It was soon apparent to Arnie that the Wysp had seen her as it started to fly towards her.  Arnie put on a brave smile and hoped that it would go away quickly.  "This is all I needed," Arnie thought to herself.

"Hi, whatcha doing?" asked the Wysp.

"Oh, nothing.  Just passing by," Arnie answered.  "Got to go, see you around."

​​"That's too bad," answered the Wysp.  "I was just going into a cave I found and was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

​"That's great!  I can even light up the trail for us.  See you there."  Arnie barely heard the last part of the Wysp's comment as it quickly sped away towards the tunnel entrance.

Soon Arnie was down the hole and standing in the tunnel.  "I have already seen what is in the tunnel going down but as Squirrel said, let's see what is at the other end," she thought to herself when the Wysp asked which way she wanted to go.   "Let's explore up," she told the Wysp.  Deciding that the blue light the Wysp gave off was good enough to see, Arnie didn't bother to look for a torch or pull out a candle from one of her pockets.  "No sense wasting them if I don't have to," she figured as she followed the Wysp.

Soon she was scratched, wet, smelly, and the snarls in her tail which would take hours to get out...  "What a dumb idea Squirrel had," she thought as she kept following the Wysp.   ​

Little did Arnie realize, that a few feet from where the Wysp was leading her was a perfectly level path with nothing blocking the way.  "Oh wait until I tell the others about what I did today to a Borrower," the Wysp giggled as it continued to lead Arnie up the tunnel.

As Arnie was beginning to think that they should turn around and go back, she started hearing a roaring sound.  "I wonder what that is," she thought.  Again, her curiosity grabbed ahold of her and she knew she needed to keep going.  As the Wysp lead Arnie around yet another bend in the tunnel, the roar turned even louder.  "This is far as I go," she barely heard the Wysp say before it turned and flashed back down the tunnel. 

​Arnie was now standing alone in front of a wall of rushing water that was falling over the tunnel.  "That's just great!" growled Arnie.  "I should have known better."  As Arnie started feeling into one of her pockets for a light, it became apparent to her that the cave was not as dark as she thought it should be.  "Light must be coming in from the other side of all that water falling down from the wall," she realized.  Excited, she was now determined to see what was on the other side of the falling water.  Picking up a stick from the cave floor, she slowly pushed it through the falling water.  Nothing stopped it and soon her arm was pushing through the water.  "There must be an opening on the other side!"  Not wanting to go back through the tunnel and with the curiosity of a Borrower, Arnie decided to take a chance and stepped into the wall of water.

It only took a few seconds, but Arnie realized once she was through that a waterfall was hiding the entrance to the cave she had been in.  "That's why nobody has found it before," she realized, "but I wonder where I am?"

A look of confusion crossed Arnie's face.  "Squirrel, what are you talking about?  Quit trying to crack that nut and help me figure out what to do..." ​

"It is the first thing I truly have found that was not somebody else's first.  The Dragons are all gone and there are none to claim the tablet as their own so it truly is mine," she continued.  "I have never really had anything that was mine and now I find that I don't want to lose it.  Does that sound silly?" 

Squirrel had never heard his friend talk like this before and he was not sure what to tell her.  His life was easy in comparison to Arnie's.  All he needed to do was gather and store nuts while climbing up and down trees, but being Arnie's closest friend he knew he had to say something.  "You told me that when you fell down the hole that it really was a tunnel going up and down.  Did you explore the other direction?"

"Nope, I still don't have my winter stores stocked up and if all of the nuts I find are like this one, I'll starve before I get them cracked open."

​Arnie just laughed as she jumped up and started off towards the old oak tree.  "Good luck" whispered Squirrel as he bit down once more on the nut.

​As she contemplated her problem, humming the words to her song, (Blue on Blue, I Can't Get...) she wandered through the woods totally unaware of her surroundings until a small nut hit her on top of her head.  "Who threw that?" she demanded, stomping one of her feet on the acorn while searching around her for the culprit.  It did not take her long to see an old friend watching her from a tree branch nearby.

"Hi Arnie" said the Squirrel. 

"Good Morning, " Arnie replied. "You must have dropped one of your nuts because I can't imagine that you would throw one at me," grinned Arnie.  The squirrel only smiled back.  It was sort of a game they played with the squirrel never admitting to anything.  "You should have been a 'borrower' Squirrel.  Nobody would ever get you to confess," laughed Arnie.  Soon the two were chatting away over little things they had discovered lately when Arnie decided to tell her friend Her Big Secret. 

"You may think I am nuts," smiled Arnie at her own little joke, "but I found something the other day when we were playing around that big old oak tree that is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do."  Squirrel just lifted one eyebrow and waited for Arnie to continue.

Thinking back to that day, Arnie no longer even saw her friend as she continued to tell about her adventure.  All she could see in her mind was how dark the hole had been that she had fallen in.  Having a big bushy tail at times is a hinderance, especially when it knocks over things accidently, but this time it came in handy as it helped cushion her fall.  She continued to tell Squirrel the story, unaware that she was rubbing her tail as if it was still sore from landing on it.  She also remembered how strong the curiosity had burned inside of her too.  All Borrowers have it as they just can't leave things well enough alone, but only the great ones are not consumed by it (or they never live to become great ones...").  They always have to see what is on the other side and then figure out what to do about it.

​They were shiny and I did consider looking them over but before I could, something else caught my eye.  In the center of the cavern was a stone alter and laying on it was a tablet!"

Not realizing that Squirrel was only partially listening to Arnie as he was busy trying to break open an unusually difficult nut, Arnie continued...

"I had heard the old timers talk about Dragon hordes but never realized what that meant  before!  The thrill of something new to find pulled me to the alter.  At first I thought maybe it was something the Dragon might have picked up to add to his treasure.  You know, like a wizard's spell book or something magical, but that didn't 'feel' right if you know what I mean.  It was placed on the podium like it was sitting in a place of honor."  Arnie did not know how to better describe it, but if she hadn't been a 'Borrower' she might not have touched it because it would have felt wrong to disturb it as it was so beautiful to see.

"I'm was only going to look at it," she remember as she told Squirrel, "but I didn't. I reached out and touched it.  It was at that moment the ground began to shake and the long stalactites started to fall from the ceiling of the cavern.  Instinctively I grabbed the tablet to protect it.  When the first stone hit the podium where the tablet sat, I RAN - keeping the tablet to my chest as I sprinted out of the cave opening I had just come from."

Taking a deep breath as she finished with her story, she looked again at her friend and after a minute of silence asked Squirrel the question that had been nagging at her when she had been walking down the trail.  "So what do you think I should do with it?" 

The Squirrel looked at her and with a slight squirrely smile said "Yep, that is a tough nut to crack isn't it?" 

​“I don’t really know,” she answered.  “I really wasn’t sure we would even find a book when we went to Atian’s library.  But, I guess I could say it found us,” she realized as she thought back to how her tattoo and the book both started glowing when she reached out her hand to pick it up.  Glancing at the book as she set her cup of tea on the table, she decided they might as well start trying to decipher it since the book appeared to be written in ancient Dragon.  "It was going to be a long night reading through such a thick tome," the Dowager thought as she stood and started towards the book.  She whispered to herself her son’s question,  “What am I looking for?”

​At her question the image of the Dragon on the cover began to swirl and a green light appeared as the book opened by itself and quickly flitted through several pages to a stop!  Slowly words began to appear before the startled pair!  As this was all happening the Baron had shot to his feet to protect his mother and now stood besides her  with the open book resting on the table.

The Dowager quickly started fanning herself as to not faint as the Baron stood there stupefied.  Griselda looked at her son and said "I think we are going to need some help.  I better contact the Sleeping Sisters!"