Zann struggled for breath as the fabric completely enveloped everyone.
"Don't you ever listen, boy?" Wyssa's muffled voice came from nearby.
"I'd better get us out of Galvan before you kill us all."
Zann felt a hand grab him. Zap! He landed in front of the Galvan wormhole.
"Nice work, Zann," Perda said breathlessly, as Wyssa dragged them into the wormhole. "You almost smothered us!"
"Sorry," Zann mumbled.
Once again they were speeding through the vortex.
"How many magical worlds are there, anyway?" asked Perda.
"Nobody knows," Wyssa replied. "The nature of wormholes makes it impossible to know for sure."
"My parents said that hundreds of worlds have been cataloged already," Zann said.
"But more are being discovered all the time."
He thought about World X. His parents had contacted Wyssa for help in finding it. Did she know where it was?
He opened his mouth to ask. But a flash of purple light distracted him.
The symbols on Wyssa's hands were glowing again.
"Oh no," Wyssa muttered when she saw the next wormhole.
Whatever world the wormhole led to, Zann could tell she wasn't happy about going through it.
He soon landed on something soft and squishy.
Looking around, Zann could see that they were standing on a puffy white cloud floating peacefully in a clear golden sky.
Dozens of similar clouds surrounded them.
"I feel as light as a dragon's scale!" Perda exclaimed.
Zann felt the same way. He jumped and found himself floating up surprisingly high before floating gently back down to the cloud.
Perda did a somersault in the air. "Look at me! I'm flying!" she cried.
"Settle down, both of you." Wyssa's voice was stern.
"We need to figure out whether your friends are here. Quickly."
"Okay, okay." Perda sat down on a fluffy patch of cloud. "How do we do that?"
"I'm thinking," Wyssa said sharply. "Just be quiet for a moment."
Zann bounced gently, still looking around. "Hey, look at that," he said, pointing at a cloud far overhead.
It was dark and stormy, with lightning flickering through it every few seconds.
It definitely stood out in the otherwise pale and peaceful sky.
"I said, be quiet, boy!" Wyssa barked.
Her face looked pinched and anxious. Before Zann could ask what was wrong, he noticed a new cloud zooming toward them.
This one looked oddly glittery. When it came closer, he gasped.
"It's a whole flock of those little stinging dragons that Morb brought to Magica!" he cried.
"They're called flizzes," Wyssa said. "They're very useful as long as you know how to control them."
Zann recalled the painful stings he and Darb had received from the flizzes.
He conjured a sturdy stick to use as a weapon if the creatures came any closer.
"You won't need that," Wyssa said with a faint smile.
"I know exactly how to control flizzes.
I'm the one who brought them to Morb."
Zann wanted to ask how many other dangerous creatures Wyssa had brought to Morb.
But before he could speak, his mouth widened into a sudden yawn.
Lowering the stick, he sank onto the soft, welcoming cloud.
He watched the flizzes gather around Wyssa, who began speaking softly to them in a language Zann didn't understand.
Beside him Perda yawned as well. "It's been a long day, hasn't it?" she mumbled.
"I think I'll just close my eyes for a second."
Zann was drifting off to sleep too when he heard a soft snore.
Opening his eyes, he was surprised to see Perda floating.
Above them both was the dark cloud. It appeared much closer than before.
"Weird," he mumbled.
Wyssa heard him and looked over. "Oh dear," she muttered.
"They're succumbing even faster than I'd feared."
Glancing at the flizzes, she waved her hand. "Go! And hurry!"
Zann watched the flizzes speed off. "Where . . . Where are they . . . ?" Zann paused.
What had he been planning to ask? He couldn't remember. "Oh well," he mumbled. "Doesn't matter."
He felt himself floating upward, as Perda was doing.
It seemed like too much trouble to resist, so he didn't. Besides, floating felt kind of nice.
The stick felt heavy in his hand.
He let it go, watching through half-closed eyes as it drifted slowly upward.
Suddenly Zann felt a yank. Wyssa was pulling him back down.
"Wake up!" she ordered loudly. "You too, girl!"
The old woman bounced away and grabbed Perda, pulling her over to Zann's cloud.
Perda opened her eyes. "What's going on?"
Now Zann was falling back to sleep.
Breathing desperately, Wyssa gave him a good kick to the shin.
"Ow," Zann mumbled, scooting away from her foot.
"I just want a quick nap, that's all."
"You must fight it!" cried Wyssa. "Do not fall asleep!"
Zann looked at her with half-closed eyes. "Did you say something?"
He heard a snore and saw Wyssa turn her head quickly. Perda was floating upward again.
The dark cloud was very close now.
"Wake . . . up," said Wyssa, pinching Perda. The old woman was beginning to sound sleepy herself.
"Stop," Perda protested weakly.
Zann noticed his stick was getting closer and closer to the dark cloud, which was now directly above him.
He closed his eyes and felt his body move up off his cloud once more.
Nearby he heard Wyssa mumbling. "If the flizzes don't return soon, we'll have to . . ."
She slowly closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.
Zann smiled. "This is so relaxing. I could stay . . . here . . . forever."
Suddenly a bolt of magic energy shot from the dark cloud, obliterating Zann's stick.
Zann opened his eyes for a moment. "What was . . . ?"
Before he could finish, Zann fell back to sleep, unaware of the danger right above him.