Chapter 55—Glowworms

Chaz's eyes bugged out of his head, and he let out a yelp of surprise. He had turned a sharp corner in the cave and spotted a hanging cluster of brilliant glowworms radiating their extraordinary blue light. Finally, a sign, he thought. It was the first they'd seen in three days of exploring.

"Chaz, what is it?" Taylor asked, and ran toward the sound. Tip followed his sister through the dimly lit cave toward Chaz, who squatted directly under the bright blue orb.

"Hurry up," Chaz shouted. "This is amazing. I bet it's our marker. Look, the glowworms are directly in front of this new opening. Hope I didn't scare them," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Do you think this is the right cave? Kuthumi said glowworms would be a sign." And we're running out of time, Chaz thought.

As the team tiptoed toward the colony, Chaz held still so as not to frighten the worms. Hundreds of tiny creatures flashed their famous blue radiance.

Jojo placed a hand over his amulet and closed his eyes. After a few minutes they popped opened. "This is the cave," he announced.

Everyone slapped hands to celebrate the moment. After nothing but dead ends, they were finally closer to making their discovery.

"Don't get too excited, mates. The glowworms are a good sign, but we need a plan." Jojo removed his hat and rubbed his damp hair with his red neckerchief.

"It's midmorning, and we have no idea how far we have left to go, or how much time it'll take to find the stones. If we explore for another three hours, that will leave three hours to get back. If we haven't found them by then, we'll set out before sunrise tomorrow. What do you think, mates?"

"We have to keep going," Chaz said. "The full moon's closing in on us."

"Taylor?"

"I'm with Chaz," she said. "Feels like we're getting close."

Jojo looked at Tip, who removed his glasses and wiped his face. Then he started cleaning his glasses. Everyone else was ready to move on.

"What are we standing around for?" Chaz said. "Let's get this over with." He turned his headlamp on full blaze and disappeared into the new cave opening.