Chapter
2. Crystal CavernsChapter
2. Crystal Caverns
The next morning, Jenny woke up and had to convince herself that the crystal cavern had been real. She made sure that the crystal piece that she and Shana had broken off yesterday was still in her backpack. Thank goodness, she thought, it's still there. I wasn't dreaming. She got dressed as quick as she could and then ate breakfast before heading to the bus stop. She resisted the urge to tell her friends at school about the crystals, because she didn't want everyone to start coming out there when she was exploring the caverns.
At recess time - 10:15am - Jenny went to the library, taking her backpack with her, and looked up GEOLOGY in the computer catalogue. She just picked the first book on the list and wrote down the CALL number on a scrap of paper that was next to the computer. It was 535.15 SHA. She knew that since all the books for geology would be in the same section, all she needed was the first few numbers of the call number to be able to find the right section. Then she looked down the aisles to find the 500-550 aisle and then ran about half way down the aisle and scanned her eyes quickly up and down until she saw the number 535. Sure enough, all the books in that section were about geology. Some of the book titles that looked interesting were "Crystal Identification Handbook", "Karsts and Caverns", and "Crystallography". She first grabbed the small "Crystal Identification Handbook" and flipped through the pages looking at the pictures, hoping to find a picture of a crystal that looked like the purple crystal she had in her backpack. There was a purple crystal called Amethyst in the book, but after taking the crystal out of her backpack and closely comparing it to the picture, she knew that the shape of her crystal was totally different than the crystal in the picture.
Recess was almost over, so Jenny grabbed several of the books and went to check them out before heading back to her classroom. Later during reading time in class, she started reading the Crystallography book. There was a chapter on crystal color; describing the reason that different types of crystals have different colors. She found out that usually the color is due to the type of atoms making up the basic crystalline structure. Sometimes impurities occur and cause the crystal to have a different color than it would if it were pure. She then realized that she might not be able to figure out what type of crystal it was just based on the purple color.
Geode Space: Crystal Caverns (page 2)
After school, all four girls met at Shana and Kerry's house and then headed off to the secret cavern. They brought Shana's dad's crowbar with them because they thought it would help move the rocks so they could get down to see the crystals better.
They made it to the cave in just 15 minutes from the time they left Shana's house. That would leave them plenty of time to explore the cavern if they could get down into it. All four girls were huddled down in the bottom of the cave now trying to pry some of the rocks up. Shana said, "Come here and help me move this big rock." The other girls all pulled up on the rock as Shana pushed down on the crowbar to try to wedge the rock up. They were able to turn the rock over and out of the way, leaving an opening that was plenty big enough to allow them to lower themselves down into the CRYSTALLINE cavern.
Jenny pointed the flashlight down into the large crystal cavern beneath them, and the sight of all of the shining crystals awed them just as much as it had the first time they had seen it. None of the girls had never even imagined anything this beautiful before. They lowered themselved down throught the opening, one by one, and then stood in the cavern, amazed at the crystals all around them, covering the entire surface of the floor, walls, and ceiling.
Jenny said, "Hey, you guys, this is like we're in a big geode."
"What the heck is a geode?" said Kerry in a sarcastic tone of voice, acting like Jenny had just made up the word geode or something.
Jenny got a book out of her backpack. It was the small book called "Crystal Identification." She flipped to a page that had a picture of a round rock that had been cut in half to show all of the crystals inside it. Jenny pointed to the picture and said, "See, if you were really small you could stand in the space in the middle of the geode and you'd be surrounded by crystals, just like we are in this cavern."
"Okay whatever," Kerry said. "Let's get moving and check out that tunnel over there," she said, pointing to the far side of the cavern."
Geode Space: Crystal Caverns (page3)
The girls had all noticed the tunnel right when they got down into the cavern, and when they walked over to it, they saw that it was plenty big enough to walk through, without even having to bend down.
Kerry said, "I want to go first - it's my turn to go first because you guys always get to be in front and it's not fair." She put on a pouty face and stuck out her lower lip as she folded her arms in front of her.
Jenny said, "Okay, you go first and I'll hold onto you from behind."
The girls all formed a connected train by holding onto the girl in front of them. They went sort of slow through the tunnel at first, stopping and listening closely to see if they heard any strange sounds. Kerry had the flashlight shining on the floor in front of them as they walked along the tunnel...,
but instead of being darker up ahead in the tunnel, the girls could see a faint light up ahead...
"Look - oh my gosh - the crystals are glowing!!!" said Kerry. "What on Earth could be causing that?", she thought out loud...
The tunnel was sloping downward taking them deeper and deeper beneath the ground surface, and they noticed that the crystals were glowing more and more as they got deeper into the ground....
All of a sudden they realized that the temperature was also getting kind of hot. Jenny reached over and touched the crystal wall, and sure enough, they were getting hot too. They began to wonder what the heck was going on. What could be causing it to get hot, and why were the crystals glowing like that??? They began to feel like this wasn't so much fun anymore, because it was getting sort of scary. Hopefully nobody was down there waiting for them...
The crystals were glowing so brightly now that it was almost blinding them. They stood still for a minute, waiting for their eyes to adjust, and then suddenly Kerry jumped backward and gasped. "Oh my gosh, there's a door on that wall..."
-End of Chapter 2-
If you want to follow the girls through the door, you must search for the hidden door that's somewhere within Chapter 2 above. HINT
Hint: Drag your mouse around on the pages within Chapter 2 to uncover the secret door.