Sophie walked and walked, following the sound of Hattie’s and Owen’s voices. Their calls were louder now. They sounded closer. Sophie kept expecting to find her friends around the next tree.
“I’m here!” she called. “Hello?”
“We’re over here! Walk this way!” came Owen’s voice.
Which way?
It felt to Sophie as if they were all walking in circles around one another. Finally, Sophie poked her head around a stump and there they were!
“Sophie!” Owen cried. “We’ve been looking all over for you!”
“You definitely win,” Hattie told Sophie. “Owen found me almost right away. Wherever you were, you were really hidden!”
Sophie smiled mischievously. “I was,” she said. “I’ll show you.”
Usually, Sophie would keep a winning hiding place a secret. That way, she could use it again the next time they came to play. But the cave was too special. She had to show it to her friends.
Maybe we can find out where that glow is coming from, Sophie thought.
Sophie turned and led them through the woods. Then she stopped and looked around. “I thought this was the way,” she said. “But . . . now I’m not sure.”
She walked on slowly. Did this look familiar? In her quest to find Hattie and Owen, she had been using her ears to follow their voices. She hadn’t paid attention to landmarks.
Sophie saw a wall of rocks up ahead. “Oh! Here it is!” she cried.
She rushed over. But there was no cave opening.
“Huh,” said Sophie. “That’s funny. I could have sworn this was it.”
“What?” Owen asked.
“The cave!” Sophie replied. “The cave where I hid.” She walked the full length of the rock wall. “But it’s definitely not here.”
Hattie shrugged. “Maybe this isn’t the right rock wall,” she said. “There are a lot of them around, especially closer to the brook.”
They walked on and kept looking.
Along the way, they found a few more rocky groupings.
But no cave.
Sophie sighed. “I have no idea where it is,” she admitted.
Eventually, they heard rushing water. They followed it and came out of the woods on the bank of the brook.
By now, the sun was sinking lower in the sky. The autumn days were getting shorter. Sophie knew she should head home for dinner.
