One day the cave goes very quiet. Which is to say all sense of presence in the cave diminishes.

Then something starts to happen a swirl of sand gathers together. It forms into a thin shape floating just above the ground over the smoothest part of the cave floor. Over the glass like surface disturbed only by what looks lik the occasional half rimmed sphere floats a shape in gently levitating sand.

...an arrow pointing down.

Kat sighed and sat back on her heels. the fact that the cave was not feely anymore made her feel icky. She was making very slow progress too. She looked at the flat rock she was using to try and scrape away at the cave floor. It was not working very well.

Why was Bright underground?

What if he was in lava like he would be when they went "swimming" It would burn her as sure as water would burn him. She frowned and kept on digging, one positively determined little Kat.

Clucksalot helps peck and scratch as long as Kat is scratching although the chicken does seem rather put out that she herself hasn't found any seeds or bugs.

Clucksalot protests this fact loudly. CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!! Scratch, Scratch, CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!!

Eventually the thin arrow of sand collapses. A very slight sense of presence returns to the cave.

Solid rock is not the easiest thing to dig through... Clucksalot eventually figures out she's only making her beak sore and wanders off to peck at some grass seed at the edge of the beach.

Cluck!

Kat sighed and threw the rock aside. Her hands were sore and blisterd and she was tired. And she'd barely made a scratch in the glassy rock. She wiped tears of frustration on her dirty sleeve and stood up from the floor. She walked through the cave again,looking to see if there were any seams in the glassy rock, any signs that it had been recently melted.

And she wished she had the lava beastie with her. HE could melt anything, even this rock.

She wondered if she should try blasting the ground with her magics. Her teacher in ShadowGlen, Vanir, had told her many times to never cast on things you didn't know anything about unless they didn't matter. Because different things had different reactions to magic. Everyone remembers what happend to Schmendric the great when he cast foolishly on a tree. The tree came to life and fell in love with the magician. If the unicorn hadn't come he'd still be stuck to that silly tree.

Kat wished she had a unicorn with her.
She tore off a bit of the wax covered paper from Bright's rucksack and scratched a very short note to her mommy on it.

"Still Looking." was all the note said and then she attached it to Glimmer's leg and sent him off to find Momma.

Then she sat down and began to think. Somehow Bright was down. Below her. In the rock. Bright could get hot enough to melt the rock. Kat shifted uncomfortably something niggling at the back fo her mind.

She could get hot too, but she didn't know if she could get hot enough to melt the rock. She closed her eyes and wings of bright orange, red and blue flames sprouted from her shoulders.

It was one of her best kept secrets. Kat was part Pheonix. That was the reason she was an eternal child. That was why she didn't grow up. She didn't understand it at all. But she had the fire feathers to prove it. Slowly she pulled a firey feather from her wings and dropped it to the ground waitint to see what would happen.

Kat was getting a bit light headed as it took a lot of her magic to make the feathers burn, and it was very hot in the cave now. She held one of her firey feathers in each hand and wiggled down into the hole she was making in the floor. It wasn't very deep yet, just deep enough for her to have to wiggle in, and her feet stuck out while she was like that.

She concentrated on the feathers, feeing their heat wash over her. She ran the feather along the glassy rock making it hotter and hotter and slowly the rock began to melt away and collect in a little bubble below it. Kat sent the the bubble up into the cave and popped it there letting the molten rock splash onto the cave floor.

Glimmer sat near Clucksalot, making sure the silly chicken didn't do something silly like go peck at the hot rocks. Piper and Swift perched on Kat's wiggling feet, the two normally rambunctious birds seemed docile. Kat had been using their magic to refil hers and they were very worn out little birdies.

Kat continued to dig, her hair matted to her face from the heat and dirt. As she dug she sang little songs about ants and plants and baby whales and happy things like that. And sometimes she would just sing

Twinkle Twinkle

Little Star

How I wonder where you are

Up above or down below

Where oh where did you go?

Twinkle Twinkle

Little Star

How I wonder where you are


And sometimes she would just shout out "Bright if you're down there help me melt the rocks!"

she was very very weary and her feathers were starting to not be hot enough but she kept on going, determined to find her friend.

As Kat is melting stone and clearing it away, rather suddenly the sense of presence in the cave winks out again.

What happens next happens very, very slowly. The cave floor slowly gets hotter and hotter.

Clucksalot leaves. She might only be a stupid chicken but she doesn't want her feet burned.

The cave floor eventually stablizes at a very hot temperature but inside Kat's hole it is much hotter. The rock is not hot enough to become molton but it is hot enough to burn.

It was HOT. Of that Kat was sure. And she believed the heat was due to Bright he was helping her. With the rock getting as hot as it was her little feathers didn't have to heat as much of the rock as they had before and the rock melted faster with less magic.

Kat's whole body felt very very warm as she wriggled around in the hole in the cave floor. It was like being inside the hot springs only without the water. Her eyes watered as she continued to dig through the hot rock. Her lips dryed up and began to crack and then to bleed. She licked them to keep them wet but pretty soon her whole mouth was dry.

Now any normal little child would not have lasted long in the heat of the cave, and the birds had long since flown out and perched nervously at the edge, but it was a good thing that Kat was no normal child. The Pheonix in her reveled in the heat. Her wings itched to break free from her shoulders. But she kept them in and kept digging. She knew she was close to Bright, she could feel it

Though her voice was dry and raspy she continued to sing to her best friend, hoping he'd hear her and help her find him.

Oh would you like to swing with a star
carry moon beans home in a jar
or be better off where you are
or would you rather be a frog?

A frog won't do anything, but jump and play
He has adventures almost every day
To eat bugs and have fun is his only thought
And though he's slippery, he still gets caught
But then if like to live in a bog
You may grow up to be a frog
A new kind of bright super star frog.

And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo
Every day you meet quite a few
So you see it's all up to you
You can be better than you are
You could be swingin' with a star