Mark woke at dawn, stiff and sore, to find himself laying on a pile of leaves and dried flower petals, with Lisa curled up in a ball next to him. He sat up, looked around at the unfamiliar and vaguely hostile forest surrounding him, and suppressed a rising sense of panic as he awakened his sister.

Lisa opened her eyes, screamed, and clung to him, giving a voice to his fears as well as her own. Her red hair, tangled with leaves, covered part of her face, but he felt terror in her trembling body. Not knowing what else to do, she held onto him.

Mark tried to comfort her but immediately took the wrong approach. "Stop crying right now! It’s not doing any good. We have to figure out what to do."

Stung with wounded indignation, Lisa pushed him away, "Oh right, first you get us into this mess-”

"Me?! What the hell did I do?!" Mark exclaimed as he stood up. "Look, I don't know what kind of stunt you-”

Lisa suddenly screamed and pointed to his arm. "Oh my God, what happened to you?!" The dried, caked blood covering Mark's arm shone with a dull gleam in the growing daylight. "A-Are you hurt?"

"I'm not cut if that's what you mean, but my shoulder hurts like hell,” Mark muttered. "Whose blood is this?"

"I have no idea.” She got up from the leaves and looked around. "Do you know where we are?"

"No," Mark said shortly, still staring at his arm. "But wherever we are, I don't have a good feeling about being here.”

"Yeah, I'm with you there, big brother." Her hysterics under control, she turned in a half-circle. "Don't the trees look funny?" She pointed to the woods looming around her. The colors seemed wrong, a deeper green with an undertone of dark purple.

"Yeah.” Mark answered, "Hey, look, a path!"

"Maybe it’s a way out.” She began to run past him to a clearing in the strange woods, but Mark pulled her back sharply.

"Wait a minute! Don't be in such a hurry. Let's mark this place. You never know, we might have to find this meadow again. If we go in circles, we'll know we were here before.”

Agreeing but anxious to leave the woods and find clear, unobstructed daylight, Lisa paced anxiously, as Mark built a small stone cairn as a guide. He was always so meticulous it drove her crazy! "Come on, Mark, we got to get home. Diana must be going insane by now. Probably called the police.”

Mark looked at her. She seemed so young with her long red hair tousled and dirty. She was thin, almost fragile-looking. How could someone like that be such a pain?

"Lisa, we don't know where we are or how we got here. It’s like Dorothy in Oz or being in Narnia. Only here, there’s no yellow brick road to follow or a friendly faun to show us the way. There’s just this path. We have to figure out our way. So calm down, and don't be so anxious to run off!"

Lisa glared at him but said nothing. She didn't like his preemptive orders, but his harsh voice brought her back to the present situation, and she reluctantly admitted to herself that he was right.

Finally satisfied with his cairn, Mark held out his hand for his sister to take, but Lisa, mindful of her budding maturity and resentful of his unwitting patronage, ignored the hand and strode past him.

Scowling, he followed her.

They walked for hours, as far as they could tell. Mark's watch was no longer working, but the sun, a golden honey-colored ball, rose steadily in the sky, unlike the clear yellow of Earth’s. As the woods lightened, Mark and Lisa noted more differences in the trees and especially the animals. At one point, an elk-sized horned creature surged across the path, closely followed by a canine-type animal the size of a pony. Mark quickly yanked Lisa from the track, and they hid behind a large fallen tree until prey and predator were long gone.

Another argument broke their uneasy peace a few hours later at mid-day. Lisa, tired and hungry, saw what appeared to be a bush bearing red pears. Eagerly she darted from the path, and before Mark could protest, she started to take a bite from one of the fruits. Mark knocked it from her hand and shook her.

"Are you crazy!? It could be poisonous!" he shouted.

Lisa screamed back, "Then, at least I'll die eating! I won't starve to death!"

"Oh, okay," Mark replied sarcastically. "Well, make sure you crawl into the bushes to do it. I hate being around dead bodies.”

"You are so damned self-righteous. It makes me sick!" Lisa retorted. "How can you stand being near yourself?"

Before Mark could answer, a voice replied, "It's not poison, young sir, but you are wise to be cautious in a place you do not know.”

Mark, still holding Lisa, whirled towards the voice and thrust his sister behind him. He stood defiantly as Lisa shifted nervously from foot to foot.

A dozen people dressed in uniforms were standing on the path behind them.

"Welcome.” The speaker said. She was a tall woman with short-cropped black hair and green eyes. Her uniform was dark forest green with black bands that blended into the forest perfectly. "Please come with us.”

"Who are you?" Mark demanded, trying not to show his terror.

"I am Captain Rhea Volta. If you come with me, I'll take you to Lord Sindelar.” The woman's smile was devoid of warmth, but her offer seemed to calm the pair.

"Who?" Mark asked puzzled.

"Princess Killia?" Captain Volta asked, trying another name.

"I’m sorry, I don't know these names,” Mark replied politely. "My name is Mark Harrison, and this is my sister, Lisa. Where are we? What are you talking about? How can you speak English?”

Lisa, becoming more agitated with each question Mark asked, finally broke free of his hold and approached the Captain. "I don't know who you are, but please take us to this Lord Sindelar person. Maybe he can tell us what's going on.”

Captain Volta frowned, "Sindelar means nothing to you? Killia? Dal Ryeas?”

Lisa shook her head. "Nope, sorry.”

"Orado," the Captain called to a sergeant behind her.

"Ma'am?" the veteran answered, stepping forward.

"I think there has been a major error. They're not ours.” Captain Volta said softly. "Escort them to camp. I think my lord and the Princess need to be told. There may be more who slipped through.”

Captain Volta turned to Mark and Lisa. "There seems to be some mix-up. We'll take you to our camp and get you some food and try to straighten everything out.” Volta's tone was very cool, but her authority comforted Lisa as her brother could not. She felt as if she had found a protector.

Lisa went to accompany Volta, leaving Mark to stare at her in amazement.

"She's going to get me killed someday if she keeps doing this,” he thought, sizing up the group in front of them.

"Please, young sir,” Sergeant Orado interrupted Mark's reverie, "Come along, I am certain that the sorcerer will know what to do.”

Realizing a troop of armed soldiers surrounded him, Mark followed his sister and her new friend, feeling more uneasy than when they were alone. He turned to the sergeant walking at his side. "Why do you speak English if we're in another world?"

"What's English?" the sergeant asked innocently, "We are speaking Ryean, the main language of the world Dal Ryeas. But since you've obviously just traveled a long path, Sindelar must have lifted the language barriers when he sent out his summons. I mean, it would be very inconvenient if the pathways didn't have the mechanism to supply a dominant language to a traveler if they want it, don't you think?"

When Mark didn’t respond, the sergeant continued, "You must come from an edgeworld or something, not to understand the barrier spell. I bet you have multiple languages in your world as well. I've heard of places like that.”

"What's a pathway? What's an edgeworld? What are you talking about?" Mark felt adrift in the sea of information Orado was imparting.

"I think we'd better let Lord Sindelar explain,” Orado replied, with a glance at the Captain and Lisa.

"And who is he?" Mark's voice began to take on a harsh edge.

"Easy, young sir," Orado fingered a long dagger at his side, "No need to get hostile. I assure you, you are in no danger. At present.”

Captain Volta stopped the discussion then. "We will go on in silence. There have been strange readings from the paths, and I'd rather be careful. Keep your eyes open for more strays.”

Orado eyed Mark speculatively, and it made the young man feel uncomfortably like a side of beef being checked for tenderness. There was something repellent about this entire situation, especially with Volta and Orado, but Mark could not put his finger on it. All he knew was that they were in these troops' power, and escape for the moment was unrealistic.