Sunshine & Shadows -Book 2

By RD Le Coeur

A boy, a girl, a beach, a mystery. Could there be magic in the air or something far more sinister?
Our heroes continue on their quest and things get more creepy and unnerving.
Yet, as one mystery is resolved another more sinister one rears it's ugly head.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RD Le Coeur
• Release date: Apr 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311336743

RD Le Coeur

ROY LE COEURWebsite: www.rdlecoeur.netWelcome to my page folks & thanks for stopping by.Roy was educated at a minor English boarding school and groomed for a life out in the British Empire possibly as a junior official, probably somewhere hot. Unfortunately by the time he graduated the British Empire had expired twenty years prior and no one had told the teachers!Roy is divorced and lives with his two boys and a pedigree Dalmatian dog in South Wales, UK. He has always had a passion for literature, history and for the ridiculous.

Book preview

SUNSHINE

&

SHADOWS

Book Two

By

RD Le Coeur

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Published in 2014

Copyright © Text R.D. Le Coeur.

The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the author is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

Published by RD Le Coeur

Look for me online at:

www.rdlecoeur.net

Originally published as The Sunshine Chronicles by Firedrakes Weyr LLC.

Rights reversion to the author 2010.

Other books by this author:

The Spartacus Prophecy

New Shoes

Dragon's Heart

Belvine

Vengeance (Book 1)

Vengeance (Book 2 Troubled Times.)

Vengeance (Book 3 Dragon riders.)

Strata Florida-A tale of the Grail

A Nun's Tale

Catcher of the Wry

Ethics

In a time, not long ago, before tablets and smart phones...

Chapter One

Jen arrived at Home Meadow breathless from her run down the lanes. She had deliberately avoided the quicker route via the beach to avoid her Mother.

She saw Sunny, now busy at work, on top of the caravan roof. He appeared to be cleaning it with a scrubbing brush for some reason she could not fathom. It was an old wreck and surely a nice cremation would serve it better than rubbing it to death?

She shouted to him. He waved and then put his finger to his lips and pointed to within the caravan. She came closer and could see Moonbeam busy at work cleaning the inside of ancient van. This made no sense to her. Moonbeam did not clean. Moonbeam wandered around this planet in Moonbeams world, muttering 'cool' and doing eco hippy stuff.

Sunny started to climb down from the roof in order to talk to Jen. He was hanging mid-air when a green turbaned head stuck itself out of the caravan doorway and shouted:

And just where do you think you are going, young man?

We've got a visitor. I was just going to say hello.

It was not until he had mentioned it that Moonbeam noticed that Jen had arrived.

Good afternoon, Genevieve, do your parents know you are so far from the camp site on your own?

Jen was perturbed at the tone and manner. This sounded more like her own Mother than the loveable but dappy Moonbeam. She thought very quickly before answering.

It was they who sent me.

Why dear?

Jen then explained that it was her parents that had met her and Sunny earlier. It was the pendant. It was missing and her parents were wondering if it had fallen into Moonbeams' basket by mistake?

Moonbeam was absolutely outraged at the merest suggestion that either her or her son could possibly be associated with the missing pendant. Moonbeam assured Jen of their innocence in any possible wrongdoing and had stomped off to her tent to bring the sample basket back for her to search. That would prove it once and for all, she had told her in no uncertain terms. Whilst she was temporarily missing, Jen confided to Sunny that the pendant was in her pocket and this was all a ruse to get him away. They needed a quiet chat urgently. Yesterday was too late for this discussion. Moonbeam stomped back from her tent holding the basket.

She thrust it under Jen's nose and told her to search all she liked, but there would be no pendant. How dare her parents even suggest some form of wrongdoing on their part? Carrying on the ruse Jen pretended to search the basket.

I'm sorry Moonbeam, she said, if I have caused any offence. I did not mean to. I am merely backtracking all the places it may or may not have gone to, in order to find it again.

Moonbeam's outraged manner diminished greatly at this apology for her behaviour.

Sunshine, I think it would be in order for you to assist this young lady in the search for the missing pendant. You know the area so much better. Now get a move on and change those filthy clothes. I will not have a son of mine wandering around like a tramp!

These rubbish clothes that he had on, had been good enough for the past year, what was so different today? He thought to himself.

He was grateful to Jen for getting him away from all this hideousness. He went back to his tent and threw on an old pair of beach shorts and a plain tee shirt and went back outside. Moonbeam was deep in conversation with Jen.

That looks a little better, if not much more than those other clothes, but I suppose it will have to do. Now search properly Sunshine, leave no stone unturned and I will expect a full report when you get back. Don't forget your cleaning chores will still be waiting for you. she said pointing

at the caravan roof.

They set off happily towards the beach and said nothing until they were out of earshot.

Sunny signalled for Jen to follow him towards a small clump of trees, which were luckily close by and out of view from Home Meadow and the peering eyes of the 'new' Moonbeam.

What the heck is going on, Sun? said Jen.

Good question. Mum's turned in to a raving nit picking loon.

You think you've got problems. My Mother is wandering around the beach half naked and trying to commune with nature.

Transmogrify, said Sunny.

What's that?

It's the inscription on the pendant. I remember reading it in the ancient scroll book.

Merde! That means there's more Shade trouble doesn't it?

Yep. I saw the word before and as I didn't know what it meant I had to look it up in a dictionary. It means metamorphose. Somehow and I don't pretend to know how, your Mum and my Mum have swapped places. Not all of them mind you, it just seems to be a personality swap.

Merde! How do we swap them back? Old Mum was a pain in the bum sometimes, but new Mum is away with the fairies and sooner or later dad will have an apoplectic fit.

"Can you even begin to imagine what Geronimo will say or do when he comes back?

We need that book and a mirror and an ancient Welsh dictionary now."

If Moonbeam's preoccupied in that disgusting caravan do you think you can sneak back and get it?

I've no option. It's all my fault. Maybe if I had not uttered the translation of the pendant, whilst they were both touching it, then none of this mess would have happened. I'll try and sneak back now, you wait for me here.

Jen sat where she was, deep in thought. Sunny was busy sneaking through the undergrowth. It would have been a lot easier with the old Moonbeam. This new Moonbeam seemed to have radar for detecting what he hoped would be the undetectable.

He approached Home Meadow through the woods. He had decided to use the cover of the trees for as long as he could. What would he do if he were caught? How could he possibly explain the scroll book to Mrs Hitler? He could always have got around the old Moonbeam, this new version was not such an easy target. Approaching the edge of the wood he peered into the meadow. Judging from the swaying caravan Moonbeam was hard at work scrubbing something with all her might. He edged along the tree line as if he was walking on egg shells. He got to within ten feet of his tent and waited with breath held. The caravan was still swaying gently to and fro and he could hear the sounds of scrubbing. He broke cover and ran at full pelt into his tepee. He tripped over some books and went sprawling across the floor. Maybe there is something to be said for all this clean and tidy nonsense he thought wryly. He lay quite still and waited to see if his commotion had gone unnoticed. Sighing, he decided that it had, and proceeded to recover the contents of his secret stash. He wrapped an old blanket round them to keep them safely altogether and crept back into the woods. He was trembling like a shivering baby, and sweating profusely. He had to sort this mess out urgently. He shook himself and determined to get back to Jen and resolve this debacle.

Jen was bored waiting and there was little else to do except sit and worry. What had they got themselves into? There were obviously two separate sets of clues and one lot had nothing to do with the other. She preferred the treasure hunt clues. At least nothing weird happened with them. There was just a sense that this Shade business was evil, nothing tangible she could put her finger on, but it was a strong intuition that it brought disaster to all who touched it. Now what were those last clues on the treasure trail? Seven deadly sins initially something or other. For the life of her she could not remember them and anyways they would have to wait until they sorted this Shade business out and got their respective Mothers back.

Sunny came crashing loudly through the undergrowth and landed up right in front of her with such sudden surprise that she screamed.

Sshshsh Jen! You'll alert the world with a scream like that.

Hackles risen, she shouted at him for giving her such a shock.

Then they both laughed at one another and all the tension of the moment disappeared as two close friends reunited in a common cause. Sunny cleared a suitable space and lay the blanket out with all his goodies from the secret hoard.

They sat cross-legged opposite one another on the blanket and Sunny opened the spell scroll book.

He had never looked at the book in plain Sunlight. He opened the covers and sought what he remembered regarding Transmogrify. As he turned the pages slowly he noticed that in bright daylight some of the pages were blank. He knew that was odd. He knew from his previous experiences that under candle light there were no blank pages in this ancient tome. He decided not to confide this piece of information to Jen as she was already spooked by what had happened so far. He searched through the scrolls but could not find the transmogrify page. He was sure he knew whereabouts it was in the book, but that page was blank. They just couldn't wait until dark to solve this problem and he decided on another plan of campaign. He went to the front of the book to the contents page, and after checking in his dictionary, looked for spells of undoing. Jen was becoming fidgety and very impatient. She asked him how long this was going to take and was told curtly by Sunny as long as it takes. She was tempted to say 'Don't take that tone of voice with me', but decided against it as it would only make her sound like her parents. Sunny, seeing her demeanour apologised and said he had to concentrate really hard to decipher the text. She smiled a forgiving smile at him and he resumed his concentration. After a while he said Aha! and was busy rifling through the pages trying to find something. Luckily for them both the page he was looking for was clearly legible.

He asked for pen and paper and wrote what looked like gibberish down on a scrap piece of paper. Then he rearranged the words using a mirror and consulted his dictionary. This took ages and ages and Jen thought she would burst with questions but she decided to stay quiet to allow Sunny all the time necessary to conclude his investigations. Finally he looked up from the page and said he thought he knew how to undo it.

Jen was all questions. Sunny explained that from what he understood they had been right in their assumption of the spell. The two personalities had swapped and it could be reversed, but and here was the difficult part, both the persons involved had to be holding the pendant at the same time. This piece of information had put a severe dampener on the elation at finding out it could be reversed.

What on earth was the point of the original spell? What use is there in transferring personalities? asked Jen.

I haven't figured that out yet, maybe I never will. The important point of this is that we can get out Mothers back to normal.

How on earth are we going to get them together again?

Easy peasy, we can use your missing pendant story and invent something about that. I can work on your Mum and you can work on mine, as at least we each know how to handle them.

This'll take some plotting Sun. what's the spell for undoing it?

That is simplicity itself. When they both have hold of it I simply say Transmogrify o chwith.

It can't be that stupidly simple.

"Wanna bet? Why would it have to be complicated? These are olden spells, the vocabulary was nowhere near as great as it is today as in English. Look at modern Welsh, half of it is in English or Latin, as the ancient Celts did not have the words for all the new things that came along so they adopted the 'foreign' term for it. Obviously there are still some welsh words and phrases that still have no pure English translation but that's by the by. Trust me Jen, the translation of the book says,

transmogrify o chwith. and I have no reason to doubt that it'll work."

I wonder if there will be any after effects? Will they even remember it?

I hope not. I hope they will suddenly return to normal and wonder what they are doing wherever they are. A life of cleaning is not for me, Jen. Trust me

It was a funny Old World, Jen decided. People were better off with their own personalities and foibles. People turning into something else was far too confusing.

They planned and plotted the meeting of Moonbeam and her Mum for over an hour until they were both satisfied that it would work.

They knew Moonbeam would be busy at the van for a day or two at this rate so the key was getting Jen's Mum off the beach and over to home meadow. Sunny had decided that with Moonbeam's personality, he could convince her that an eco village existed just beyond the beach, which would be the coolest thing she had ever seen and she must come now and see it. Jen would hang back and monitor the situation. She was not happy about her lack of involvement in this phase of the operation as it was after all, her cunning plan with the missing pendant, that had given them this opportunity to reunite the separated personalities. She was a bit miffed but could understand that Sunny stood a better chance with her Mother in this situation than she did. Sunny asked to examine the pendant, as he had not had