Far away, at the frog-shaped temple, Reggie and Vanessa froze mid-investigation.
"...Did something just scream in magical energy?" Vanessa asked.
Reggie nodded and slowly pulled out a magical scanner that was suddenly screaming in binary.
Meanwhile, Remy was halfway through looting an ancient cobra statue when the air around him shimmered and knocked him flat with a burst of blue light.
Back at the exploding pinecone temple, Jake and Isabella were knocked to the floor. The rune stone dropped, cracked, and evaporated into sparks.
And then… the change began.
Jake's ears began to stretch upward into long, pointed tips. Glowing marks snaked from his forehead down his cheeks—rune tattoos, swirling and pulsing like living energy.
Isabella sat up, wide-eyed. "Jake… you look like a magic elf warrior."
Jake blinked. "You look like a magic elf warrior."
They stared at each other, then burst out laughing.
Remy, Reggie, and Vanessa arrived minutes later—each of them changed. All five cousins now had long elven ears and radiant rune tattoos etched into their faces. Each tattoo glowed a different color:
Jake's: blue and red
Isabella's: light purple
Reggie's: emerald green
Vanessa's: gold
Remy's: silver
"What… happened?" Vanessa asked, holding up a small mirror to her face. "I look like I downloaded an elf skin mod!"
Jake held up his hands. "Okay… so… I might have touched a glowing ancient rune that said 'Do Not Touch' in glowing runes."
Remy facepalmed. "You what?!"
Reggie looked down at his hands, watching as tiny threads of magical energy danced between his fingertips. Then he slowly turned toward Jake.
Jake grinned nervously. "Soooo… maybe not all bad?"
The jungle around them had also changed—trees shimmered, glowing glyphs appeared on rocks, and the temples now vibrated with a visible magical field.
"We unlocked something," Isabella said. "Something big."
A deep rumble echoed from the mountains in the distance. Then, a flash of violet lightning lit up the sky.
Jake pointed dramatically. "Okay. We clearly just stepped into a much bigger game."
Vanessa turned to the group. "So now what?"
Jake puffed out his chest, his rune tattoos glowing brighter. "Now? Now we go full fantasy adventure mode."
Remy crossed his arms. "You're enjoying this too much."
"Absolutely."