A little backstory. Our main character here is Marigold Peters, aka Mari. she lives in a little town called Ryn. With gray skies almost every day, people hate sunny weather, just the opposite of earth. (by the way, she lives on a planet called Joa, which is PRONOUNCED JOE!) her mom, Jane, is very sweet, but sometimes a little too careful. She doesn't take many risks. Mari, on the other hand, is very adventurous and loves exploring the local abandoned mines. Legend has it that the mines are haunted, and the spirits drove the mining business away. This is where we find her now, on a beautiful rainy Saturday morning.

Mari crawled under the boards blocking the passage to the mines. Lantern in hand, she set out on her journey through, looking for bats, frogs, anything that she could catch and bring home. She looked for equipment and other things left behind in the mines after the incident as well. She bent down to examine a small, brown frog. Mari picked up the little frog in her pale hand and pet it’s teensy head. She got up quickly, causing her to have a head rush. Vision blurred, she turned to get to a wall, but instead ran into a rock and tripped. Her knee skinned. She decided to go home and get bandaged up before she set out to Paul’s house. 

She crawled back under the boards, frog in hand, and headed back to her house. A minute or two later, she was back at her house and in the bathroom with the water running over her knee. Her mom had immediately told her to rinse it while she got the necessary supplies for cleaning her knee. When her mom looked at her knee, her eyes widened. She rushed over to Mari. “what is it, mom?” Mari asked, quite confused. “Your blood, its - its green.” Mari stared down at her wound. Green blood was seeping through the scratches, running down into the bath. Her mother rushed over to her. “This is so strange. This is exactly what was in the manuscripts!” exclaimed her mother excitedly. “What? I don’t understand!” “Mari, listen. Let me tell you what i’m talking about. There was once, very long ago, a magical race of people who had amazing technology. They were normal before they went in the mines, but after they came out-” her Mother was cut off. “What does this have to do with me?” Mari yelled. “They had green blood, Mari. they had green blood,” she said. A realization came to her. She was one of them. “I HAVE TO GO,” said Mari, talking extremely loudly like she was in a crowd. “Oh, ok honey. Just be careful.” “YEAH, I WILL BE,” Mari said, still yelling. She went to her room and got her library card, and left for Paul’s house. 

Paul opened his front door. “Hey Mari! Want some snacks?” he said, very excitedly. “This is why I love ya, Paulie.” said Mari, instantly more cheerful after the offering of snacks. Mari entered the house and followed Paul to the kitchen. She sat down in the familiar chair, and stared around at the flowers painted on the walls. the clattering of a bowl hitting the table filled the room. It had been filled with chips. “Thanks, Paulie.” she said, digging into the chips. “Is there something wrong, Mari? You seem… down.” Paul noticed her moods quickly. He had always been an empathetic person, and he loved listening to what was going on in her life. “Well, something weird happened to me in the mines. I fell and when I went back home, I realized I was bleeding green blood. My mom said that she had heard a story about this ancient race of -`` ''we have to go back to those mines, Mari.” said Paul, interrupting her. “Okay,” said Mari, reluctantly. “Let’s bring some tools.” they finished their chips (fuel), collected things from the garage to use, and headed to the mines. 

They crawled under the boards swiftly and entered the caves at a fast speed. They walked far beyond the rock that had tripped Mari, even reaching a pond of murky cave water. Over the pond, they saw the glint of something green - something shining. Mari grabbed Paul’s hand and pulled him over to the pond. She trudged through the shallow water and reached the object. She picked it up, holding it like a piece of fine china. Then a word came to her mind. “Bees,” she said. A green light flooded the damp cave. A loud bang escaped the object, along with a puff of dark smoke. Wind whipped the two, standing in the muddy pond. Paul grabbed Mari’s hand and pulled her along the dark path, leaving the green stone in the cloudy water. They crawled under the boards. As they reached the light of the outside, dread washed over the pair. Swirling green clouds covered the town. 

“Oh no,” Mari said, wind whipping her dress. She ran along the path to her house, Paul trying to keep up as he sprinted behind her.  “We have to stop it,” she screamed to Paul, still racing along the path as if something was chasing her. At that moment, big dark droplets of rain started lacing the ground and trees, more and more falling faster and faster as the storm increased. The swirling green clouds had sent huge gusts of wind this way and that. They had reached Mari’s house. They burst in the door and went to the phone, where Paul called his parents. He told them where he was, and that he was staying with Mari until the storm subsided. “Love you, mom. I’ll see you soon.” he hung up, and they went upstairs, still dripping with water. They entered Mari’s room. Mari always kept a spare shirt and pants for Paul, after the pants wetting incident. She threw him the shirt and pants, grabbed a new dress, and went to the bathroom to change. After drying off, they sat down on her floor. “What did I do?” she asked. “I don’t know, but we have to stop it. People could get hurt,” Paul said.

They went to work. “What did you say to trigger the thing?” Paul asked, careful not to blame her for the storm to avoid tears. “Bees. I don't even know what that had to do with it. It just worked.” “well, maybe you could try the opposite of bees?” he said. “Uh, what about wasp?” “I don’t know, but we have to get back to those mines. This storm will ruin the town!” they started to prepare. Grabbing coats, books on the ancients, tools. They prepared for the outside, tucking the things into their coats and getting ready to face the storm. 

They opened the door. As soon as Mari turned the knob, a huge gust of wind slammed into it and the door burst open, sending Mari to the ground. “Oh, I'm alright, Paulie. We have to go. C’mon.” Mari said, standing up and walking out the door into the swirling green storm. They were thrown around by wind while dodging debris from roofs and houses; grabbing onto trees to avoid falling into the ocean when they walked by the pier. Finally they made it to the mines. Some of the boards on the front of the mine had been blown off, leaving a large entryway.  They walked into the mines. They felt a sudden warmth, away from the howling winds and careening debris. They picked up speed, walking down the path as fast as possible without slipping on the mud.

They reached the pond. Mari could see the glowing object still at the bottom of the murky water. She trudged to the object. Mari grabbed the stone out of the water, dirt and mud dripping off of it. She held it in her wet hands, and whispered “wasp,”. The stone remained it’s glowy green color. She slammed the stone back in the water. “It didn’t wORK!” she shouted, splashing water around as she stomped her feet. “It’s okay, Mari. we’ll fix this.” Paul said reassuringly. “What if nothing works? What if we fail and the storm destroys the town and we all die? What if-” Mari was cut off. “It’s going to be okay.” Paul grabbed Mari’s shoulder. Mari felt calmer. then, her mind thought of something. “ The mines! They’re named Johnson Mines!” she exclaimed. “What does that have to do with this?” Paul asked. “Well, what if the thing in the stone got disturbed by johnson, and that was the guy who got it back!” she said. “Lets try it,” Paul said. Mari picked up the stone from under the water. She whispered “Johnson.” Abruptly, green streams of smoke came in from the outside of the mines and were sucked up by the stone. It lit up, bright lights filling the mines; then the light was gone. They couldn’t hear wind, or rain, or crashing from outside. It had worked. The storm was gone. “We did it!” Mari screamed. “YES!” Paul screamed. “Ouch,” said Mari. The stone was getting hot. Mari dropped it into the pond. Under the water, they could see the stone glowing. Something was coming out of it. 

“Why hello, explorers,” said a feminine voice. They turned around and saw a wispy figure staring at them. “Who are you?” Mari said shakily, staring up into the halfway-transparent eyes. “I’m Joa, the spirit this planet was named after.” Joa said, cheerfully. “You probably should leave me alone from now on,” she said, smiling. “Yeah,” said Paul, turning to leave. “Wait,” said Joa, “do you know why the storm was released?” she continued. “No,” said Mari, grabbing Paul’s arm before he left the mine. “Well, the storm is to warn people of the dangers of the mines, but mostly it’s for the people who invaded this planet after the Old Ones. it seems you are an old one, or you at least have the blood of one,” Joa told Mari. “only old ones can open the stone.” “oh.” said Mari. “You may leave now. Don’t come back, please.” said Joa. “goodbye,” she said. 

Paul pulled Mari out of the pond. “We need to leave.”  He whispered. “I’m coming, Paul.” Mari said, still being dragged along the path out of the caves. They looked outside to see the usual gray sky, accompanied with large pieces of rubble and branches on the wet grass. “I didn’t know it was this bad.” Mari said, staring at the roof shingles that had been tossed like feathers onto the owner’s front lawns. “You didn’t know. It’s okay. Just calm down,” said Paul as they walked back to Mari’s house. “I guess,” she said. “I guess I can’t do anything about it now,” she said.