A cliffside harbor glows beneath fog as Aurelia Squirrel, Nick Bear, and Captain Dena Fox face the open bay and a small red-sailed ferry.

A TIDEMARK ADVENTURE

The Lantern Stones of Faraway Bay

A Tidemark adventure

Captain Dena Fox departs in a red-sailed ferry while Aurelia gives her a small stone and Nick Bear waits on the quay.

The harbor’s moonstone had washed beyond Needle Rocks. Captain Dena Fox sailed to retrieve it before the tide covered Thistle Island. “Back before the second bell,” she promised. Aurelia lent her smallest traveling stone for luck.

Dena secures a glowing moonstone aboard her ferry as a vast silver fog bank overtakes the bay.

Dena found the moonstone and turned for home. Then silver fog poured across Faraway Bay. It erased Thistle Island, swallowed the red sail, and left the lighthouse beam shining into nothing.

The harbor bell swings while Nick opens a map, Aurelia listens at the seawall, and Dena's horn echoes invisibly through fog.

The first bell rang. Dena answered with the ferry horn, but the fog bent the sound around the cliffs. It seemed to come from everywhere. Nick unfolded his largest map. Aurelia listened to the tide.

Nick calculates beside a map while displaced marker buoys drift through the fog and Aurelia notices the moving current.

Nick calculated distance, speed, wind, and departure time. Then three marker buoys drifted past the wrong side of the harbor. The turning current had moved everything—including Dena.

Nick searches a blank foggy sky with a telescope while Aurelia asks a direct question and he lowers his map.

“The stars,” Nick said. The fog had swallowed those too. He explained currents, geology, and the shortest route between two points. Aurelia interrupted. “Can Dena see any of that?” Nick folded the map.

Aurelia places a travel stone beside a hand lantern and its mineral seams reflect light across a wet harbor stone.

Aurelia opened her travel pouch. Greece. The airport road. Home. She set one stone beside the keeper’s hand-lantern. Bright mineral seams caught the flame and scattered it across the wet quay.

Aurelia carries her favorite stone down wet steps and places it in the lowest tide pool as the sea rises.

A low path could shine beneath the fog. But the rising tide might take every stone she owned. Aurelia chose her favorite, carried it to the lowest tide pool, and set it where the next wave would reach.

Nick follows Aurelia's lead as they anchor reflective stones along the seawall, creating a luminous path under the fog.

Nick opened his mouth with several excellent concerns. Then he closed it, filled both paws with stones, and followed her. One by one, their lights curved along the seawall while the second bell lifted into the air.

Aurelia raises the lantern at the end of the glowing shore path while Dena turns the red-sailed ferry between black rocks.

The tide tore two lights loose. Aurelia reached the farthest point and raised the keeper’s lantern. Beyond Needle Rocks, Dena spotted the crooked line, sounded one clear note, and turned the red sail toward home.

Dena returns the red-threaded lucky stone to Aurelia as Nick stands beside the restored moonstone beacon and the luminous harbor path.

The ferry crossed the harbor before the second bell finished ringing. Dena returned the lucky stone, now tied with red thread. Aurelia found one scuffed survivor by the wall. It carried a better story than before.