Hannah Meets Hannah: Part Two

"So, about how much longer should it be before we reach the docks?" asked Hannah Jewel.

Hannah thought for a minute. "About forty-five minutes, at the most," she replied. "That gives us fifteen minutes for a snack once we get there."

"Good," said Armin. "I'll be hungry by then."

"Same here," said Slushie Jewel. "I get really hungry really fast."

"There's a word for that, but I forgot what it was…" said Hannah Jewel. "I learned it the other day at Neoschool, but it's slipped my mind since then."

"I always knew that your memory would slip some day, Hannah Jewel," said Slushie Jewel. "Especially when you forgot hw to spell 'Chokato.' You spelled it 'C-H-O-C-A-T-O' when it should've been 'C-H-O-K-A-T-O.'"

"Don't remind me," said Hannah Jewel. "If I had spelled that word right, then I would've been the school's spelling champion!" She sighed. "I always get so close, then something bad happens. That's the way it's been ever since I was only a few months old." She shook her head and sighed again. "But that's not the way it's going to be this time! This time, I actually get to do something without anything bad happening!"

Hannah laughed softly. "Well, don't get your hopes up just yet," she said. "We still need to get to the docks, you know."

"Yeah, I know…" Hannah Jewel looked up at the clear, blue sky. Looking to her left, she saw the Rainbow Pool. It looked so pretty whenever the sun was beaming down on its waters. She looked around some more. She wouldn't see Neopia Central for a while. She'd be seeing more of Terror Mountain for a little while now. She sighed and continued walking.

"Something on your mind, Hannah Jewel?" asked Slushie Jewel. "Whenever you sigh like that, you're thinking about something…"

"Oh, it's nothing," replied Hannah Jewel. "I'm just thinking that's it's a beautiful day."

"Well, it won't be as beautiful on Terror Mountain," said Hannah. "It's always freezing up there!"

"No problem," said Slushie Jewel. "We Bori folk, such as Armin and I, have learned to withstand those cruel, winter winds on Terror Mountain. Right, Armin?"

"Right…" said Armin hesitantly. "I… guess you're right." He sighed.

"What's wrong with him?" whispered Hannah Jewel.

"Beats me," replied Hannah. "We'll worry about that later. I think we only have half an hour to go until we reach the docks."

Hannah Jewel looked at the ground. She watched her feet appearing and disappearing before her eyes. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. She looked up and saw a beautiful rainbow above their heads. She smiled and followed the rainbow with her eyes. It led straight to the Rainbow Pool. So, that's why there's always a rainbow over Neopia, she thought. That's why it was always so beautiful.

"Admiring your surroundings?" asked Slushie Jewel, causing Hannah Jewel to yelp softly in surprise.

"Yeah, you could put it that way," she replied. "I can't believe I didn't notice all this before."

"Well, you ARE always hiding in your room playing with your Usuki Dolls," said Slushie Jewel. He laughed softly, thinking of the time whenever he snuck into Hannah Jewel's room…

Slushie Jewel walked along the edge of the wall, trying not to make a sound. It was 1:00 in the morning, and Slushie Jewel could've sworn that he heard Hannah Jewel giggling. He peeked around the corner to make sure nobody had heard them. The floor would squeak every once in a while, and Slushie Jewel knew how light of a sleeper his sisters were. He turned the corner and put his ear up to his oldest sister's bedroom door. Her voice could be easily heard.

"Oh, William, you're so funny," Hannah Jewel had said in a high-pitched voice. "Why, thank you, Lisa," she said in a deeper voice.

Slushie Jewel whispered to himself. "What is she doing?" He cracked the door to see his sister's back turned to him. He made a crack just big enough for him to slip in, and just small enough to close without making a sound. He crept in, closed the door softly, and slipped under the bed. He was glad he had such a sly sister who taught him this. "Thank you, Lisha Jewel," he mouthed to himself.

"So, William," Hannah Jewel said in that high-pitched voice again, "I was thinking we could get married in The Month of Hunting. Summer weddings are so beautiful!"

"Yes, but I was hoping we could get married in The Month of Gathering," came the deep voice. "Fall weddings are so colorful!"

"Yes, let's get married then. We can invite all our friends and have the most colorful wedding of all!"

Slushie Jewel smiled. It was good to see his big sister playing something other than video games. He crawled out from under the bed, crept out the door, and went back to his room…

Slushie Jewel laughed at that memory. He reminded himself to ask Hannah Jewel is he could play with her once they got home. He's always wanted to play with her Usuki dolls. He made a mental note of that.

"Having a flashback?" asked Hannah Jewel.

"How'd you know?" asked Slushie Jewel.

"It's just the way your eyes twinkle," replied Hannah Jewel. "It's the way I look whenever I have a flashback. Speaking of which…" Her eyes began to twinkle the way Slushie Jewel's had…

Hannah Jewel peeked around the corner. She could've sworn she'd heard an explosion. She peeked around the corner to see that Slushie Jewel's bedroom door was cracked open. She slowly opened it, and there was Slushie Jewel, sitting in the floor, holding a controller. He was playing video games, the number one thing Alicia had told him not to do after 10:00 p.m. He was so busted. She was about to walk into Alicia's room, but stopped. She would at least let him know he was in trouble. She opened the door to Slushie Jewel's room.

"Slushie Jewel?" she whispered.

Slushie Jewel gasped. He knew he was in trouble for playing video games. He could tell by the look in his oldest sister's eyes. Tears swelled up in his eyes.

Hannah Jewel sighed. She couldn't do this. Slushie Jewel was only a child, a little more than a month old. She thought of something to say. "Can… can I play video games with you?" she whispered.

Slushie Jewel smiled. He wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "Sure, you can play video games with me."

"Remember that, Slushie Jewel?" she asked after reciting her story. "You thought I was going to get you in trouble."

"Yeah, I remember that," replied Slushie Jewel.

"Sounds like you two have had a lot of good times together," said Hannah. "Come on, the docks are just ahead!"

The group picked up the pace. The ferry had come early, and they wanted to get on as soon as possible. They watched as it slowly moved away from the dock…

"Wait for us!" screamed Hannah. She picked up the pace, followed by Hannah Jewel then Slushie Jewel, then Armin. Just a few feet away from the edge of the dock, she grabbed Hannah Jewel and Slushie Jewel's wrists. Slushie Jewel grabbed Armin's wrist, knowing just what Hannah was about to do. She jumped off the edge of the dock and skillfully landed the group on the ferry.

"That was close!" said Armin. "We almost missed the ferry!"

"Yeah, I kind of noticed that," said Hannah, panting. "This ferry will take us straight to Terror Mountain. It's going to take a few hours, so let's just hang out on the main deck and relax. There are a lot of chairs to lay down in, so let's go!" Hannah walked to the main deck, followed by Hannah Jewel, Slushie Jewel, and Armin.

"So, about how many hours should this take?" asked Slushie Jewel as he sat down on a chair.

"We should be there in three hours at the most," replied Hannah. "This is a pretty fast ferry. Normally, it'd take about five hours on a different boat." She lay down in a long chair and sighed. Hannah Jewel, Slushie Jewel, and Armin did the same. Hannah began thinking about the treasure they would find and how they would split it if there were an uneven number. She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice her eyes fluttering closed.

The next thing Hannah knew, Armin was shaking her awake. She sat up and looked around. Armin told her to get in her winter clothing, for the weather was getting colder. Indeed, Hannah was shivering. She put on her big coat and looked around. There were small ice blocks in the water. Bories were digging around on the shore, which was just a few miles away. Bruces were ice-skating on the frozen ponds nearby. Hannah looked behind her to see Hannah Jewel staring in wonder. She had obviously never seen Terror Mountain before.

"Wow!" exclaimed Hannah Jewel. "This is awesome! I've never seen anything like it in my life!"

"It's pretty cool, isn't it?" asked Hannah. She laughed, realizing what she had just said. It was cool around here, usually much colder than cool.

"I've seen pictures of this in my book, but I never thought I'd see it up close!" exclaimed Slushie Jewel. He sighed in wonder as he joined his oldest sister in sightseeing.

About ten minutes later, the ferry arrived at the docks of Terror Mountain. The four got off, all dressed in heavy clothing, with the exception of Slushie Jewel. The snow crunched beneath their feet, making footprints in the fresh snow. Slushie Jewel took a deep breath of winter air.

"Man, this fells so good!" said the Ice Bori. "I can't believe I didn't come here earlier!"

"Same here," said Hannah Jewel. "After this is done, we should ask Alicia if we could vacation here sometime."

Hannah laughed and shook her head. Man, these guys are crazy, she thought. Vacationing here of all places? She dropped the thought and continued walking.

"How far are the Ice Caves from here?" asked Armin. Hannah Jewel looked at him in confusion. Of all Neopets, Armin should know how far away from the Ice Caves were.

"Let me check the map," replied Hannah as she pulled out the folded up piece of paper from one of her coat pockets. She looked at the map, and then looked up. "If we go north from here, we should be there in twenty minutes, at the most."

"Well, then north it is!" said Hannah Jewel. "The quicker we get there, the more treasure we can collect. Isn't that right, Hannah?"

Hannah nodded and walked north. The others followed close behind. Just as Hannah said, they got to the entrance of the Ice Caves in twenty minutes. Hannah climbed up a rock and said, "Wait here a second. I'm going to make sure this is a safe entrance." She jumped in and landed on the soft snow below. The entrance was pretty high up. She'd have to have somebody throw down a rope from above to get back up. She looked behind her. It was a clear path, and Hannah could see some treasure chests nearby. She walked along and made sure that they would at least get fifty feet before there were any obstacles. There was nothing except for some slopes for over fifty feet. This would be the perfect place to start. She ran back to the entrance.

"Hey, you guys!" she shouted. "I found a good entrance! Throw me a rope, I can't reach the entrance!"

"OK!" Slushie Jewel shouted back. "Here it comes!" A rope came from the top. Hannah grabbed onto it and tugged on it a few times. She was pulled back up to the entrance.

"OK, this looks like a good entrance," she said once more. "Make sure we have everything before we go down. It's really hard to get back up without the proper equipment."

Everybody, including Hannah, dug through their bags to make sure they didn't leave anything behind. They had everything for a basic cave. They all stood on the edge, then jumped inside all at once.

To be continued…