"In due time…" Halinor whispered to herself.
"In due time-OW!" A sharp nudge to her ribcage broke her concentration.
"Wake up sleeping beauty we're home!" Cassidy exclaimed.
Halinor glanced around. Indeed they were back at The Silver Dragon, everything just as it was before they'd made their other worldly trip.
Halinor sighed. This was overwhelming. What was happening to her?
"I was thinking about when The Oracle said in due time," Halinor explained, "What do you think he meant by that?" She asked.
"That he was sick of us interrogating him for the day." Yan-Lin joked.
"That he was closed for business until further notice." Cassidy joined in.
Halinor rolled her eyes. Any other time Yan-Lin and Cassidy's playful tag team humor might be funny, but right now it was totally unhelpful.
"No seriously you guys, it wasn't what he said that I didn't get. It was-"
"How he said it." Kadma interrupted, "I heard it too."
Halinor smiled appreciatively at her best friend. Leave it to Kadma to understand her when no one else could.
"Well I think you're both being crazy." Cassidy replied. "We have more important things to consider than one last parting word."
Nerissa nodded, "We'll think about it later guys. First things first, we need to pay a little visit to Hades down in the underworld."
Halinor could feel her heart beat rev at the thought of another encounter with the humanoid bug creature.
"Not right now, please Rissy." Halinor begged. "I'm beat after this day."
Yan-Lin yawned and stretched her thin limbs. "Same here."
"Third." Cassidy agreed.
"I'm just annoyed." Kadma added.
"Wow that's new." Cassidy replied sarcastically.
Kadma threw a cookie at her. Cassidy threw one back. Yan-Lin and Nerissa laughed and Halinor observed the spectacle, her worry intensifying.
They were just a bunch of teenage girls! How were they gonna protect the entire world? Couldn't they just leave the protecting to the Heatherfield police force and get on with their lives?
"Okay!" Nerissa suddenly exclaimed, "Then it's decided we'll go out tonight. You all know the drill same time, same place we're going underground!"
The other girls nodded.
Halinor groaned.
Plink! Plink! Plink!
The irritating noise penetrated Halinor's sleep from somewhere far away. Incessant and annoying just like an alarm clock.
Halinor sighed deeply before throwing her sunshine yellow covers away from her baby doll top wearing body. She threw her long legs over the edge of her bed and slipped into a pair of flip flops.
"It's too late at night for this jive." Halinor grumbled irritably to herself before climbing out of her room window.
Once her bare feet touched the dewy ground she ran with alongside Kadma to Cassidy's brother's car.
"Hey Hali." Nerissa chirped sounding wide awake. She obviously didn't mind being up and about at practically one in the morning and neither did Cassidy, but Halinor begged to differ.
"Hey." Halinor yawned.
When the engine started and the car began heading to down town, Halinor felt the familiar wriggling in her stomach. The guilty, excited, nervous, anxious, and a little bit hungry feeling.
It wasn't like they hadn't done this before. They'd been doing it for practically a year now. But Halinor still got nervous from blatantly breaking so many rules
It was an idea Cassidy had had one night when they were having a sleep over at her house. The girls would creep out to her garage; start up the little blue-green buggy; put it in neutral and push it down the street so as not to make any noise. Then she would start it up and the girls would drive to The Golden Diner. But tonight was different. Tonight there would be no playful shushing and giggling as they climbed out of Cassidy's window; no singing to the hits on the radio as they drove to the best diner in town; and no eating at their favorite booth in their night gowns and baby doll tops. No, tonight they were going underground to face the scariest creature Halinor had ever laid eyes on and quite possibly do the last thing in the world Halinor wanted to do: fight it.
After picking up Yan-Lin' the girls drove to one of the heather fields for which their small city was named; parked the car in the grass and piled out.
"So," Yan-Lin spoke, "Now what?"
Nerissa looked pointedly at Kadma until the other girls did the same.
Kadma slowly turned her swan-like neck to face them a befuddled look on her flawless face.
"What?" She asked.
"Are you not the earth guardian?" Nerissa slowly asked.
Kadma nodded, her long hair caught the damp breeze.
"At least that's what everyone keeps saying." She replied.
"And is Hades 'kingdom' not underground."
Halinor could see Kadma connecting the dots in her mind.
The girl held up her hands in protest. "Wait, you guys want me to get us there?"
"Yeah, why not?" Everyone but Halinor replied.
"I don't know how to do that!" Kadma screeched.
Nerissa stretched her fist to Kadma's face and opened her palm to reveal that dreaded pink orb of hers. "Will this help?"
With out giving Kadma a chance to respond she exclaimed: "GAURDIANS UNITE!"