The Emerald Queen

The six friends soon reached the crystal tunnel, grabbed hands together and were "whooshed" back up to the clubhouse. They opened their eyes and saw that they were back in the clubhouse, back in the damp darkness of that room. They were relieved to see that they were back in The Valley, safe and sound.

Merkeeta was the first to speak. "Wolfinna and Maddie, thank you so much for following us into Rainbow and helping us escape."

"Yeah," JenJen piped in. "Thanks for saving us."

Maddie and Wolfinna just smiled. They were glad to have their friends back again.

Maddie took back all the headbands and returned them to the hiding place. When she looked inside her bag she was surprised to see the Queen's huge emerald. It must have fallen inside her bag when it had broken off from the Queen's ring. She didn't say anything about it since mice can be very quiet and keep secrets. Instead, Maddie put everything away and followed the girls out of the woods.

Back into the real world. It was green and beautiful, warm and wonderful.

As they walked out of the woods, Kicker remembered something. "When I get home, Mare, my mother, is probably going to make me do my chores. Back to real life, I guess."

"You're right," Merkeeta said. "It's back to my ordinary bedroom and doing ordinary homework.

JenJen sighed. "It's good to be back home, it's where I belong. Ordinary is good," she said with a relieved smile.

Just then Maddie stopped and turned.

"Hey, you can go on without me. I need to go back for just a second. I'll see you tomorrow."

The others all waved to her. "Bye Maddie." "Thanks again." "See you later."

And Maddie headed off in the other direction - back into the woods.