Riverwood II

Timmy took the stone out of his pocket and saw that it was glowing. Frightened, he started to run the rest of the way home. Immediately, he thought his best friend Joshua. Joshua had given Timmy the stone. Joshua's great, great grandfather Thomas was an explorer. He had founded Riverwood-the land of the Wishing Tree. Thomas left behind a trunk with his journal, papers, a wooden box, and the stone inside. Nothing explained what the stone did. Joshua's grandmother, Gram, was Thomas' granddaughter. She had written a book about the history of Riverwood and let Joshua and Timmy read it. It explained how Thomas and an Indian boy, Running Bear, had found the Wishing Tree. They left riddles and clues for the kids to follow. Overcoming fear, hard work, and caring were what made them worthy of the magic. Many years ago the Indians had sent their young men out into the woods to become brave. When they returned, they would all talk of magical creatures that had helped them. Last summer, with the help of Amira, Running Bear's great, great granddaughter, and Angel, Gram's next door neighbor, Joshua and Timmy had followed the signs and used the tools to find the Wishing Tree. When they did, they were each given a fairy of their own. The fairies chose their humans and were mostly invisible. They stayed close by and could give hints or signs, but not make decisions. They could only do good. Only their human knew their name, and could talk to them by holding tight to the tree emblem on their necklace, given to them by Shadow, the cat when he found them worthy of the magic. It was Thursday afternoon. School had just let out and Timmy was walking home alone. A misty rain started to fall. As a chill ran down his back, he became very nervous. Timmy felt as if someone or something was following him. He still carried the stone that Joshua had given him. He played with it nervously in his pocket. Timmy looked around for Shadow, the cat. He couldn't see him anywhere. Shadow was a black cat that guarded the Wishing Tree. It had tested them before they could find the Wishing Tree. Timmy remembered that whenever the cat was around, it would make a person's fear or sadness worse, until it proved you worthy of the magic of the tree. The feeling he felt now was just like that, only worse. Something was wrong!