” Through sand and snow;
Through forest and rain;
Five brave hearts will go.

“The journey of pain;
These five will brave;
But only four will remain”



I sprang up in my bed, with my heart racing. I looked directly in front of me, and saw Abby, at the foot of my bed with a scared expression on her face.

“Goodness! I thought you were going to pounce on me or something!”

“Sorry. I just had the strangest dream.”

“What about?”

“I don’t know. I think I forgot when I started talking to you.”

“Well, just get up and it might come to you.”

“Yeah.” As she walked away, I saw something tucked under her arm. “What’re you carrying?”

“A notebook. Kashi gave it to me.” She paused. “He didn’t want it.”

“Where’d you and Kashi go last night?”

“He dropped off his pony and walked me back here.”

“Where’d he drop it off at?”

“I don’t know. It was dark, okay?” She began walking away again. “Aren’t you going to get up?”

“Yeah, I’m getting there.”

“Well, hurry. Sono came by here and said he was going to take us somewhere soon.”

“Where? When?”

“I don’t know. He told me some weird letters for both the place and the time.”

“Alright.” I mumbled. “But next time wake me up!”

“I didn’t want to. It’s peaceful in here without your gums flapping every millisecond.”

I tried to come up with a snappy comeback, but nothing came to mind.

“Oh, and by the way, Sono left your pajamas inside a bag in the bathroom. There’s a set of robe thingies on the shelf for you.

“Do they look as terrible as yours?” I asked sarcastically while glancing at the rather fine-looking garments she was wearing.

“Oh, they’re much, much worse.” She said as she walked to her bed and opened up her notebook.

I lifted the sheets of the bed and swung my feet over the side. I sat there a moment, looking up through the glass dome at the beautiful blue sky and the rolling white clouds. It looked like a perfect day on Earth. In fact, it looked so much like Earth, that I almost jumped when I saw a pony flying overhead.

I slid out of my bed and walked into the bathroom. Closing the door, I found that what Abby said was true. There was a beautiful green cinch bag on the countertop, and on the rack on the wall there was a set of dark green and brown “robe thingies”, as Abby called them.
Remembering that Sono would be coming soon, I grabbed them and started to put them on. Contrary to my negative statement about them earlier, they were actually quite comfortable.

When I came out, Sono was sitting on the bed with Abby, talking. It seemed strange. I guess I was so used to us hurling insults at one another that I was surprised that she could have a normal conversation.
Sono saw me out of the corner of his eye and greeted me.

“So, the sleepy one has finally decided to come out! How are you Daffid?”

“It’s David.”

“That is what I said. Daffid.”

“Oh, never mind.” I said slightly irritated.

“Well, Daffid, are you ready?”

“Ready for what?”

“To go home?”

“More than you know.”

“Good. Follow me, you two.”

Sono led us into the hallway and took a right at the corner. I saw the elevator that we used yesterday, and Sono gestured towards it. We sat down, and in what seemed like a second, we were in a different hallway. Sono got up and continued walking. We followed, trying to match his hurried pace.

We turned right around a corner, and again around another corner. Here, Sono stopped. He looked at us with a grin and said,

“Well, here we are. SL1a.”

“What exactly is this place?” Abby asked questioningly.

“See for yourself.” He opened the door and motioned with his hands to enter. We walked in, and I was very amazed by what met my eye.

It was a rectangular-shaped room with a giant white table in the center. And on the opposite wall from where we stood was a wall that seemed to be a giant monitor for a computer. Men and women in long, grey robes with a strange symbol on them seemed to all be doing different things on the same computer at the same time. It seemed...overwhelming.

Abby just stood there, staring at everything going on. Everything seemed perfectly organised. Nothing seemed out of place. Except one person who didn’t seem to fit in. He wasn’t wearing grey and he was standing near the table, looking over the shoulders of the people using the computer. He strained his neck to see past one particular guy’s head but finding he couldn’t he looked around the room.

The moment he turned his head towards us, I recognized him.

“At last! Daffid, Addy, you are finally here!” Roy said in his friendly, booming voice.

I mentally decided to give up on correcting the pronunciation of my name, so I just nodded.

“Come, Come! We have been waiting.”

Leading us inside, he pulled aside one of the women wearing grey. She looked annoyed.

"Sir, we are looking, but Earth doesn't seem to exist. These two must be liars and spies."

I felt my jaw drop, as two Equillian guards started to move towards us.