3.
As he stood there in the shadows, Jacen was tempted to bust the four riders right then and there. Just as he was about to though, he had a better Idea.
"If I want to stop this or at least majorly discourage it from happening again," he thought, "Then I need to bust the entire party, not just these four."
After the four riders had climbed over the gate and disappeared from sight. Jacen turned and hurried back to the stables. When he got there, he went straight to Max's house and knocked on the door.
Max, who looked like he had just woken up, appeared at the door dressed in his pajamas.
"What in the world is it, Jacen?" he asked rubbing his eyes
"Max, sorry to wake you, but I thought you should know, four of your guest riders have flown the coup to go to a midnight party!" Jacen informed him.
"What!?" said Max now fully awake, "How did they get past the Chaperones?"
"That's the other problem," said Jacen, "I overheard Jake Turner, one of four "escapees", bragging that he slipped some kind of knockout drug into their food at supper tonight. According to him, they could be asleep until noon tomorrow."
"Great, Just Great," muttered Max, "If the International Equestrian Association hears about this, Willow Creek and Pine Hollow's reputation with them will be completely trashed!"
"Not if we can stop that party before it gets out of control," said Jacen, "But first we have to wake up the Chaperones! I'm going to search Jake Turner's room and see if I can find the knockout stuff he used on them."
"Good Idea," said Max, "I'll get dressed and meet you there!"
Jacen nodded and headed for the guest houses.
Max tiptoed through the living room to get back to his and Deborah's bedroom without waking up the three Saddle Club girls who were camping in his living room because the chaperones were sleeping in the lounge.
He closed his bedroom door and got dressed as quietly as he could filling in Deborah on what was going on.
But when he opened his door all, three saddle club girls were in the living room completely dressed and waiting for him.
"What kept you?" smiled Lisa, "We've got to help Jacen."
"How?" said Max
"Jacen's knocking woke us up," said Stevie
"Yeah," said Carole, "And your conversation with him wasn't as quiet as you think it was."
Max sighed. He didn't have time to argue with them so he just motioned them to follow him.
"Come on." He said shaking his head.
A few minutes later they all walked into Jake Turner's room in guesthouse number 3. Jacen, who was already there, raised an eyebrow when Max walked in followed by all three Saddle Club girls.
"Don't ask," said Max.
"What're we looking for?" asked Stevie
"Jake turner drugged the Chaperones so that he and several of his friends could sneak out to a party in the basement of the motel," explained Jacen, "But you probably already knew that, what we need is to find out what he used so we know how to safely counteract it."
The girls nodded and began helping to search the room. A few minutes later Stevie called out.
"I think I found something!"
The others hurried over to her.
She had been checking a painting on the back wall of the room, when she discovered something taped to the back of the wide frame.
Pulling on the tape until it came loose, she discovered a small medicine bottle with a narrow neck. She brought it out and held it up.
"Could this be it?" she asked
Before Jacen could react, Lisa took the bottle, opened it and took a big sniff. She immediately wobbled and would have fallen if Max hadn't been quick enough to catch her.
"That's it alright," she said shaking her head to try and clear it.
"No kidding," said Carole, "Lisa, you shouldn't have done that, you could've just read the label!"
Lisa looked a little sheepish.
"Oh yeah," she said, "Oops."
Max just rolled his eyes.
Jacen took the bottle and read the label.
"It looks like if we want to neutralized this stuff before it metabolizes naturally, we need the extract of something called Wanderer's heart." Said Jacen
"Does anybody know what that is?" he asked
"I do," said Lisa, "It's a flower that grows in a valley a few miles from here, but the closer place to get some extract would be at the Moondance clan's campground down by the creek."
"Well come on let's go," said Jacen, "We'll take my motorbike."
Lisa and Jacen hurried outside to Jacen's motorbike. Jacen fired up the bike as Lisa climbed on behind him, put on her helmet, and held on to his waist.
He shot off down the road that she had indicated. About ten minutes later, they reached the camp.
"Wait here," said Lisa, "I'll have to go wake up their healer, Cassandra. She should have what we need."
Lisa disappeared into the campground. A few moments later she was knocking on the door of Cassandra's trailer.
a second later a slightly sleepy Cassandra opened the door. Lisa apologized for waking her and explained the situation. Cassandra understood and provided Lisa with a small bottle of the desired extract. Lisa thanked her sincerely and headed back to where Jacen was parked with the jar tucked safely in her pocket.
Right before she came within sight of Jacen, she suddenly heard the sounds of a fight! Braking into a run she rounded a trailer and saw Jacen, over by his bike, in a fight with two Romani boys. Lisa recognized them as Torino and his brother Jaben. They were basically the Clan's night watchmen and they were attacking Jacen with clubs. Jacen blocked one blow only to get hit with a cheap shot from the other one!
Lisa whirled around and ran the few feet to Rafael's trailer. She began to pound on the door with both fists!
Seconds later a confused Rafael appeared at the door.
"Lisa, what are you doing here?"
"Rafael," she snapped angrily pointing at the fight, "Call them off!"
TO BE CONTINUED…