Chapter Four.

CHAPTER FOUR_ _ _|

DAISUKE'S POV_ _ _|

The Universe is a strange place. This I've know for a long time. From the moment I was born, I was marked as something "special."

All my life I've been told "You can't escape Destiny. You Can't escape fate."

Fate, Destiny, Magic? I've never believed in these things, even though my parents tried to grind it into my head at an early age.

But if it's true...

If That's true, then Destiny and Fate must really hate me.

To summarize, I've been torn from my family, my mother, my father, my own twin sister! I've been shuttled off to some un-caring foster home. I've been charged for arson, murder, and J-walking (I wasn't even involved in that last one), I've been on the run, chased by every local law enforcement agency from Eddy County to Albany.

And what did it get me? A one way ticket to a lone island in the clouds. I've been through so much- Tomoki- Yeesha- Kaiyumi- only to gain so little.

What happened? I was thrown through time. Tomoki and I. Ripped yet again from a home I was comfortable with. Now I'm here. Trapped in a world long gone.

"Who hired you? Where am I? What do you want with me? What am I doing here?"

Those are the questions I wanted to ask. But who would I ask these to?

I'm not some Alien, Esper, or Slider. Sure, I'm a Time Traveler. But I'm no hero! If anything, I'm a failure! A fake! "Daisuke" isn't even my real name! Even the name I gave Tomoki when I met him wasn't my real one.

I've gotten so used to hiding in the shadows. Is this my wake up call? Is this my Destiny? My Fate?!

Mom, Dad, where ever you are, I bet you're laughing your heads off right now.

Players: Daisuke and Kaiyumi.

Opponents: Static beasts of unknown origin and design.

Objectives: Rescue the villagers of Eder Gira, defeat monsters, and get home in time for Dinner.

Chances?

Zero to One.

In whose favor?

I can't tell yet.

Time to get cracking.

Time to quit screwing around and start.

...Ready?

GERONIMOOOO~!

EDER GIRA_ _ _| THE VILAGE OF THE LAVA POP GUILD_ _ _|

The news was Good and Bad.

The good was that The Intruding boy had vanished.

Sadly, the village elders realized, the bad was that their plan was failing. Epically.

The Original plan was simple, leave a small tracking fluid on the boy's cloths to track him to the source of the kidnappings.

The beast that was tearing through the forest looking for him was another matter entirely.

It was when the sky turned dark with the storm clouds of battle that they realized their plan had failed completely.

The intruder had begun a battle for freedom, the elders could only hope he was a valiant fighter.

WITH THE LAND SHAR---BIRD/DRAGON THING_ _ _|

Daisuke grimaced as the sub-world suddenly lurched as the static like dragon whose mouth they were inside emerged from the land itself.

With a mighty roar, the beast then proceeded to worm it's way through the air, creating a massive thunder storm over the area, as it attempted to get the foreign intrusion in it's mouth out.

"Chances?" Kaiyumi asked suddenly.

"What?" Daisuke looked at her, confused.

"What are our chances of winning if we fight this thing?" She clarified.

"Zero to One." Daisuke replied silently.

"In Whose favor?" She asked again.

He paused as he though, then answered with a smile. "I can't tell yet."

"Well, that's just great!" She frowned.

"Time to get cracking then!!" His smile grew.

Her frown continued. "What?"

"Time to quit screwing around and start!" his smile turned into an out right grin. "Are you Ready?" He asked, the grin widening.

"Ready for what!?" Kaiyumi was starting to grow annoyed.

With that, Daisuke stood to attention as the beast began diving towards a fairly deep looking lake.

"GERONIMOOOO~!"

With that, he jumped out of the beast's mouth, diving down into the lake.

Kaiyumi stared blankly before realizing what had just happened. With a resigned sigh, she followed the Explorer out of the ground dragon's mouth. The villagers, becoming caught up in the heat of the moment, jumped out of the mouth as well.

The Static Air Beast paid little attention to them, however, and continued to dive towards the lake as it wriggled it's tongue to get that pesky blue fire marble out of the roof of it's mouth. It crashed into- and then THROUGH- the ground without so much of a sound and continued diving, while it's former passengers landed safely in the lake just behind it.

Hey, Speaking of them? Why haven't they come up from the surface yet?

Ahhem! I said...

Suddenly! The villagers and their two saviors emerged from the lake, taking deep breaths of the precious air.

Daisuke looked around the lake at the sight before him and grinned as he stopped on Kaiyumi. "You know, Kaiyumi-Chan, you'd be able to swim a bit easier without all that bulky cloth!"

"Oh be quiet!" she retorted before splashing a hand full of water at him.

It only made him laugh, and made her frown deepen.

-----

Night fell within two hours.

Everyone was lost- Completely. Since the stars in the sky didn't even match the ones from the village area, either they were on a new world, or they had gone to a different part of the planet.

Daisuke, fortunately having brought his KI along, could confirm they were still on the age of Eder Gira, but couldn't tell the exact location compared to the village-

("I never got the coordinates working on this stupid thing!" he said with an attempt at an anime expression.

Kaiyumi narrowed her eyes. "Yeah. Sure.")

-Meaning that the static dragon/bird creature had taken them to the other side of the planet. This lead the teenagers from the village to choose to settle down around the lake they had crashed in rather than go to the trouble of finding their original village.

("Well, to be honest. The whole reason everyone was grouped together in the first place was a party to celebrate our decision to leave our village!" Jal shrugged.

"There was even going to be a giant CAKE saying 'so long and thanks for all the manta rays'!" Kalhm grinned. This comment left Daisuke rather baffled.)

With this all sorted out, Daisuke and Kaiyumi decided to leave the newly established village and search for the original village to either:

A. Tell the remaining villagers about this choice of the teenagers to make a new village.

B. Claim that they had defeated the monster that had "killed" the missing villagers.

C. Actually go find said Static creature(s) and actually defeat them.

D. Steal back the Nexus book that the Village Elders had taken from the link in area. FORWARD-SLASH Find the Tay linking Book Kaiyumi had hidden somewhere in the jungle.

Or E. Do all of the above excluding A, as A and B are interchangeable. (The unanimous vote was for B.)

The choice was E. {A.N.// No, not the Vampire bait, Linds. XP}

And so they set out.

-----

Kaiyumi glared upwards at the twin moons as they marched through the jungle. "So, do you have any clue where we're going?"

"None whatsoever!" Daisuke answered.

"Great..." she sighed. "It's like we're walking in circles!"

"If we were walking in circles, we'd be back at the lake already." Was the rather chipper reply.

"...What about a very BIG circle that we haven't finished yet?" She offered after a moment.

"Eh... Either way, we would've covered a bit of ground!" was accompanied by a shrug.

Kaiyumi had no reply to that. Daisuke had none either. And so they walked in silence for a few more minutes. Then:

"What I Want to know is how we were able to understand the villagers!" Daisuke started. "They were speaking a completely different language at the village!"

Kaiyumi thought about it for a moment then replied. "maybe it's like how Yeesha's amulet is translating your friends thoughts into intelligible language?"

"No, there's no sort of Serenian artifact anywhere around here."

Kaiyumi stopped. "Wait, how'd you know that amulet was from Serenia?"

Daisuke stopped as well. DOH! he thought, That was a stupid thing to say, O-baka!

"Well? How did you know?" Kaiyumi continued. "Even AS a time traveler, I don't know How you could have heard it was from Serenia."

"Well, you see..." Daisuke sighed. No way out of this one. "In the future I come from, the events of Atrus' family, from his freeing from K'veer to present day, are---"

There was a loud Snap right then. A rather loud snap that was overlaid with static.

Neither of them wanted to turn around, as they already knew what the source was, but they did anyways.

"Okay, This thing has bad timing." Kaiyumi's face paled.

"Tell me about it." Daisuke noted with a twinge of happiness at not having to explain.

Standing in front of them was something that looked like the static monster that had hunted them earlier in the day, only it had a different appearance in general.

It was a giant Quab.

"Okay, new question." Daisuke started, keeping his voice at the same tone as he had before.

"What's that?" Kaiyumi asked. "Why it exists? What is it? Why is it hunting us?"

"All good questions." Daisuke blinked. "But that's not it."

"What is it then?" Kaiyumi then turned her head towards the explorer, her voice taking on a slightly sharper tone.

"What is it with time travel and quabs?" Daisuke asked as the rather large Quab, now noticing movement from it's prey, roared.

"Who Cares!!?" Kaiyumi then grabbed Daisuke by the arm and began dragging him through the jungle, yet again.

The Static Quab charged, however, to only be halted by slightly larger undergrowth of this section of the jungle. It growled, then plowed through the obstruction in front of it.

A Second passed before the beast ran through it's prey, and they vanished from the night time world of Eder Gira...

BZZZZZZKT--!

... Only to re-appear behind the original static monster, on the daylight side of the planet.

"What in the world was THAT?!" Kaiyumi shouted in surprise as the light suddenly blinded her.

The static monster turned it's head towards them, and roared.

Daisuke grimaced as he adjusted a pair of goggles over his eyes. "I Have---"

BZZZZZZKT--!

"--Absolutely NO idea!" Daisuke finished, suddenly on the night time side of the planet again, now no longer needing the goggles, but now staring at the static-Quab's face.

Again.

"Kaiyumi-Chan?" he looked over to where the girl had been standing, only to see her missing. "Oh Quab---!"

The Static Quab charged through it's prey.

BZZZZZZKT--!

"---In a Hat!" Suddenly, the light of the daylight side of the world came at him again. "Oh COME ON!"

Turning around, Daisuke could see that the Static-Tiger was glaring at a cliff face in confusion. He took a few silent steps back from the beast, then, while it wasn't paying attention, quickly climbed up into a tree.

The Beast turned around suddenly, glaring up at the boy. It jumped towards him, and swung one of it's claws.

Luckily, Daisuke's face was missed by a fraction of a centimeter.

BZZZZZZKT--!!

And Suddenly, Kaiyumi appeared in a burst of trailing static, yelling mid sentence. "--deal with all these bugs!?"

"Welcome back to the land of the light!" Daisuke grinned.

Kaiyumi glared at him. "What's going on here?"

The beast below jumped at them again, swinging one of it's claws. Daisuke quickly reached forward, grabbed Kaiyumi, and pulled her out of the way. It's worth it to not that doing so ended up with both of them falling to the jungle floor with a thud.

The Beast turned to them and began striding over when- all of a sudden- a massive horn came up from beneath the earth, blocking the beast's attention. The Sky-Static-Dragon had decided to rear it's bony skull again.

This gave Daisuke and Kaiyumi the time to get up onto their feet and out of the immediate area.

"Again! What is going on!?"

"Like I'd know?!" Daisuke shot her an incredulous glance. "As far as I can guess, those things are all existing in the same way, maybe even the same beast at different stages of it's time line!"

"How could that be possible!?" Kaiyumi asked, annoyed by all the confusion suddenly thrown upon her life.

"Time travel?" Daisuke gave a small shrug. "But seriously, I don't have the foggiest!"

"What?! Don't tell me there are cloud monsters now!"

"Sorry, Kaiyumi-Chan!"

"What!? Seriously!?"

"Sorry, Kaiyumi-Chan!"

"And Quit calling me that!" She sent a glare (if looks could kill) at him.

"No can do, Kaiyumi-Chan!" He shot a smile back at her.

Kaiyumi growled in frustration.

"Coincidentally!' Daisuke added a second later. "There are Smoke monsters in the future! Fictional ones, but still! Monsters made of water vapor nonetheless!"

Kaiyumi groaned inwardly. 'Good grief, will he ever stop!?'

TOMAHNA_ _ _| EARTH_ _ _| SOMETIME AROUND MIDNIGHT_ _ _|

Tomoki had a building feeling of fear and guilt. Now that he wasn't being constantly poked and prodded by Yeesha, Tomoki realized that he and Daisuke hadn't parted on the best of terms...

Tomoki looked up to his friend. "What if I wanted to stay?"

"As far as I'm concerned, you can do whatever you want." He shrugged. "I just went to the trouble to hunt you down and take you along just because I thought you wanted to come along."

That look in Daisuke's eyes.

"I just went to the trouble to hunt you down because I thought you wanted to come."

There had been a tone there.

Daisuke had been hurt by this comment. For all of their adventures together, neither had ever really spoken a word to each other. Finally being able to talk together in an understandable language was doing more to drive them apart than it had to bring them together.

That was the Guilt. The Fear was that Daisuke wasn't going to ever come back. Sure, Tomoki knew what age Daisuke had gone to, Eder Kemo, but from there? Where would he have gone? To Relto? Did the island even exist currently? Would he have gone to Gira? If so, then where to after that? The Nexus? If so, then Daisuke was gone forever. Just like...

Tomoki looked down at his reflection in the water below, horrible memories of his past coming to the surface. 'Why?' he thought to himself. 'Why do I always hurt the people I try to help?'

A phantom flare of pain throbbed in Tomoki's left ankle. A non-observant glance would see no reason for there to be one, but a close examination would reveal that there was a slight discoloration to the skin. A scar, or rather, five scars. Left by five very sharp claws.

'Why did you betray us?' he asked to the stars. 'Why did you...why did you do that to me?' Like his mother, the person he was addressing was not even born yet.

But she would exist soon enough, regardless.

EDER GIRA_ _ _| THE ORIGINAL VILLAGE_ _ _|

Daisuke grinned as the old village came into view. "Well, I guess we've got some good luck after all."

The majority of the Sentries/hunters were geared up, and moving out towards a far away cliff face. A cliff face that happened to have a waterfall going of one side.

"That's where we came from." Kaiyumi immediately pointed out. "They're going out on a hunt."

"Probably looking for more like me." Daisuke mused to himself as he watched the now quieting village. "How long was the trip?"

"At least a good two hours. The sun was up by the time we got here from the lava pit." Kaiyumi looked him over. "Wait, something's not right here."

"You've noticed it too." Daisuke nodded. "We were in the dead of night, and then into sudden day light. We've time traveled."

"No. Not that. You're just a strange kid is all." Kaiyumi glared at him, then sighed. "I knew I should've stayed home instead of coming after you."

"Aw, Kaiyumi-Chan! Don't be like that!" Daisuke smiled. "You know you made the right choice."

"Yeah yeah." The girl sighed again. {There seems to be a Lot of Sighing going around in this story, doesn't there?} "So what do we do?"

"Depending on the time of day, I think..." The Explorer paused to check his KI's holographic clock. "Oh That's not right."

"What is?"

"Ah...Nothing. Just some ill contrived Plot Device."

"What's a plot device again?"

"I never said."

"Say then."

"Then."

"What?"

"You said 'Say "then".' Didn't you?"

"Ugh... You're so weird."

"Ain't I just."

"I'm not going to ask. I'm not even going to ask."

TOMAHNA_ _ _| YET STILL THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT_ _ _|

Yeesha's eyes slowly opened to the sight of an empty room, Tomoki nowhere in sight, with a certain book shelf lowered into the floor. These two facts weren't surprising. She'd shown Tomoki the code to open the bookshelf when she had finished the tour of her room, so he was probably down at the dock, doing whatever it was Tomoki's kind did.

And so, with a curious look on her face, Yeesha sat up, climbed out of bed, and walked over to the ladder before climbing down to the dock. As she climbed down she wondered, why would Tomoki be out on such a cold night? Was he worried about the explorer? Yeesha had a feeling she wouldn't know what was going through his mind until she tried to find out.

Tomoki indeed was down on the dock, staring blankly out over the water in no particular direction. He seemed to be talking to himself about something or another. The only words Yeesha could pick out were "why?", "Sorry", and "Idiot."

The girl stood at the bottom of the ladder for a few seconds before walking over to the bahro as stealthily as she could. Not that wet, wooden planks would be a choice material to be stealthy with. Tomoki's head turned towards her suddenly, a startled look in his eyes. "Wh...What...?"

"Sorry." Yeesha apologized with a yawn. "I was jus' wonderin' where you were." she didn't care that she wasn't talking Exactly like she had been since... Then. She'd just woken up in the middle of the night for cryin' out loud, she was entitled to forget to put up a mask or two. "What were ya talkin' about?"

"...Nothing." Tomoki turned his head back towards the water. "Nothing at all."

"That didn't sound like nothin'." Yeesha yawned again. "How come you're not sleepin'?"

"I've got a lot on my mind." The thoughts were spoken aloud via the memory amulet's translation automatically, despite Tomoki's wishes to not relay said thoughts. "Stupid amulet."

"Well, I've got a lot on my mind too." Yeesha smiled suddenly and.. "Wanna trade?" The words slipped out of her mouth before she could even think them properly.

"I don't think you'd be too interested in my personal issues." Tomoki laughed lightly. "But if you're serious about that offer..."

A blush began to creep up on her cheeks. "Well..." Oh, Why not? Might as well, if it gets him to open up some. "My brothers died. Last week. After Sirrus Kidnapped me."

"Oh." Realization crept into his eyes slightly. So That's when he was. 'Daisuke! Why didn't you tell me!?' he caught the thought from being translated, and instead, honestly replied "I'm sorry."

"Thanks." Yeesha frowned. "But that's what everyone says."

"Yeah, I know." Tomoki looked up at the stars. "That's what everyone told me too. Except..."

"'Cept what?"

"Except she never- Well..." Tomoki shook his head with a slight laugh. "Technically, she's not even born yet."

"I Kinda get it." Yeesha smiled. It was hard to believe that the craziest of all possible ideas was true. That people could actually travel through time! (So Cool!) But, what about when they didn't want to travel? "Maybe you could change things so that your friend never does whatever it is that she... does... What exactly?"

Tomoki laughed again, longer this time, and Yeesha felt that she had done something right to help her friend out. "You don't want to know. Really, you don't."

She really did want to know, though. "That bad, huh?"

"She's not dead. But it feels like she is." Tomoki sighed. "Ever had your soul ripped into four even pieces?"

"Uh..." What in the world was that supposed to mean? "No, but... What happened comes kinda close. I guess..." Sirrus had tried to forcibly eject her mind, then put his mind in her empty body after all.

"Maybe I phrased it wrong, but..." Tomoki looked over at her, and there eyes locked. "What she did hurt ten times worse then that."

"Ow..." Yeesha didn't know what to say exactly. "I'm...Sorry?" That would have to do.

There was silence after she said that, then, they both laughed.

"Honestly, I don't think I could change anything even if I tried." He finally said after a minute. "A...She was so set in her ways. Nothing could stop her." Tears were starting to well up in his eyes. "Why...Why did she...?"

"It's okay." She put her hand on his and smiled. "You're here, and she's not. That's all that matters now."

"Yeah." Tomoki sniffed. "You're right. Thanks."

Yeesha's smile widened. "No problem."

For the rest of the night, the two just talked. They talked about how things used to be for them, and how they thought things would be.

EDER GIRA_ _ _|

The guard placed in front of the main Storage hut yawned as yet another hour passed uneventfully. Nobody ever came to the hut except the elder seekers and the Hunter guards, and both only ever showed up to deposit an item into storage.

Nobody would ever even TRY to break-

vsssh.

A Ytram dart imbedded itself into the guard's neck, and, as the guard reached up to pull the dart out, Daisuke came out of a near by bush/shrub and grabbed the guard before he finally collapsed to the ground.

Kaiyumi grinned as she came out of the bush next, went to, unlocked with the "keys" the guard had dropped, and then went through the door into the hut, while Daisuke carefully posed the guard in a "I'm just resting my eyes" pose against the side of the hut before entering said hut and closing the door.

The main chamber was expansive, nearly as tall as the link in chamber in Gahreesen, but as wide as the inside of the main Teledahn 'shroom, and as filled with as many random desks, chairs, and random cabinets as the Tokotah rooftop. Daisuke let loose a low whistle. "If anyone from back home knew I was here...." Kaiyumi glared at him as she began to search through a desk. "Right. 'Get to work', I know, I know."

Their target was a small, yellow bound linking book. And inside this expansive chamber, that could take a while to find. Ten minutes, to be exact.

"So, Once we find the Nexus book, we can go pretty much anywhere." Daisuke was rambling aloud. "I've always wanted to see what the city looked like before the DRC got to it."

Kaiyumi made a "ssssh" sound. "Be quiet! They might hear us! If they hear us, they'll capture us, and if they capture us then I won't be able to get to the Linking book I hid and then I won't be able to get home!"

"What? You don't want to come with me?" Daisuke looked at her incredulously, and sporting yet another goofy accent. "I'm shocked!"

"Nothing personal, but you're more trouble then a Sunner on a bad hair day." Kaiyumi closed a dusty blue volume, and put it back into the slot it came from.

"Nothing personal, but you didn't have to even come here with me." Daisuke looked over at her from over the desk he was searching. "You could've gone home as soon as we got back to the village. But you didn't. Why?"

Kaiyumi froze. "I...Uh..." She was fortunate she was looking away from him, otherwise The time traveler would have seen the red tint creeping onto her cheeks. "Well... Uh... I-- I wanted to make sure you didn't get yourself killed is all!" The tone in her voice was so unbelievable even Kaiyumi didn't believe her own words. "Nothing more, nothing less!"

Daisuke made no comment other than a muttered "If you say so."

The rest of their search went on in silence until...

"Found it!" Kaiyumi smiled as she held up the green marked yellow skinned book. "It's still working too!"

"Great!" Daisuke walked over to the book to take it. "Now we can get out of here!"

Kaiyumi pulled it out of his reach. "Nuh-uh. I'm keeping this until we get to the Tay book." With that she stuffed the Linking book into a small satchel she had made out of the outer jacket of her 'borrowed' Rebel costume. "We stick together until then."

"Sounds reasonable." Daisuke grinned. "I won't even try to take it from you."

("Hold up, he gave in too easily." Kaiyumi paled. "I just gave him what he wanted, didn't I?! Curse you Reverse Psychology!")

"Anywho." Daisuke continued as they walked to the door. "Let's get going then."

On the other side of said door was a small group of Village Hunters.

"Well, you sure know how to make friends, don't you, Daisuke?" Kaiyumi mused as one of the hunters prepared to throw his spear.

"I can't avoid it." Daisuke sighed. "I just can't avoid it, No matter where I go, people always want to kill me or arrest me." A second passed before he amended. "For no apparent reason most of the time, either."

"Gee, I wish you would've told me that before I rescued you." Kaiyumi turned to glare at him, regardless of the hunters ready to kill them. "I mean, I could've avoided this entire mess if I never came after you!"

"I'm glad we've got that out of the way then!" Daisuke turned to face her as well. "I mean, really!"

"Uh, Should we kill them now, or hire them for entertainment?" One of the Hunters asked.

"I Don't know, but come on! You've got to admit this is hilarious!" Another hunter replied.

"Come on guys." the hunter with the spear sighed. "Do we have to go through this every time we're about to capture someone at spear point?"

Daisuke grinned. "Now that they're distracted!" He then dove through the small crowd. "RUN!"

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Kaiyumi wasn't even a fraction of a second behind him.

The Hunters stood there baffled for a moment.

"What just happened?"

"No clue."

Then they began the chase.

KAIYUMI'S POV_ _ _|

When you're being chased by someone, there are three important things you need to do. One is that you need to be able to see where you're going. The Second is that you need to know where your chaser is. The third?

"There!" Daisuke pointed towards a sudden drop off.

Be sure to know your escape routes.

"What!? We're not going to be able to survive any kind of jump off of that!" I yelled at him. He needs to know when I'm upset with him.

"We can if we link out!" There's that stupid grin on his face again.

"I've told you once and I'll tell you again, the only book I'm using is the book I hid back at the lava pit!" I yelled again. Yelling feels good. Especially during a chase. Keep that in mind. Yelling keeps your energy flowing.

"I don't think we're going to have any other choice." How can he sound so calm about this?! Does he cliff dive for a hobby!? "'Sides, it's a lot of fun!" And he's grinning again. I bet he does cliff dive for a hobby. Ugh, why couldn't I have met a sane time traveler?

Is there even such a thing?

I don't know.

"Ugh! Fine. But you're going to get me back home if it's the last thing you do!" I glared at him.

He just grinned. "I shall do as you command, Kaiyumi-Chan!" He's enjoying this. I want to kill him. I want to kill him right now!

"And Don't call me that!"

"No can do!" that same grin. "Now give me the Nexus book!"

"Fine!" I reached into that makeshift satchel I'd made (Why did the rebels wear such dark clothing on a tropical island?) and pulled the Nexus book loose. "Here!" I held it out to him.

That same grin on his face. "Ladies first!"

"No. YOU First!" I ordered. "You asked for it! Now GO!"

"If you insist!" he grinned (I hate that grin I hate That grin I Hate That Stupid Grin), and reached over to the book, flipping it open to the middle- WHILE I'm still holding it at the spine. Can't you open a book better than that!?- and...

VWaooorrrmmmssshhhh......

...GAH! Him and that stupid Reverse Psychology! I Wanted to go first!

Then All at once, three things happened.

The hunters stopped suddenly, yelling wildly. I looked over my shoulder, wondering why they'd stopped. (Did they never see someone link before?) And finally, A tree root caught my foot at the edge of the cliff.

"WAAAAAHHH!!!!!" Instead of jumping off expertly and linking through the book like I had wanted, I instead tripped and fell, causing the book to fly out of my hand. (I'mgoingtodieI'mgoingtodieI'mGoingToDie!!!) I tumbled towards the book- almost within arms reach-, but, just beyond it, I could see several very, very sharp spikes on the ground that I was falling towards.

When you're falling, you need to be calm and focused. You need to banish all thoughts of "I'm going to die!" and focus on how to get out of this situation. Thankfully, the adrenaline in your system makes time seem to slow down, giving you time to actually focus on escaping your deadly fall.

For me, I could see the linking book tumbling open before me, with the panel of a small dark room looking very safe and secure just on the other side. I reached out and barely managed to brush one of my fingers against the image.

And then everything stopped entirely. The world around me greyed out (except for the book) and began to fade away, then that picture of safety seemed to grow beyond the confines of the page, It grew larger and larger, just before me. Since I was still on an adrenalin rush, I took in every detail. The static image began to move, and- There!- out of thin air Daisuke appeared in the image.

The Next thing I knew...

-VWaooorrrmmmssshhhh.....

NEXUS_ _ _|

-VWaooorrrmmmssshhhh.....

...I was pinning Daisuke to the floor of a very dark, and quiet (except for some strange clanking) room.

"Fancy meeting you here." he smiled.

I never loved that smile so much in my entire life!

END CHAPTER FOUR.