CHAPTER 20
SECRETS OF THE LOCKE JEWEL
The path from Gloom Spout Trail emerged into honeyed light. Meadow Brook Cottage appeared in the distance looking like a paradise after the hellish scenario of the cave.
The windows of the cottage were burnished gold against the bruising purple of encroaching twilight. The brook itself chuckled merrily past the doorstep, and for one heartbeat nobody spoke. They’d made it. With Tasha. Alive.
They hurried inside, ravenous enough to devour food for an army. Coco, Goldwynn and Papa Koala set out to cook a scrumptious meal for everyone.
The dining table was a wide, scarred oak. They fell on it like wolves. Goldwynn tore apart fresh biscuit rolls. Hopper, Dapper and Chipper inhaled the mushroom stew straight from the pot, passing on steaming bowls
Tasha, swaddled in her downy quilt, dozed by the hearth — exhausted and content after a hearty meal of herb porridge and warm milk.
Only Papa Koala didn’t eat. He watched the fire, his claws steepled, until the worst of the gnawing hunger passed. Then, his voice was a drawl. Dreamy and unfocused.
"The Locke Jewel... it's a shard from the Starwood Crystal — a legendary artifact forged when the Mistwood forest was born. The Crystal had granted the Pioneer creatures power to shape reality. But it shattered, and the shards were hidden in different locations."
The room went still. Everyone stopped chewing and sipping.
Goldwynn leaned in, stew forgotten, eyes bright as flint. "Shards... like the Locke Jewel?"
Papa Koala nodded once. "It’s one of seven. Six are found and are safely tucked away. Whoever gathers all seven rewrites time itself. The forest’s laws, the creatures’ fates... everything changes."
Chipper let out a low whistle that flicked the candle flames. "Pigs want that power!"
Papa’s shoulders sagged, weariness hitting him all at once. "Pigs serve the Xaringmere Cragg Rise King — The Mighty Boar. He’s after all the shards to bend time.”
The word hung there, ugly. Goldwynn slammed a fist on the table. "Then we gotta get the Locke Jewel back. Stop that King."
Papa Koala’s gaze sharpened, suddenly, terribly sober. "We’ll need more allies. The keepers of Mistwood Hollow safeguard the Jewel’s locations. And secrets can kill."
Silence reigned. Then Hopper’s grin was as sharp as a polished blade. "Time to get messy then."
The Knights Army — Goldwynn, and the trio nodded in unison. No speeches. Just a pact, sealed in grease and lamplight. Chase the Shadows. Retrieve the Locke Jewel. Stop the Xaringmere Cragg King.
Dapper kicked back from the table, wiping his snout. "So where’s this Cragg Rise? We walk in, ask the Boar nice?"
Papa unrolled a scroll of hide across the table. It smoked at the edges, charred from some old fire. Ink bled into routes, rivers, deep woods and craggy hillsides.
"Xaringmere Cragg Rise sits past the Mistwood Hollow. Three days if the pigs don’t hunt us. If the wind doesn’t flay us. If the Shadows don't hear us coming.
Chipper jabbed a claw at a skull mark. "And what’s this? ‘Turn back’ in nice letters?"
"Bone fields,"Papa said. "The King keeps his dark magic there."
Tasha whimpered in her sleep. Every adult at the table pretended not to hear it.
"We need more than a burnt map,"Goldwynn said. "We need the Shadow's cipher. Mistwood Hollow trades in riddles."
Papa Koala rose from his armchair. "Then we head upstairs to the library."
He led them down a narrow hall where the cottage exhaled cool air and dust. The library was a round room, shelves bowing under leather and scroll tubes, a circular rug hiding a trapdoor. One lamp. One desk. And on that desk: a paperweight.
A crystal apple, red as fresh blood, caught the lamplight and threw it back wrong — not reflected, but deeper, like there was a storm swirling inside the glass.
Hopper reached for it and jerked backwards instantly as if electrified.
"It’s just glass,"Hopper hissed. “What just happened?”
"That's never happened before! What is it, Hopper ? Are you alright? ", Papa whispered with concern.
Nobody touched the apple. But nobody looked away from it either. Its facet cut the room into slices, and in one fleeting vision Goldwynn swore she saw the Cragg Rise, black against the majestic lightning.
To Be Continued...
This post is part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge 2026.
https://www.theblogchatter.com/blogrolls/secrets-of-the-locke-jewel-day-21-letter-s
Yikes!
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