With Yukon and Alistair in tow, we continued north in search of the second wizard’s stone. Well, I should probably say that it was everybody else’s first stone. Sora and I already had a stone and didn’t have to go searching for it. In fact Sauza and Todrick never told me how they found this one. Oh well. If I ever saw them again, I would ask.

Sora, Betti and I had been tracking the stones for over a month at that point, but Betti had been looking for over three months before she met us. Other than the wizard’s stone we already had, this would be the closest we’ve come to finding one.

We were still a few miles south of the mountains but I could see it looming in the distance. The whole mountain range was as wide as it was tall. Luckily we wouldn’t have to go searching through the whole thing. The woman at the information desk said that the stone was on the highest mountain peak.

We made camp at the base of the mountain after around one in the afternoon. We decided not to go up until the next day. It was after we stopped that Betti took it upon herself to give us setup instructions. I was to set up the tents while Sora looked for water and Yukon for firewood. She left the food preparation for her to do. 

 This particular desert wasn’t completely dry and we had passed a small oasis about a mile back. Yukon took Alistair and Sora back to the oasis to gather the wood and the water. And as I knew it would happen, when Betti and I were left alone, she let me have it.

“Why is that riff-raff here? What were you even thinking having him tag along with us?!"

I let out a huge sigh and looked at her peeling some potatoes for lunch. “I was thinking that since we don’t have tools for digging, and we found someone who can move things with his mind, we could use him to help get the wizard’s stone out of the mountain.”

Betti stopped what she was doing and looked up at me. “Oh, that was actually very smart thinking.”

“I know; that’s why I thought of it. I was thinking that I didn’t want to accidently smash the stone while we were smashing rocks. I mean, we will still have to smash some rocks, but I want that to be the last thing we do. Are you beginning to understand now?”

She gave me a vicious grin and said, “Yes James, I said I get it!”

I went back to putting the stakes in the ground. I was trying to avoid her icy stare. However, I could still feel it. I focused on the staking of the tents into the ground instead. I had grown stronger over the years and I could drive the stakes in the ground without a hammer.

About an hour later, the others returned with food and water. While Betti prepared dinner, I spoke with the boys about removing the stone from the rock. That sounded as funny when I played it back in my head; “Stone from rock”. “Any ideas on how to remove the wizard’s stone guys?”

Sora looked at me and shook his head. He then looked up and said, “What about just touching it and letting the stone shrink like ours did? Do you think that would work James?”

“What is he talking about?” Yukon asked, looking very confused.

“Betti told us that the stones sense when they are about to reunite with their kin, so to speak. The stones are normally the size of small boulders, but they shrink to grapefruit size when they know that they are about to join with another stone. At least, that’s what Betti thinks.”

Sora nodded his head in agreement. Yukon, on the other hand, didn’t seem convinced. “How will it know when it’s about to join another stone?”

“We don’t know ourselves. Betti is the one who did all of the research, and it’s not like we can go to our local library branch and look this stuff up on a computer.”

My brother scratched his head. “What’s a computer?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re a little older,” I said.

“He doesn’t know what a computer is? How is that possible?” Yukon had a wicked grin on his face. It seemed like he was making fun of Sora.

I had to come to his rescue. “It’s not Sora’s fault that he doesn’t know about computers. Sauza and Todrick didn’t even have a TV in the house, let alone a computer.”

Yukon was about to say something when Betti came over. “Hey guys, the food is ready. Can you help me set everything up Sora?”

Sora got up off the ground. “Sure thing Betti.”

We walked over to the fire. While Sora and Betti passed out the food, I looked up and noticed that it was already getting dark. I couldn’t tell what time it was exactly since none of us wore a watch, but I guess it didn’t really matter. All that mattered at the moment was enjoying the food and the company of my new friends.

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After dinner we got to know more about Yukon and his wolf companion Alistair. “So Yukon, how did you end up out here in the middle of a desert at such a young age? Why aren’t you in a high school somewhere picking on fat kids or bullying nerds?” It was clear that Betti still head a grudge for the ambush.

I chimed in before it could get nasty. “How did you and Alistair meet?”

That seemed to drain some of the tension out of Yukon’s eyes. He looked up and began to scratch his chin and then he reached over and patted Alistair on the head. “Alistair and I have been friends as far back as I can remember. His pack found me abandoned in a forest shortly after I was born.”

Betti showed a genuine look of concern for Yukon. She asked, “Your parents abandoned you?  I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks, but it’s all good. If I had not been left in the woods, I never would have met my wolf clan. They were the best family I could have ever hoped for and got. They were the ones who raised me and taught me how to fight.”

“How good of a fighter are you exactly? I’ve only seen your excellent telekinesis,” I asked.

Yukon gave me a little smirk and then got up off the ground. “Do you want a demonstration?”

“If you think you can handle me; sure.”

I got up and before I could even get in my fighting stance, he kicked my legs out from under me. I fell to the ground. He raised his leg and kicked downward but I rolled out of the way. I jumped back up and ran to him. Punches were flying from both of us and neither one of us was making any headway. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a rock levitating to the right of Yukon’s head. It was launched at me and I punched it into pieces. He took the many shards of the rock and threw them into my eyes. I screamed in surprise. He hit me and I went flying. I tried to open my eyes and was having trouble. He kicked me in the stomach and I collapsed on to the ground. He was about to hit me again when I heard, I’ve got him now!  I moved out of the way just as he tried to hit me again. I sprang back up onto my feet. I still couldn’t see anything so I decided to rely on hearing his thoughts.  This kid is better than I thought.  He should already be down but just keeps getting back up.

I held my hands out in front of me to get a better idea as to where he was. I could tell he was staying just outside of my reach. He threw a punch and I dodged it. He threw another and I moved out of the way. We were getting closer to the others at that point and he kept missing every time he came at me. “How am I not hitting you?”

He threw another punch and I stopped it with my left hand. “I can hear your thoughts remember?”

“Well in that case…..” I was suddenly lifted off the ground with his telekinesis and then slammed into the ground.

“Ooof.”

“You couldn’t hear that could you? There is no real thought behind that power, just action. Do you give up?”

He was continually slamming me into the ground. It was starting to hurt and I had no way to counter it. I really wished that I had my powers back. “Yes, I give up; will you stop now….ouch?”

I was laid on the ground gently this time. I got up rubbing my head and my eyes. I could see again. “You are pretty good. I mean, your technique is lousy, but you are clearly stronger than me and you have that telekinesis thing.”

He laughed. “I only used it because you were using telepathy.”

“Yeah, I can’t actually turn that off. I can ignore people’s thoughts but I can’t turn it off. Plus, if I were truly using my telepathy, I would have either used my psychic scream or controlled you, or just completely shut off your brain. I didn’t do any of those things.”

Sora didn’t want to be left out of the shenanigans. He raised his hand like he was in a classroom, which he had never been in. “Did all of the doggies talk, or was it just Alistair?”

“I’m not a dog you little insect.” Alistair was growling in the back of his throat. “My whole family could speak, but not the whole pack. My father was our alpha.”

“How come you aren’t still with them?”

Alistair and Yukon exchanged glances and then they both gazed into the fire. “Four years ago, our piece of the forest caught fire and Alistair and I were the only survivors.”

I was sorry I had brought it up. “If you don’t want to talk about this, I’m sure we’ll understand.”

“No, it’s fine. It happened and we’re just….I don’t know. Alistair says it better than me.”

Alistair crouched down to lie on the ground. He put his head down on his paws. “I think what Yukon means is that we’re just trying to move on with our lives and talking about it helps.”

We all got really quiet after that, but it didn’t look like anyone was really sad. That was a good thing. It was full dark at that point and I looked up and noticed how beautiful the moon was that night. In my old life, I used to gaze up at a full moon like that one for like an hour or more.

I was also thinking about my defeat. I knew it wasn’t a real fight otherwise I would have used all of the weapons at my disposal. It still didn’t diminish my feelings of inadequacy. I was the fifth most powerful being in all of existence. Save for the four gods above me, I had never lost a fight. Not once in all of my time as an angel had I ever lost. Lucifer had to wait until I was asleep to capture me. Being in this new form for the past 12 years had humbled me. I had never won a fight since I arrived in this dimension. That fight against Sora a month ago didn’t count because he was distraught. If he had been focused, I would have lost again. It troubled me. How am I to survive the future battles against the heavy hitters if I was like this? I thought.

As I continued my internal whining and looking at the moon, I felt a shiver go down my spine. I reached for a blanket, but then my hands and arms sprouted scales. I brought them up to my face to have a closer look and claws started to grow from my fingers. Oh shit! “Everybody get back! Sora, take them as far from me as possible! It’s starting.”

Betti was afraid. “What’s going on James? Are you all right?”

“No time…..to…explain. LEAVE!!”

I felt the bones in my body shifting and it was pure agony. I wondered briefly if Sora experienced that level of pain. If he did, how did he survive it at the tender age of 7?

“Dude, what’s happening?! He’s getting bigger and….is that a lizard’s tail coming out of him?!”

I could hear the fear in Yukon’s voice. I could also hear his heartbeat going a mile a minute.

“Come on guys, we have to get out of here…now! There’s no telling what he’ll do when he changes. I went crazy for a few minutes before James calmed me down.”

“This happened to you too Sora?” Betti was in a panic and I could hear Alistair growling in the background.

Sora gathered the gang up as fast as he could, but I didn’t know if he would make it.

I felt my spine lengthening and bending. My neck was also changing. It got thicker and I felt the bones and muscles tighten and bend. I couldn’t even scream from the pressure against my throat. This felt a lot like when I became an arch-angel again. That was so long ago.

I hoped the others moved away in time, because that was when it happened. I stood up and a sudden burst of energy escaped from my body and I blacked out.

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When I came to, I opened my eyes and had a look around. Moving my head was a chore because it felt like it weighed 1000 pounds. I was able to lift it finally but then I realized that my head was way above the ground. I had yet to move my body. And speaking of the ground, where the hell was it? It wasn’t the same ground I had passed out on. I was at the bottom of a huge crater. Said crater was also really deep. It resembled the one we found in Little Flower not that long ago.

I craned my neck to see the extent of the damage I caused. I turned all the way around and stopped when I saw my body. It was the same as what happened to Sora. I had become a dragon.

I studied my new form. My skin, or scales if you will, was the color of black onyx or obsidian and just as shiny. My wings were leathery and I extended them to the greatest length. They opened like sails and caught the wind just as easily too. I had ridges that extended from the top of my head, along my back and made their way to the base of the tail. My tail was as long as the rest of my body. It ended with a sharp tip, and when I moved the tip, it opened up and looked like the end of a pitch fork.

I turned over and onto my back and noticed my underbelly. My chest was lean and muscular and was covered with gray scales. I turned back over and stood up on two legs. I could have stood on all fours, but I wanted to see how strong two would be. It felt really comfortable. My upper legs were really arms, but I could rest on them if I needed to. I guessed that my full height would be around fifteen feet and on all fours, including my tail, my full length would be about twenty feet or more.

When Sora transformed five years ago, he was about half as long. Our size must have had a lot to do with age. From the size of the crater, I could tell it was bigger than the one we found in the town. That meant that there was another dragon on this planet. She must have been sent before Sora or I got there, because that planet was history.

All of that aside, I truly loved the new experience so much. I had a deep fascination with dragons growing up as James, and to be able to be one was like a dream come true. I couldn’t wait until I could get the hang of this transformation.

However, I needed to find the others; provided they survived the explosion of energy. I trusted Sora, and I knew he probably got them as far from me as possible. I spread my wings and jumped into the air. Even if I was a dragon, being that I did have wings as an angel, this was second nature. On the other hand, I was much heavier than an angel was, so there was more work involved. Good thing I was strong.

I flew above the crater. What a mess. The campsite was gone and so was half the mountain. I still didn’t see the others; not even a hint of them. I was about to panic when I heard, James, we’re down here! Look to your right! I looked down and I saw them. Yukon stared in disbelief. Betti had both hands over her mouth and  also gaped at me; but not in disbelief. Alistair’s tongue was lolling out and he was shaking his head back and forth. But, I could swear I saw a smile.

I circled around them once more and then I headed for the ground. I dove down and just before I hit, I pulled up and batted my wings to slow me down. It kicked up some dirt from the ground and got into everyone’s faces. I heard a few coughs and saw some waving of the dirt out of their eyes. Sora was just staring at me with a shit eating grin. He sent a thought to me saying, You finally did it James! You transformed!

“You don’t have to shout Sora, I can hear you just fine,” I said in a very deep and almost guttural dragon voice.

“He didn’t even open his mouth dude. Ohhh….you were doing that telepathy stuff. So, how come you look like that? What are you supposed to be?” Yukon looked so lost.

“Yeah James, what are you exactly? I’ve never seen anything like that before. Are you an alien or something?” Betti started to freak out. She was backing away from me, but Sora grabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. She noticeably calmed down.

“He’s in his dragon form, or at least that’s what James calls it. I don’t know what a dragon is exactly, but I do know that he and I can change into them at will.” Sora jumped up and down on the balls of his feet. “Do you wanna see? I’ve learned to control it! James taught me how.” He closed his eyes and he began to glow a crimson color all over his body. He opened his eyes and they were as red as two rubies. “You guys should step back.” The others did that and then Sora sprouted wings and was lost in an explosion of energy. It was far more contained than mine was.

When we all could see again, we looked over and saw Sora. He was as big as I was but that same crimson color he had before he transformed. See, I can do it too you guys!

“Sora, you can talk using your mouth.” I know I taught him how to do it. Why was he using telepathy?

“Oh, I’m sorry James.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

Now the others were starting to become afraid. Betti got farther and farther away from the two of us. “What are you guys?! What the hell are dragons?!?” She pulled her hair frantically. Alistair was on the ground again trying to bury his head in the sand like an ostrich. Yukon just blubbered.

There was a quick flash of red light and Sora changed back to normal. I stayed as I was; mostly because I didn’t know how to change back. It was one thing to teach someone how to do it; it was something else trying to do it yourself. There was another reason I hadn’t tried to change back. I was having a lot of fun being a dragon. However, I saw the looks on my friend’s faces and they were looks of pure terror.

In order to give them peace of mind, I concentrated on changing back. It took Sora a whole day to figure it out, but he was seven at the time. “Sorry guys; I really didn’t want to scare you all.”

Betti walked as close to me as she could. She still had the fear written across her face, but she was still trying. What a great friend she was. “Why didn’t you tell me that you could do this? What is this exactly? I’ve never heard of dragons before.”

“Yeah dude; what’s up?”

“That is a really long story. Let me figure out how to change back and I will tell it to you. You’re also gonna want to hear this too Sora. There’s a lot that you don’t know either.” And so, while I used all of my willpower to initiate a change, the others gathered some of the wood that was left and started a fire.

While the gang talked among themselves, I did everything I could to change back into my normal form.

Yukon had his back to me but Betti faced me and she would cast furtive looks every few minutes.

It took me a couple of hours, but I managed to do it. I was engulfed by a black and jade light. I felt myself shrinking. When the light cleared, I was back to normal. Everyone got up from around the fire and approached me. Alistair was even sniffing around my feet to make sure it was still me.

“It is still me Alistair; you don’t have to check.”

He snorted and looked up. “I knew it was you. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t trying to change back into that….thing.”

“Don’t you worry about that. It’s gonna take me a little while to understand how this transformation works. All right then. Are you all ready to hear my little tale?”

“I most certainly want to know what’s going on!! Why was I unaware of this….this thing that you are?!? What the hell is a dragon!!??” I could tell that Betti was no longer afraid, but she definitely was pissed.

Sora grabbed my arm and pulled me back toward the fire. He sat me down and asked, “What is it that I don’t know? I thought we were no longer keeping secrets from one another?”

I let out a huge sigh. I pulled Sora in for a sideways hug and then I ruffled his unkempt hair. I opened my arms wide and beckoned the others to gather around the fire. “I hope you didn’t count on sleeping tonight, because this is a lo-o-o-o-n-g story.”

I began the tale with me moving to LA and the Earth that I came from. After that I mentioned me being reconstituted as an arch-angel and teaching my boyfriend how to use his powers. I talked about the botched and backfiring spell and waking up as an infant on a different planet. Of course I made it a point to say that this was a TV show in my own world. I even mentioned the fact that the original show was nothing like this. First off, Sora and I were supposed to be part panthers, not dragons. Secondly, Sora was raised by Sauza alone, not Sauza and Todrick. And thirdly, Yukon had a shape-shifting cat in the story, not a talking wolf.

After I finished with my original angel self’s story, I opened the floor to questions. “I know I wouldn’t let you all talk during my story, but now you can ask me anything until your heart’s content.” Sora raised his hand. “Yes Sora, what’s your question?”

“Do you know the name of our planet?”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t. In the show it was called Planet Pantera. It could be the same, but those guys who sent us here never mentioned it, so there’s no way to tell for sure.”

Betti raised her hand next. “Why should we believe any of this? You could just be a great storyteller.”

“Seeing Sora and I transform into fearsome beasts isn’t proof enough for you?” I was hurt that she thought I was lying.

“Dude, you could just be freaky humans who happen to be really powerful. This whole different Earth and a planet of these things you turned into sounds like a load of shit.” Yukon crossed his arms in frustration. Alistair nodded in agreement.

I scratched my head trying to figure out a way that I could prove it to them. I thought about using my memories, but they might say I implanted them into their heads. And then I had an idea. “What if I showed you Sora’s memories?”

Sora looked at me, totally confused. “What?!”

“Yeah, if I showed you all of Sora’s memories, you would know that I’m telling you the truth. He can’t corroborate the other dimension, but he was right next to me on the other planet.” That could work.

Betti seemed skeptical. “If you were both babies, how could you remember what happened?”

“Yeah James, I don’t remember being anywhere other than our forest,” Sora said.

“You don’t have to remember it to have it stored in your brain. I have the power to unlock those memories and show everyone else.”

Yukon shook his head in defiance, but Betti just seemed unsure. “I don’t know about this James.”

I realized that they might not believe Sora’s memories either, but if I used one of theirs….. “How about this, what if I first showed your memories Betti? Would you believe me then, because after I showed yours, I would then show Sora’s own memories?”

Betti and Yukon looked at me and then at one another. They both nodded in agreement. “I still don’t know about this, but you don’t strike me as a liar. So, what do I do?”

I motioned for her to come by me. “Okay, close your eyes. Concentrate on a memory from when you were little and I will do the rest.” I put my left hand on her head and held my right hand out. Something that looked like a TV screen appeared out of light coming from my hand.

“Ooooo….we get to watch TV. I haven’t watched in a few years.”

“Be quiet Yukon! I’m trying to concentrate on this.” I closed my eyes and began to search through her thoughts. Betti was thinking about the time she fell off the jungle gym when she was eight. Her mom ran to her almost immediately. She picked Betti up and took her to the nearest bench to check her out. I needed to go further back than this however. I raced backwards through her memories, past the time she received a pony on her 5th birthday, and past eating her first ice cream cone at 3. All of that showed up on the screen and I heard the boys saying oh and ah. It was a little comical.

I stopped at the memory I needed to convince them. It was the day she was born. “Here it is guys. Tell me what you see.”

The screen went black and then there were bright lights and then, “Is that a doctor’s face? It looks like a hospital delivery room,” Yukon was saying.

“I thought you were raised by wolves? How do you know what a hospital looks like doofus?” Betti could be really sassy when she wanted to be.

“Shhh. Concentrate Betti.”

The screen shook for a second, but when Betti closed her eyes the image cleared up. Yukon began describing the blanket Betti was wrapped in and what her father looked like. “Wait, is that another baby? Do you have a twin brother Betti?”

Betti opened her eyes and the screen went dark. That was enough anyway. I learned what I needed to. She looked at me and said, “I do and his name is Jason. He was born five minutes before me.”

Wait a second! “Jason…. My boyfriend’s name is Jason.”

“That could just be a coincidence. You’ve only been here for 12 years and Jason and I were born 16 years ago.”

Betti could be right, but I didn’t believe in coincidences. I used to shape reality around me and my father was the shaper of destinies. Also, Jason was four years older than me back on our own Earth, so who was to say that it wouldn’t be the same in the new dimension? There was something else on my mind. “The spell altered my form and made me a child and also moved me off of Earth. Don’t you think it’s possible it did the same to Jason as well? He might have been alive a full four years before I was born to this universe. I did experience a moment of nothingness before I awoke.”

Betti still seemed unconvinced. “I don’t know. It all seems too convenient.”

“Well, does he have black hair and crystal clear blue eyes? Do dimples form on his cheeks when he smiles? Have strange things ever happened around him when he was agitated or hurt?”

That did it! Betti’s eyes opened really wide and she let out a gasp. “How is it possible that you know all of that?! You must have seen it in my memories.”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t see any of that, because if I had, Yukon, Alistair and Sora would have seen it too. Did you all see anyone that matched that description?”

Alistair shook his big head. Yukon shrugged his shoulders and said, “Nope, I don’t think so.” And Sora just sat there smiling.

“Why are you smiling Sora? Did you see my brother in my memories?” Betti asked.

“No, I didn’t see him at all. I’m smiling because you know my brother is right. He’s always right. I used to get so annoyed when he was right, which is all the time. I’m just glad he’s doing it to you and not to me.”

When he wanted to, Sora could be a real comedian...  And a smart ass.

Betti looked deep in thought. Yukon and Alistair were bored and started rough housing. They were already over the whole situation. I was glad. I looked over to my right and then I froze. There was no way that could be true; unless…. “Hey guys, look!”

Sora came over and asked, “James, what is it?”

“Just look; over there beside what’s left of the mountain!”

Betti came out of her reverie and looked in the direction I pointed.

Yukon looked up and Alistair brushed Yukon’s hand away because he was trying to give Alistair a noogy. “What’s up you guys?”

“Would you just look?”

Yukon finally looked and his eyes got as big as saucers. “You gotta be kidding me….”

“Betti, am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”

“You are James; that’s it!”

In all the fuss of me transforming, no one saw it, but there it was. The wizard stone was sat beside the mountain a few feet from where the crater was. It must have been dislodged during the explosion because in looking up, I see that the top of the mountain was gone. How much energy did I expel?

Sora got up and walked to the stone and put out his hand to touch it. As soon as his hand touched the stone, it shrank just like ours had. He picked it up and brought it to Betti. She looked at it for a bit as if she didn’t know exactly what it was. Yukon came up beside her and stared intently at the stone.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen one of these things. It’s pretty awesome!” Yukon bounced on his feet from excitement.

After we spent a little time studying our new and lucky find, we put the stone with its brother in Betti’s bag on the bike. Out of all of our stuff, that was the only thing to survive. The tents, our gear…..everything was lost in the explosion of my chaotic energy. Fortunately we had parked the bike away from the mountain. The bike had solar batteries and needed as much sunlight as possible and the mountain cast an eternal shadow.

The sun was rising just beyond the horizon. My story was really long and then there was the transformation too. We decided to head out. We would have to stop in a town close by since we no longer had any supplies. Instead of going back to the last town, we headed east towards the other stone. It was two down and we had two to go. None of us thought it would be that easy, but it was turning out to be that way.

It took us only an hour to get out of the desert, but another four to find a town. We stopped in the town of West Fork; population 10,001. It was a quiet little hamlet. It reminded me a little bit of La Marque, Texas. That’s where my high school was. Yukon took Sora and Alistair on a supply run. Betti and I booked three rooms at the local Bed & Breakfast. While I was unloading the bike with our meager possessions, Betti came over to talk to me.

“James, I want to talk to you about my brother.”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“How sure are you that he is the same Jason as the one you’re looking for?”

I put a pack on the ground and leaned against the bike. “I’m not sure at all. I honestly haven’t known him that long. We were together for a little over six months before I ended up here. But despite being in a twelve year olds body, my love for him hasn’t diminished. If your brother and my fiancé are one in the same, I would be so happy. If not, then my search will continue.”

Betti looked a little confused, but happy at the same time. “I still don’t know how much of this I believe, but if it is him, we will be family someday. I have always wanted a younger brother.” She smiled and ruffled my hair. “Why haven’t you tried to contact him telepathically? You said you could hear over half of the world’s population.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’ve tried to do that; many times. I even tried after you told me about Jason. You being twins, there would be a small psychic bond between the two of you. I still couldn’t get through. If it is him, I’m being blocked somehow. Maybe I have to meet him to know. It could be one of God’s tests. He does this to me from time to time.”

“Well that’s not fair. Jason sounds like the love of your life.”

“I think he is; scratch that. I know he is, but that’s what God does. He’s tested me almost every day since he first created me. It’s like he’s preparing me for something big.”

Betti smiled in recollection. “That sounds a lot like my father. He’s a genius like me. He made a renewable energy source when he was my age and got rich from it. After graduating from college, he made Coates Inc., and he has been inventing ever since. Finding out how smart I was, he’s been pushing me to surpass him.”

“Yeah, totally sounds like Janus, my original father.”

“But when my mom got sick, he stopped pushing so hard. All of his energy went into finding a cure. Not wanting to disappoint my dad, I started to find more things too, by inventing anything possible that might help.”

“Hence our current quest to find the wizard’s stones. Your father would be very proud.” I took Betti’s hand in mine and she smiled.

We continued our talk in the lobby of the B&B. An hour later, the others returned with a mountain of supplies. Betti was livid. She yelled at Yukon asking where we were going to put all of that stuff. He had an answer. He took us outside and showed us the camper he had just purchased.

I need to know, what word goes beyond livid? Let’s say that Yukon would later feel Betti’s ire, especially since it was her money Yukon used to buy that monstrosity. Well, his heart was in the right place. On the bright side, it would make traveling across the land much easier.

It took Betti the rest of the day to calm down, and two more days before she talked to Yukon again. We had already left town by that point. Yukon drove while Sora sat in the passenger seat. Alistair sat between them on the floor. He had taken a real shine to Sora. I knew he would. Sora and I had a natural connection to animals to where they ended up loving us. Granted, this was the first one who could actually talk, but that didn’t really matter.

I sat in the back seating area with Betti. We mostly talked about her brother and the location of the next stone, but every once in a while, she would mention Yukon. She would go off on some rant and saying how dumb he was and how he needed a bath. All the while, she would look at him, and then blush. She never once mentioned it, but I believed she was developing a little crush on Yukon. I sometimes caught him looking at Betti when she wasn’t looking. This was going to be easier than I thought. They would make an interesting couple.

When Betti and Yukon started talking again, their conversations were full of flirtations. Sora didn’t really know what was going on, but he was beginning to catch on.

It took us a week to find the third stone, and by that point Betti and Yukon were officially dating.

The third stone was located in a cave system deep underground. It only took us a few days to find the cave after leaving town, but the next six days was spent in the caves.

We only got lost once and that was because the direction the scanner pointed us in was under water. We had to backtrack to another route and that road lead us back outside to another cave entrance.

When the five of us finally found the wizard’s stone, it was just sitting on the floor out in the open, and we were so tired, it didn’t really surprise us. Betti and I were pissed but the others just laughed.

That particular stone had a cerulean hue to it and had ridges. Yukon gathered it up, and it also shrank at his touch.

Leaving the cave, we were very rank and a disgusting sight to behold. We only bathed once since we went inside. Betti had come equipped with a portable shelter that would expand to the size of a cabin, but there weren’t any tunnels big enough to open it in. All of our camping was done on the cave floor in our sleeping bags. It reminded me of the times I spent camping as a Boy Scout. I was in the scouts until I was 21 years old. The only reason I didn’t stay longer was because they found out I was gay. I was a little disheartened, but it was for the best. I was getting a little tired of all of the politics in the organization anyway.

We left the caves through another entrance and made our way back to the camper. Finally, we had only one stone left to collect. The only problem was that the final stone was on the other side of the planet. The geography of this particular Planet Earth was a little different from the one I came from, but the basic locations of the oceans was the same. Based on the maps Betti showed me, the last stone was in an area similar to the Americas. That meant that we were currently in an area that was roughly Russia. Obviously they had different names for things here, and there wasn’t a lot of racial diversity either. I’ve heard maybe three different languages and we’ve gone through more than a dozen countries. I asked Betti about that once, but she said there are only three languages on the planet. There once were thousands of different languages, but to promote unity, the nations of the world adopted only three as the world’s languages. That happened more than four hundred years ago.

That answered one question, but the other question was how we were to reach the other continents. Were we to leave all of our stuff there and then charter a plane?

“We don’t have to leave our stuff behind,” Betti said.

I looked at her and thought what is she talking about? “Look Betti, I know you’re smart and all, but not even you can figure out how to take all of our gear on a plane.”

Yukon had taken to exploring the camper with Sora and Alistair, so Betti was driving. She briefly took her eyes off the road and looked at me with a smile. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but we will be taking our stuff on a plane, just not a commercial one.”

I was confused. “What are you talking about? What other planes are there? Do you have an inflatable one in your bag or something?” I picked up her bag from between us. She laughed. I put the bag back where I found it.

“You really are from another world. Look here.” Betti pointed at a button on the steering wheel.

“What am I looking at exactly?”

“This button changes the camper into something like a flying boat. It can fly just like a plane and can also land and take off on water, so it has pontoons. All campers made by Coates Inc. can do this. Look here.” She pointed to the main console. It said what the make and model were. Under that it showed the parent company: Coates Inc. Of course! Her father’s company made all kinds of things that had multiple uses. I just didn’t know that the camper was one of theirs. Then it was going to be a very easy trip.

Next Chapter: Reunion