow worse by the day. If we don't stop them soon, their hearts won't be so easy to make good again. When he sends them to earth, it is to hurt others. As long as they are around and doing what they do, Care-a-lot doesn't have much of a chance…" True Heart said sadly.

"What else is No Heart doing?" asked Wish Bear.

"He is trying to get more children to join him. But nothing has worked, thankfully. If you hurt someone, they most likely won't want to help you out." Noble Heart said.

Wish nodded.

"Not only that, but he is building up more magic potions and weapons too. He's working on some kind of device… They're stronger. Beastly and Shreeky helped. We were trying to find out the source of his dark magic, and while we're certain there is something behind No Heart, we're not sure what." True Heart sighed.

"This is much worse than we thought." Tenderheart said.

"We're going to need a lot more than caring missions every day to really make a difference." Cheer said.

Sophie knew she had to speak up.

"Can I pitch an idea?" she asked.

"Is it a fastball?" Funshine chimed in. Nolan giggled. Cheer did, too.

"Yes of course, Sophie." Tenderheart said. Tenderheart smiled at Funshine's little pun.

"Why don't we go search for the shield in the Forest of Feelings now? There's still plenty of afternoon left."

Sophie was right. It was only 2:30 in the afternoon, and she was feeling more confident with her staff.

"Sophie has a point. The sooner we find the shield and crown, the better chance we have of winning against No Heart and protecting Care-a-lot." Wish nodded.

Tenderheart thought for a moment and then said, "Okay. Brave Heart, why don't you go to the Forest of Feelings with them and help them find either the crown or shield, whichever one is in the Forest."

"You bet'chya!" He said, jumping up and raring to go.

"Okay. A small break from this conversation. But once they are gone then we will talk again."

"Actually I think I'll go with them." Noble Heart said, "Plus, I haven't seen the Forest of Feelings for a while."

"Okay. But be careful." True Heart said.

True Heart and Noble Heart hugged. Then Tenderheart, Sophie, April, Nolan, Wish, Funshine, Cheer, Brave Heart and Noble Heart all went to the Rainbow Rescue Beam room.

Tenderheart started up the Rainbow Rescue Beam, and everyone stood on the heart-shaped platform.

"Wow, we get to ride on the Rainbow Rescue Beam!" Sophie said.

"Yeah! It's fun." Cheer said, bouncing up and down.

"Settle down please, the beam is almost ready to go." Tenderheart said, and entered the coordinates to the Forest of Feelings.

Then a white light began to shine brightly from the crystal heart above the gold arches. The light from it grew brighter until it was blinding. She held on tightly to her staff. Sophie closed her eyes the whole way. Wish Bear held her hand as they rode the Rainbow Rescue Beam.

When she opened her eyes, she was in the Forest of Feelings. A rainbow forest of trees surrounded her. The birds were singing wonderful songs. The air smelled of flowers and rich strawberries. She could hear the sound of a nearby stream. The Forest of Feelings was such a pleasant place!

"Wow, this place is amazing!" She said.

"Thank you." Brave Heart said proudly, "Now come on every bear. Let's get searching!"

"But we don't even know where to look!" April reminded them.

"Or which thing we're looking for." Nolan added.

"True. We have been looking all over the Forest of Feelings for a week or two and still haven't found the crown or the shield. Swift Heart Rabbit does patrols every day."

"Where would my mom hide the treasure…" She thought out loud, "Are there any secret places in the Forest of Feelings?"

"Lots of secret places actually, and that's just the problem. There's too many!" Noble Heart said.

"Let's go and look at the Rainbow Tree." Brave Heart said.

Wish told them on the way that the Rainbow Tree was where all the cousins lived. It was the largest tree in the Forest of Feelings, and the most colorful of them all.

Within a few minutes of walking on the path, they came to the Rainbow Tree.

Not only were the leaves rainbow-colored, so was the bark! Sophie was totally amazed by the tree.

"Wow!" she said again.

Everyone laughed kindly. Then they went and searched around the bottom of the tree, and looked under the thickest roots.

"Not finding anything. Why would it be here, anyway, if it's such a big landmark?" Sophie said as she made her way around the whole bottom of the tree.

"Yeah." Wish Bear agreed.

"I know of a place it might be." Noble Heart said when they had all looked around the Rainbow Tree and didn't find anything.

"Where?" asked Sophie.

"At a Rainbow Waterfall."

"It sounds pretty! Let's go." April said before Sophie could.

They all took off after Noble Heart into the Forest of Feelings and followed the path for a while. About ten minutes later they hopped off the path and went into the trees. Noble Heart said the waterfall was in the north.

As they went, Cheer sang a happy and energetic song to keep them entertained.

Noble Heart followed a rainbow stream. It took a while to get to the half-way point. As they did, Noble Heart decided it was time for a small rest. Everyone was glad for it. Wish Bear and Sophie collected water from the stream. With a little help of a wish, Wish Bear removed anything nasty or dangerous from the water. She even wished up some cups for them that would disappear when they were done.

They drank and Cheer went around in the trees to look for some apples to snack on. She came back a few minutes later with an armful of fruit. There were apples, bananas, rainbow fruit, and star fruit. Wish enjoyed a star fruit while Sophie had apples.

Once everyone was rested it was time to get moving again.

"Let's go everyone."

Then, the gem in Sophie's staff of caring turned dark purple. She stopped in her tracks.

"What's that mean?" she asked nervously. Maybe she didn't know much about her staff after all.

"Oh no. That means evil is near." Noble Heart said.

"I won't be surprised if it's Emily, Tanya, and Vera." said Funshine, crossing his arms.

"Well, let's move forward. But be careful." said Wish.

Everyone moved cautiously forward. Sophie went ahead with Noble Heart and Brave Heart. If there was one thing, she was the protector of all of them. She put her staff out in front of her.

They moved through the trees. Then up ahead Sophie heard Emily's voice. Sophie and her party stopped. They ducked down to the cover of the bushes.

"Are we close to the waterfall?" Sophie whispered to Noble Heart.

"Yes. It's right up ahead."

Even though the trees were thick, Sophie could now hear the rumble of the waterfall. Emily, Tanya, and Vera were picking their way around the waterfall, desperately searching.

"I give up. It's not here." Emily said.

"But we haven't even looked that long!" Tanya said.

"And what will No Heart say when we return empty handed, or worse… tell him that we didn't find the thing and destroy it?"

"Then that's a problem we'll deal with later. Besides, he needs us if he wants to win against those wretched Care Bears." Emily said.

Emily, Tanya, and Vera walked through the forest – right past Sophie and her crew. Sophie noted that Emily and her friend's outfits were a lot darker this time. Maybe Noble Heart was right about their hearts not being easy to change back. Would that even be possible?

As soon as the three bad girls moved far enough away, Sophie and her friends moved forward to the waterfall.

The waterfall was beautiful! Sophie gasped.

"Wow. I can't get over how beautiful the Forest of Feelings is."

And this made her want to protect it even more.

"Let's find that thing!" Funshine cheered.

"Careful. Emily and her goons are still nearby." Sophie warned him, showing him that her crystal was sill purple. But the purple was fading slowly.

They all looked around the waterfall, even went behind it to look for something. But they didn't find anything. Then April took off her flip-flops and wanted to rest her feet in the rainbow water. When she did, she kicked and splashed her feet around and then stubbed her toe.

"Ouch!" she shouted and pulled her feet out of the water. She scrambled to get her flip-flops back on, "Forget that!"

"What happened?" Sophie bounded down the rocks to her friend. Cheer came with too.

"I stubbed my toe on something in the water. It was hard. I don't think it was a rock."

Sophie then took off her shoes and socks and stepped into the water. The water went up to her knees. She had to roll up her shorts.

"Every bear, I think it's somewhere in the water!" she said.

All the Care Bears came down to help. Sophie was searching so intently that she didn't notice that her lightly purple gem was getting darker again. Sophie searched around right where April had stubbed her toe, and felt the same hard surface.

"Ouch!" she said, hitting her foot on it as she tried to take a step, "Yep, there's definitely something there. April, can you hold my staff?"

"Sure."

She carefully handed the staff over to April. April held to it tightly with both hands.

Sophie reached into the water and uncovered a lot of rocks. Then below the rocks was something smooth and big. She gasped. It must be the shield! She lifted it up out of the water, and found the shield of heart.

"The shield of heart!" She said victoriously.

But when she looked up, Emily, Vera, and Tanya had captured all of her friends. They were bound and gagged. How had Sophie not noticed? April (Vera was holding her tightly, but her hands weren't bound yet) quickly tossed the staff to Sophie. It landed in the water and Sophie fell backwards as she tried to catch it. Then Vera tied April's hands together.

"Alright, that's enough damage for now." Vera said.

"Let my friends go now!" Sophie shouted at the top of her lungs.

A huge wave of caring power surged through her as she held both the shield and the staff.

"Or else what?" Emily laughed, "You look so stupid holding those."

"Why don't you say that when you understand the power of caring?" Sophie said.

Sophie twirled the staff around carefully. She then marched right up to Emily.

"Let my friends go." she wasn't going to give up before anything had even started.

"Haha! You're kidding me." Emily couldn't stop laughing. She was really getting on her nerves.

"We're not letting them go. We're going to take them back to No Heart's palace and make them into potions and dark power, oh and take all their caring energy away with our new torture machine!" Tanya said.

"Girls, let's all try out our bracelets on Sophie."

They all raised their hands in the air, and temporarily discarded her friends to the side. Then they quickly moved their hands down, and blasted out dark power right at Sophie!

"Aaah!" she yelled, and held up the shield instinctively.

The shield bounced the evil backwards, right to Emily and her goons. Instead the power went right back into their bracelets and didn't hurt them like Sophie thought they would.

"Hah! Your shield won't do any damage!" Emily laughed.

The point of a shield was that it protected, Sophie thought to herself. Then she took a blast with the staff at the three bad girls. They dodged and the blast of rainbow light went to the trees. Sophie grumbled. They were getting harder to fight.

Then she had an idea that would get them to leave her friends alone.

"Take me instead." Sophie said.

"What?"

"Take me instead of them. I'm their protector."

Emily looked long and hard at Sophie. Sophie gulped nervously. Wish Bear shook loose the gag around her mouth.

"Sophie, don't!" She begged with tears in her eyes. She thrashed around, giving the ropes a hard time.

"I'm sorry Wish Bear, but I have to." she said frowning.

"Fine. But we need to dispose of those horrible things you have." Emily said, referring to the shield and staff.

Sophie didn't want to part with them. She looked to Wish Bear and had an idea in mind.

"I know a place. But let my friends go first before you take me."

Emily, Tanya and Vera untied the Care Bears and Cousins. They made their way to the very edge of the Forest of Feelings, to the west. It didn't take very long.

Then just before Sophie was about to deposit the staff and shield off over the edge of Care-a-lot, Brave Heart Lion whistled. As soon as Sophie let go, a blue blur went past them, but Emily paid no attention to it. She was concentrating on tying Sophie's hands together.

"Sophie, you don't have to!" Cheer wept.

"Don't worry. I'm the protector of Care-a-lot. So I'll protect it with all my heart." She said.

"Are you really going to be okay?" Noble Heart asked.

Now Emily put the gag around her mouth. But she looked at Noble Heart with a glance that said I know what I'm doing.

Noble Heart nodded, understanding her.

"She'll be fine." Noble Heart said.

Once Sophie was bound, Emily pulled a bike out of the clouds and pushed Sophie on it. Then Tanya and Vera hopped on too. They pedaled away to No Heart's castle. Sophie looked behind her and saw Care-a-lot getting smaller and smaller. She just hoped that she'd be able to get away from No Heart's palace and back to Care-a-lot.

I'll come back, Wish Bear, I promise, she thought to herself.