| Diary |
Dear Diary,
I love Aunt Evelyn, but sometimes her do-good-ery doesn't, well, do people much good. She's been having Johnny McMurray round to stay almost constantly! So when she suggested I go upstate to visit an old friend of my mother's and help her nephew identify an artifact, I thought it would be a great chance to get away from the brat. Too bad Aunt Evelyn told me to take him with me...
Johnny and I arrived upstate to find out that the mysterious 'nephew' who's investigating this artifact was none other than Steven Deveny. And he did NOT want me anywhere near it. I didn't realize, but apparently Steven's a descendant of the Cayuga tribe, and he thought this artifact was sacred to his people... hence why only HE should touch it. Fair enough, but I didn't realize how crazy things were about to get.
Steven stormed off into the house and locked the door the minute we arrived, leaving me and Johnny to borrow some bikes and explore the countryside a bit. We came across a cabin... and the guy inside sounded EXACTLY like Steven. We weren't sure what to make of it until we stumbled across another crisis: some men were beating up Dad's old friend, Professor Ramazan Kurt. Johnny and I saved him and took him to the cabin, only to find out that 'Steven' was actually 'Stephan,' Steven's twin brother. He told us that the artifact is the Shield of Thunder, once paired with the Spear of Thunder. Steven stole it and an important diary from a local family, the Grants, whose guards were the ones beating up Professor Kurt and being a nuisance.
We caught up with Steven at the Grants' residence, where he'd broken in and stolen the diary of Mrs. Grant's grandfather. It detailed the location of a cave where the shield was originally discovered; Steven insisted it might offer a clue as to where to find the spear. I've never seen Steven quite like that... he was absolutely obsessed with finding the spear and kept saying that it would help him get revenge on the white man who oppressed his tribe. Johnny was unimpressed, and I was frankly a bit worried.
We found the spear just in time for Mrs. Grant's goons to show up, and they were NOT pleased with us. Steven did the whole 'mad with power' thing and tried to strike them down with the power of his ancestors, but nothing happened except him getting knocked out. In the end, I had to fool them into leaving. When Steven woke up, he went even nuttier, pulling a knife and threatening me and Johnny. But when he told Johnny to pick up the shield and spear to hand to him, suddenly it was Johnny who was the nutty one. Apparently HE was descended from a tribe that STEVEN'S tribe wiped out long ago (got all that?) and the vengeful spirit of the clan possessed Johnny. Luckily, crazed spiritual possession is no match for needling a ten year old boy, and I snapped him out of it. Steven calmed down and promised to return the diary and shield to Mrs. Grant. And I have something to tease him about forever now!