Free The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders (A young adult fiction best seller): An Action Adventure Mystery by Shane Mason Page B

will keep on asking questions. I will not stop until all of this makes sense.’ She cocked her head at Antavahni, moisture from the air making her long hair hang limp, and causing her skull and forehead to look larger than normal. ‘Why have you bought us here?’
    ‘Oh Lexington,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Isn’t it obvious? So we would have no other choice other than to follow him.’
    Antavahni nodded at Argus and Argus threw back a tarpaulin, producing the cousin’s packs. He gathered four hooded cloaks and handed them to the cousins as well. The material felt rough and though it looked thin and hung light, it contained considerable loft.
    ‘We must move. Follow,’ said Antavahni.
    He pushed himself off with his walking stick and headed toward the gentle slope.
     
    They picked their way across the plain toward the mountains and by late afternoon the ground started sloping upwards, though higher up it became steeper and steeper and steeper until all the sparse vegetation gave way to dull gray rocks. Above this at a neck-craning height, the mountaintops could just be seen. Sharp, blue snow-covered rocks poked out through the swirling clouds.
     
    With the vast plain behind them Melaleuca felt like an infinitesimal speck. She did a quick check of the others, noting how ragged Lexington looked. She was not the hardiest of them when it came to physical exertion.
    ‘It will be night soon. Shall we find some cover?’ Ari said.
    ‘Press on,’ Antavahni said in a weak voice. ‘It will be dark where we are going.’
     
    Out in the lead Argus spied something off to his left and he wandered over to inspect it. Half buried and half sticking out lay a weather-worn sign, the words on it barely visible. Squinting he read it.
    ‘None return that venture these mountains. Turn back or leave a will……’
    The rest of the words he could not make out.
    ‘What is it?’ Ari called.
    Argus looked up to tell him but caught sight of Antavahni glaring at him unimpressed.
    ‘Nothing,’ Argus replied and returned to leading the way, although Melaleuca could tell Argus did not like what he saw.
     
    As the light faded to grey they had only climbed half way up the slope. The cloud wrapped mountain loomed large and its immenseness overshadowed them like a menacing bulk. High up through the clouds, flashes of lightening hurled back and forth and thunder boomed. It sounded miles off though its foreboding bass rent an unwelcome sensation.
    Ari pointed to the angry looking clouds.
    ‘Are we going into a storm?’ he said raising his voice.
    Lexington pulled out her notebook and after scanning it said, ‘This mountain must have a route through it.’
    Bedraggled scarecrow hair falling around his impish face, Quixote made scary ghost noises and then giggled.
    ‘A secret tunnel, but to where?’
    Melaleuca patted Quixote on the back. He’s the nuttiest of us all, yet...
    ‘...little dampens you. Even in hell you’d make the devil laugh.’
    Lexington scoffed at this. ‘No such place exists except in myth and legend. It’s a people invention. I would hardly call this the time for joking. I mean look where...where...where we are.’
    ‘Lexington. Easy. You know Quixote means well,’ Ari said. ‘Even you use your imagination to work things out.’
    ‘Yes. But for things that matter, not silly games,’ she said in great frustration. ‘Look at us! I’m freezing. We’ve never wandered this far from home before. Every game we played, no matter what the outcome we could still go home. There is no home now. It’s gone and so have our parents! And we still have no clue what is going on.’
    Where Ari and Quixote seemed ready to accept, she grew frustrated. With every step and each passing moment questions nipped at her mind.
    ‘Where are we? Where are we going?’ Lexington said bending down to untangle her leg from a bush. ‘Does this place even have a name?’
    ‘In my tongue it is Arawac - the Long White Cloud Mountains,’