“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”

William Shakespeare

Jaius stepped away from her and gave her his best “Your Crazy” look.

She spun around with excitement and shouted “Aslan, Mr. Tumnus, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. We’re here.”

“Ali, this isn’t Narnia!”

“How do you know?” she said as she stopped to regard him.

“Because we’ve been here for hours and haven’t seen anyone.”

“So. In the second book it is days before the Pevensies come across any Narnians.”

“Was the sky like that at any point in the books?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it. She looked up and to the right as she skimmed through what she remembered of each book, and to her surprise she was able to remember more than she thought possible, she could almost see the words on the pages in her head. After a minute or two the air of excitement seemed to evaporate from her.

She looked to her right again, across the gaping abyss, and then back at Jaius.

“No.” extreme disappointment was full in her voice.

Then like a light switch being turned on, it came back.

“Ok, maybe its not Narnia, but maybe its Middle Earth, or maybe we went through a Tesseract!” She said excitedly. “We could be on some far distant planet in the galaxy.”

“A tesser…what?”

“You know, a Wrinkle in Time. A tesseract is a folding of space.”

“Like a Worm hole?”

“Huh? No space, like outer space, it has nothing to do with worms.”

He laughed a little.

“No, a worm hole. it’s a tunnel through space that you can travel great distances through.”

“Yeah a tesseract.” she said as if he had just confirmed her theory.

He almost kept going but then shook his head.

“No! Ali, we haven’t jumped into the pages of a story book, or into some movie, somehow, someway this is for real. If we are on some distant planet, there might be no other life. We may be the only sentient beings here. Ali, I want to go home. I’ve been hungry for a while now, it didn’t look like either of us had lunch today. This isn't a fantasy Ali, its real.”

He knew right after he had said it that he had gone too far. There was that feeling of hitting a brick wall, that he always got when he spoke before he thought. He could see it all over her face, he had taken away her hope.

Her lip began to tremble as she started looking around again, trying to find something from one of the books she read. Some landmark that would tell her that even though this place was dangerous, there was somewhere safe to go. Like Care Paravel, or Helm’s Deep. But everywhere she looked all she could see was an alien landscape and nothing that seemed even remotely familiar to her. Just then her stomach decided to remind her that she had only eaten half an English muffin that day, and she was also getting thirsty. The reality of the situation came crashing down on her.

“Ja…Jaius, I want to go home too. I’ve had enough adventure, I want to give my mom a really big hug and tell her I’m sorry, over and over again.”

He could see that she was waging a heroic war with the floodgates behind her eyes, but it looked like they were about to overwhelm her.

“Man, girls sure do cry a lot!”. He went over to her and put his arm around her shoulders in what he hoped was a comforting move.

It did not, however, have the effect he had thought it would, because instead of calming her down, it let loose the floodgates. She squeezed her arms around his back so tightly that he felt his ribs protest. He was about to get freaked out by this, when he remembered that not a hour ago she was enduring the same water works from him. He had never had a true friend before, but he did learn in that moment that this is what friends do for each other. They are there for the other, no matter what is going on around them.

“What are we going to do? We’re going to freeze to death, or starve, or worse.” She whined.

Jaius had no answer for her, which after a moment seemed to make her cry harder. It was almost as if she were looking to him to pull some great Idea out of his butt.

“Great, put all the responsibility on me.” He did, however, have the wherewithal to not say that out loud. A small voice poked into his head. “You’re the knight, think of something.”

All that came to mind was going back to the clearing, at least it was more familiar to them then what lay before them. So he went with this.

“Hey, Ali.

“Yeah.” she said despondently.

“I think I have an idea. Look lets go back to the clearing by the creek. Its at least somewhat familiar. Plus we were standing there when the whole world changed. Maybe it is just temporary. If we wait there maybe we’ll be able to go home, or wake up from this dream.”

He felt her calm as he spoke. When he was done she pulled away from him and looked up at him with puffy red eyes that were streaked by the makeup that had pretty much run all over her face.

“That sounds good to me.” She said with a sniff. “Gosh, you must think I’m the world's biggest crybaby. Sorry for all the waterworks lately. I’m not usually Niagra Falls girl.” Well, she had been cry- girl for the past year, but she didn’t want him to think she was a freak.

“If I went through what you had today, It’d be hard not to cry myself.”

She smiled at that and then looked back at the tree line.

“Do you remember how to get back? You did a lot of zig zagging.”

“I think so, I was thinking of just making a straight line in and then listening for the water.”

“That sounds like a plan. Come on, lets go before it gets dark. We may have to find a way to start a fire.”

Jaius nodded and then began walking toward the trees.

“Oh, and Jaius, I haven’t forgotten what made me chase you out here. I want you to delete that picture.”

He turned back toward her.

“I turned the phone off to conserve the battery, we might need the light at night, and the juice wont last forever. I promise, you can watch me delete it the next time I turn it on.” He chuckled a little as he began walking again.

She made a frustrated sound.

“Boys! Why do all the princesses try to get them to notice them? They aren’t worth the trouble.”

She stalked after him.

She was silent as they walked. Jaius would glance her way every-once in a while to see if she looked mad, but he couldn’t read her expression.

“Ali, I’m sorry about the pic. I really am going to delete it.”

She looked at him and tried to see if he was sincere, or not. After a moment or two of scrutiny she decided that he was being truthful.

“Oh, don’t worry too much about it. I’m not really mad. It just scared me, the thought that that picture would be seen by anyone else. Especially because my makeup has run all over the place.”

“I wouldn’t do that Ali, not ever.”

She definitely heard the truth in his voice.

“I know. I guess it's hard to trust someone with something that could embarrass you. Alison Trendale used to be my best friend since we were five, until she dumped me for Keri Bellows and her cronies at the end of Sixth grade. Alison has my diary and has been using it against me ever since she betrayed me.” This was something Jaius already knew, but he hadn’t known how close they had been. He wasn’t sure if he should tell her that he heard about the dream she’d had about Jim. So he thought he would play dumb.

“Ah man! She has your diary. How’d she get it?”

“Well we were best friends and best friends don't have secrets, so we would switch our diaries every so often. We had switched right before she abandoned me.”

“So you have her’s then? Why haven’t you used it against her?”

“Believe me, I think about it every day, but then I’d be the same as her and I don’t want to become that.” She sounded as if she would say more, but then said nothing. He didn’t press her on it.

“Yeah, I can see that. What did you do to Keri Bellows anyway?”

“I have no Idea. It's like she just put the names of all the seventh graders in a hat and drew my name out of it. She then decided to make my life a hell, just because.”

“No, I mean back at the Caff today. Did you hit her in the face before you left?”

“Huh?” She stopped walking.

“Well, her eyes rolled back up into her head, and blood started pouring from her nose. I thought maybe you popped her one.”

“Oh, my gosh!” She said as she covered her mouth with her hand. “You mean I killed Keri. I mean, I told her I wished she would die, but I didn’t think it would actually happen.” She looked like she was turning green. “Oh no! I cursed her.”

“Whoa, Ali, take it easy, I don’t think you cursed her. I don’t know what was going wrong with her body, but I highly doubt you did it.”

“But, but I told her that I hope she dies. Jaius I’ve never said anything that mean to someone before.”

“Ali, you weren’t in your right mind at that moment. You didn’t know what you were saying.”

“Yes I did. I had never had a more lucid moment in my life. Jaius, I wanted to see her fall dead at my feet at that moment. All I could feel was hatred for her. Oh my gosh, I’m a murderer!”

“You are not, look she was still breathing while she was laying on Jim's lap.”

A dark cloud momentary passed over her face and then was gone.

“What?”

“Huh?”

“You looked like you were about to engage your death ray or something.”

“Oh, Huh, Oh it was nothing. Are you sure Keri was breathing?”

Jaius was about to press the issue of her death ray, when some instinct told him that now wasn’t the right time.

“Uh…yeah, I saw her breathing.”

She seemed to not even notice his pause, as she let out a sigh and her face stopped looking so green.

“I’ve never allowed it to get to me like that Jaius, I never wanted to hate anyone. I told my mom once that I hated her. It was the night before Alison betrayed me and I was super stressed out because I didn’t know if Keri was going to let me into their group as she had with Alison, and when I came home my mom kept nagging me to help her and to clean this or that up, and help make dinner. I was barely holding it together. Then Simon, my little brother threw up on me and that was it, I lost it. I plopped him down in his highchair a little too hard and was screaming at him. So my mom grabbed my arm real hard and began yelling at me. I couldn’t take it, not from her on top of everything else. I told her I hated her.”

She stopped walking and looked at him, he saw a deep sorrow in her eyes.

“She let go of my arm like hers had lost all life, her face looked dead Jaius. I started to cry and ran to my room. That was one of the few times in my life my Dad took his belt to me. I really did deserve it though, especially after he explained to me what hate means.” She swallowed hard and turned her head away to stare at the forest around them.

“He said that to hate someone is to want them to be tormented forever, for them to scream in agony every second of the day….” She inhaled deeply and let it out. “…and it also means that you want to stay there for each second they are in pain so that you can enjoy their suffering. I’ll tell you what, I was apologizing to my mom for a month or more. I got so annoying that she made up a “Sorry Jar” so that every time is Said sorry I had to put a dollar into the jar

Jaius’s mouth was hanging open when she finished. He had told Sis that he hated her for years now. Maybe that was why she yelled at him all the time. He didn’t tell Alianna that though, she seemed to feel very strongly about hate, and he didn’t want her to think ill of him.

“Wow. I had no Idea that it meant that. I think they need to update the dictionary.”

“Heh, yeah.” She laughed uncomfortably.

“What’s wrong?”

“Jaius, that’s what I was feeling today in the caff when I told Keri that I wish she would die. In that moment all I wanted was for her to suffer unimaginable torture, and find glee in watching her go through it. But there is something else about it that I haven’t been able to put my finger on. There is something else that happened in that moment, but I can’t remember. It’s very distracting, having a problem buzzing in your head and not being able to find an answer.”

He placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

“Welcome to my world. My mind is usually focused on three problems at once. Problem is that that makes it impossible to solve any of them. Ali, you can’t beat yourself up over this. Keri and her crew have made both of our lives a living hell. I don’t believe anyone deserves to be hated, after the explanation that you gave, but Ali you were hurting, hurting worse then I can probably imagine. I think the missing piece that you were mentioning is intent. Cold intent. You didn’t plan to say that to Keri, so I chalk it up to temporary insanity.”

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“Great, now I’m insane!” She huffed. But as she looked around her scowl turned to a look of worry. “Jaius, what if I am insane? What if I’m sitting in some padded room right now in a straight jacket, and this is my delusion?”

He pinched her arm.

“Ouch!” She pinched him back.

“Hey, Ouw!” He started rubbing his arm.

“Well, why did you pinch me?”

“To show you this wasn’t a dream or delusion. Where here Ali and we better figure out how to get out of here’ quickly or else we’ll starve.”

She was about to dispute his logic, but then decided she couldn’t. So, still rubbing her arm, she began walking again.

“No we won’t, I can hunt.”

“Huh? Hey wait up!” He hurried after her. “What do you mean you can hunt?”

“My dad and I go hunting every year around thanksgiving. I’ve killed two bucks and three does. He showed me how to clean them and cook the right pieces. It’s really kinda gross, but he always said that one buck would be enough meat for a winter, and all it cost him was the price of a bullet.”

“Ali.”

“Yeah?”

“Where are we going to get a rifle? Unless the deer comes right up and lays its neck out for you to slit, I don‘t think we‘ll be eating meat anytime soon.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right.” She said glumly.

“Well, if it does happen though, then we will totally need your expertise.”

She turned her head and smiled at him.

“Thanks.” she said.

A few minutes later they entered the clearing. The creek was bubbling along its merry course, just as it had been when they left it. The strange twinkle of lights still emanated from the water.

Alianna went over to stand by the creek. She stared intently at the glowing crystals that lay scattered along the bottom.

Her joints still ached worse then she let on to Jaius. Whatever those stones did to her, it wasn’t something that seemed to be going away quickly. She needed to investigate them again, maybe they were what brought them here, if she could only bring one up with her. Touching them was out of the question. She looked around for something she could use to pluck one out with. After a few moments her eyes locked on a branch that had fallen on the ground a couple of feet away. It had a split at the end, and the split looked like it would be able to cradle one of the stones.

As she walked over to the stick she became aware of how much she needed a bath. She had run for miles today, and her makeup probably made her face look like a lab experiment.

“What are you doing?” Jaius yelled from where she had left him at the top of the small rise.

She went over and picked up her swimsuit. She turned her head away as she blushed. “…I need a bath.” she said in just above a whisper. Her cheeks reddened as she thought of how awful she looked.

“Huh, what did you say?”

“I need a bath!” Her voice went a few octaves higher than normal. She said holding out her swimsuit and waving it at him.

. “Oh…Oh, yeah well, no problem there, you a…you just go ahead and I’ll go gather some firewood…yeah that’s it firewood.” He said in a traffic-jam of words and then turned on his heel and walked back into the woods.

She stood looking at the spot where he had just been standing and shook her head.

She pulled her fingers through her hair and drew a handful of it in-front of her face to inspect it. It looked like hair that belonged to someone who had just run three miles and then gone traipsing around the woods for hours.

“I wish I had some shampoo. Oh well.” She let her hair fall.

She went over behind some bushes and put on her swimsuit.

She swam out to the center of the creek. As she treaded water over the glowing crystals, she scanned the area around her once more. She then looked down where the crystals were, grabbed the branch more tightly, then she took a deep breath and dove down toward the crystals. There were three right below her. They each gave off a vibrant golden glow. She reached the branch out and barely touched one of the crystals. There was no jolt of energy. Just as she withdrew it and went up for air did she realize how monumentally stupid that just was. What if the energy had gone through the stick to her. She’d be floating face down in the creek again and this time, Jaius wouldn’t be around to save her.

“Am I subconsciously still trying to kill myself?” She whispered sullenly as a new fear began to take hold of her. Could she still be trying to kill herself and not know it?

She didn’t dwell on that for long, and pushed that thought deep down in her mind.

She dove back down and then jabbed the forked end of the branch into the creek bottom near one of the stones. She had to push really hard to get the branch to move into the sediment at the bottom. She tried to lever the stone out but her lungs were already burning. So she left the branch stuck in the bottom and went back up for air. She swallowed a good amount as she opened her mouth too early. She had been swimming in a creek near Alison’s house before and the water had tasted gritty and bitter. This water tasted as pure as any she had ever had. There was even sweetness to it. She took in a mouthful and swallowed. She could feel something spreading to her aching joints. It was a warmth that radiated through her body. Within minutes the pain was gone. She felt more alive than ever before. Almost like she had really been dead, and was now really alive.

Feeling full of energy she dove down again and grabbed the branch. She pushed down with all her might and on the second push the crystal came free. As soon as it left the creek bed it stopped glowing. She went to the surface and carefully brought up the crystal. It looked like some type of gem, but there was definitely no light coming from it any more. She swam slowly to shore, being careful not to drop the odd stone. When she could put her feet down she gently extended the branch, set the stone on the shore and then tossed the branch next to the stone. She then swam back out and proceeded to wash her face and hair as best as she could. When she was done she swam back to the shore. This was the most amazing water she had ever been in. She felt exhilarated, it was similar to the feeling that she got when she scored a goal in soccer.

She got out of the water and dried herself off with the towel and then went back to the privacy of the bushes and put her odd assortment of clothes back on. She then went over to the crystal. She took a deep breath and then reached out to touch it. Her fingertips brushed the smooth faceted surface, but there was no jolt of energy this time. Feeling reassured by this she picked the crystal up and set it in the palm of her hand. She went and sat down on the grass and pulled her legs up under her. She then stared deeply into the crystal, trying to glean any secrets it might have.

That was how Jaius found her as he came out of the trees on top of the rise that overlooked the clearing. He stared down at her as he adjusted the bundle of sticks and twigs in his arms.

“What are we going to do Ali?” He said softly to himself. “I have dreamed about something like this my whole life. I used to ask my mom why I couldn’t jump into the T.V. and join the adventure. Now here I am surrounded by adventure, and all I want to do is go home.” He heaved a heavy sigh and then continued on down into the clearing.

She had been staring intently at the facets that made up the gem, when she heard someone coming behind her. Logic should have told her that it was only Jaius, but logic wasn’t with her just at the moment. She jumped up and spun around to level the crystal at her would-be assailant.

“Stop right there or I’ll…” She said in a high pitched raspy voice.

“Huh? Hey what the heck is that and why is it pointed at me?”

“Wow, Jaius, I’m glad it's you I was afraid…well I’m not sure what I was afraid of but I’m just glad it was you.” she lowered the stone and then turned to inspect the bundle in his hands.

“Wow, great job on the branches, now all we need is some way to light it.”

He found he was actually able to grin when she complimented him.

“Hey!” She said a smile appeared on her lips as well. “You took a compliment.”

“Yeah, it's crazy weird, but that dark shadow that always falls over me when someone compliments me is hardly there.”

“Awesome!”

“What is that anyway?” He said, nodding to the crystal in her hand.

“I got it off of the creek bottom. It’s a crystal. There are a group of them at the bottom of the creek out there and they are what is causing the glowing lights. I thought maybe it could help us start a fire and maybe even help us get home, like maybe these are what brought us here.”

“The bottom? You dove down to the bottom right before you were knocked out. Was it the crystal that hurt you?”

She lowered her voice as she nodded her head. “It's also what almost killed me when you found me floating in the water. I touched it and some kind of energy leapt through me, like I stuck the fork in the socket again.”

“You mean, you knew those things were dangerous and yet still went back in after one. I wasn’t anywhere near here Ali, if it had hurt you again, you’d be….you’d be….”

She watched as his face started to turn red. He stalked past her and dropped the bundle of wood in his arms in the middle of the clearing. He then continued on to stand by the creek.

Alianna looked down at the crystal and mentally berated herself again for being so rash. She then turned and walked over to stand next to Jaius.

“Jaius, look, you got every right to be mad. I put myself in danger without much thought. That’s what’s scaring me though.”

She reached out to grab his arm and turn him toward her because he didn’t look like he was paying attention to her. When she grabbed it though he pulled it away and turned his back to her.

She stepped around in front of him, and as he went to turn his back on her again, she reached out and grabbed both of his arms and struggled to keep him facing her.

“What!”

She cringed a little when he yelled at her, which seemed to make him recoil a little too.

He heaved a sigh. “What.” he said in a softer tone.

“Jaius that’s what’s scaring me. I went in there after that stone without thinking of the bad things that could happen. I don’t want to kill myself anymore Jaius, but what if something is broken in my head. What if subconsciously I’m still trying to end my life? Jaius, I don’t want to die!”

He heard the fear in her voice, which told him that this wasn’t some excuse made up to ease his anger. He had heard of psychology, and it was brought up a lot in the shows and movies he watched, but he was no expert. Could Ali be trying to end her life without her being aware of it?

“Ali, don’t worry, I’ll stay with you. I’ll make sure that you don’t do anything that could hurt you. We’ll just stay together okay, if we need wood we’ll both go get it. If we want to go swimming, we’ll stay here, and make sure the other makes it out of the water. I won’t let you hurt yourself .”

She took a deep breath, and nodded, and then let it out.

“Thank you Jaius, thank you for just being here. I think if I had wound up in this place alone without any way back, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have just jumped off that cliff back there. A lifetime without the ability to interact with someone seems like hell to me.”

“Well…ah…your welcome. Thanks for not being disappointed that it was me you got stuck with.”

“I’m not sure I can think of anyone else from our school that I’d want to be here. You're pretty cool and you're not a jerk like, well like pretty much every other kid there.”

“What about Jim? You seemed to like being around him.” he said as a little depression made his voice lower.

She looked away from him when he said that, out over the flowing water. Twelve hours ago she would have picked Jim over Jaius.

“I thought Jim was the greatest, thought he was so cool, but he just turned on me at lunch, Keri had told him all these lies about me. She’d said that I used to pick on her and Trudi, and he believed her. Without having asked me if it was true, he just believed her. How can you just take someone’s word for something, without investigating it. To me, that’s the ultimate form of laziness.” She turned back to him. “Nope, I'm glad it's you. You saved my life twice and you haven’t lost your head, which I’m thinking most of the other boys would have.” She reached out, squeezed his shoulder and then walked past him back to where the stack of wood was.

He stood there for a few moments looking out at the water and the strange lights that danced on its surface. He rubbed the spot where she had squeezed his shoulder. What were they going to do? They had water, but no food, no shelter, no way to get home. He’d sat on his butt playing video games and watching T.V. for most of his life. He knew almost nothing of living off the land. It was cool that Ali knew how to hunt, but without a weapon that was going to be difficult, if not impossible. Even if they did catch something, they had no fire to cook it with.

“There!” She exclaimed.

Jaius turned around to see what she was excited about. She was crouching near the spot that he had left the stack of wood. It was now made into a tepee shape with the bigger logs on the bottom crossed over each other. There were even some dead leaves set at the bottom and stones ringing the fire in. How long had he been standing there letting the list of things they didn’t have build up his fear level.

“Where’d you get that idea from?”

“I watch my dad whenever he makes a fire in the fireplace and when we go camping, this is how he sets up the wood.”

He shook his head as he turned and walked over to her.

“What?” she said a bit defensively.

He sat down on the ground and looked at the pile of wood. “I was just thinking that I’m the lucky one here. If I had been stuck here with any of the other girls at our school, they’d be whining and crying all over the place, and I doubt that any of them would have known how to set up a fire, or even how to hunt. I’m just saying, "I'm glad that, if I had to be stuck here, I'd be glad it was with you.”

She blushed a little at the complement. “Thanks.”

She felt a warm feeling in her heart just then. “It's been a long time since I dared to hope that I could trust someone again, maybe, just maybe I can trust Jaius.” After a moment of reflection she sat down, on the other side of the pile from him. She shook her head at the oddity of their situation and then she lifted the crystal up to her face again and began to peer into it, as if looking deep enough would reveal its secrets. After minutes of not finding any, she began to feel so lost and helpless, she thought that she might as well try God again, maybe wherever they were closer to him.

“Hi God, It’s Ali. Not sure where we are, or even if you can hear us here. I’m sorry about what I wanted to do today, I know it isn’t something that you like. God, if you can hear us here in this place, could you send us something to light the fire with?”

She didn’t receive any loud booming voice or even a tiny whisper. She heaved a heavy sigh and went back to her study of the crystal. As she was looking at it, a song popped into her head. It was one of the ones that Jim had shown her this morning. It was called Kathy’s Song. As she looked into the crystal she found that she could hear the words as distinctly as if they were being pumped into her ears right this moment. She had really, really liked that song, it made her feel like she was in her dad’s truck with her head leaning against the window, watching the houses and trees fly by as they went past. She began to sing the song she heard playing in her head. She had been told she had a very pretty voice, but she could never be sure if the people that said this were just being nice, or if they were telling the truth.

“I hear the drizzle of the rain, like a memory it falls. Soft and warm continuing, tapping on my roof and walls. And from the shelter of my mind, through the window of my eyes, I gaze beyond the rain drenched streets, to England where my heart lies.”

At first Jaius didn’t know what to make of her all of a sudden starting to sing. He quickly stopped worrying about it as the song and her voice took away some of the fear he had been drumming up as he stood by the water a few moments ago.

“My mind is distracted and diffused. My thoughts are many miles away. They lie with you when you're asleep, and kiss you when you start your days.”

As she hit the last note the crystal flared with a bright flash. There was a loud cracking noise and the crystal broke in half. She shrieked and drooped both halves, and scooted away from them. One half tumbled too close to the wood and some of the residual energy arced to the dried leaves and began them burning. Jaius had also scooted away when he saw the flash. When he looked back the fire was beginning to work its way onto the larger branches. He was transfixed by the fire for a few moments, but then what just happened caught up to him. He looked around for Ali, hoping she was alright. He saw her sitting about ten feet from where she had been. She had wrapped her arms around herself and was trembling.

He jumped up and hurried over and knelt down beside her. He raised his arm to put it around her shoulders but hesitated. He wasn’t sure if it was something he should do. He looked at her for some indication if it was OK, but all she did was tremble and keep her eyes locked on the crystal shards.

Jaius had a movie flashback to the Dark Crystal and Jen the Gelfling staring intently at the crystal shards at Ougrah's trying to discern which one was the one that came from the Dark Crystal. It was the music illuminating the shard that made him think of it. Jen, unable to figure out which of the multiple shards were the right one, finally pulled out his pan pipe and started to play. As he played, one of the shards began to glow a dark purple. He shook his head, clearing out the memory. “That must be it, the crystal responded to her singing.” He sat down and put his arm around her.

It took her a little bit, but slowly she was able to tear her eyes away from the crystals. She felt someone’s arm around her, and for a moment forgot that she wasn’t alone. She tensed slightly but then the momentary amnesia was gone and she looked over to see Jaius kneeling next to her.

“Are you ok?” he said.

“Yea…Yeah. No fork in the socket this time, it just really scared me. I…I thought that, well the last time I saw that flash of light I almost died. Guess I didn’t have a chance to be afraid that time, so this time I’m making up for it.” She was still trembling.

“Hey, you must be cold, why don’t we go back to the fire.”

She looked back at the crystals, and hesitated.

“We can sit on the other side, where I was.”

“O…OK.”

He helped her up and they went and sat down next to each other on the other side of the fire from the crystals.

As they sat there looking into the flames, she continued to tremble. He put his arm around her shoulders again. It took her a few minutes, but as she lay her head on his shoulder the trembling began to ease. He looked down at her face to see if she was feeling better, and noticed that her eyes kept darting back to the half of the crystal that hadn’t started the fire. He knew this was really eating at her. “Ali”.

She tore her eyes away from the crystal and looked up at him. “What?”

“I think I know what happened with the crystal. I saw it in a movie. The main character played his flute and the music made the crystal that he was looking for glow. I...I think that your singing is what made the Crystal react like that. Somehow some way singing makes the Crystal glow.”

She looked at him like he had two holes in his head. “But...but why did it hurt me underwater then? I wasn't singing.” She said looking at the crystal again like it might set her on fire any minute. “I..I don't know.” He said helplessly. He racked his brain for something to get them off this topic, then it hit him.

“What should we name our world?” He said nonchalantly.

She lifted her head with a bewildered look on her face.

“Huh?”

“Our world, where we are now. It's definitely not Earth, and it is possible that we could be here for a while, so we really should give the place a name.”

She still had the bewildered look on her face as she turned back to the fire. It was as if only half of what he had said had filtered through the fog of fear that gripped her.

“I…I don’t know, I guess. What do you think we should call it?” She did not take her eyes off the crystal as she spoke.

“Paltophern.” He said with excitement.