"We can't open the wormhole again without magic!" Gliss exclaimed. "We could be trapped here forever!"
Crash!
Zann spun around as something landed behind them.
It was a large platter of puckerberry pancakes!
"The food!" Darb said. "It's here. I guess the spell worked after all."
"It just took a long time." Perda stuck her finger in the pancake syrup and licked it. "Mmm!"
"It's weird that the spell took so long to work," Zann said.
"We should try another spell and see if the same thing happens."
"I'll do it." Perda rubbed her hands together. "Levitate!"
They all waited. Several moments passed before Perda's feet finally lifted off the ground.
"Magic must work really slowly here, that's all."
Zann stepped toward the wormhole and waited.
Eventually it swirled open again. "Phew! We're not trapped after all."
"Good." Perda reached for a pancake. "Let's eat, and then we can look for Wyssa."
Darb peered into the distance. "Someone's coming."
Several people were moving slowly toward them.
They were very slim and tall, with extra-long arms and legs.
Their skin, hair, and clothes were the same dull colors as the rest of their world.
"Should we run away or stay and talk to them?" Gliss asked.
"They look pretty friendly," Perda said. "Besides, I'm guessing we can outrun them if we have to."
Several minutes later the natives reached the visitors.
"Greetings, strangers," one of them said. His voice was slow but friendly. "Welcome to Chronos."
"Thank you," Zann said. "We just arrived through the wormhole."
"Is everything always so slow here?" Perda asked.
Long-drawn-out chuckles emerged from several of the Chronians.
"That's the first question every visitor asks," said one Chronian.
"Yes, time moves more slowly here than it does in most other worlds."
"That's right," another Chronian continued. "For every hour that passes in Chronos, just seconds pass in the vortex or most other worlds."
Zann already felt impatient with the Chronians' slow speech.
"Has anyone else visited lately?" he asked. "A woman named Wyssa?"
"Yes," one of the Chronians said. "Wyssa arrived here earlier. But she moved on immediately."
Zann frowned. Their tracking method was working.
But they couldn't seem to catch up with Wyssa!
"Do you know where she was going next?" he asked.
"Was it a place called World X? A newly discovered world?"
"Wyssa wasn't here long enough to tell us about her plans," a Chronian said.
Another Chronian spoke up. "Wait—Wyssa might not have said anything.
But a traveler who passed by a few days ago did mention a new world."
"Really?" Zann spun to face him. "Was the traveler a tall, skinny guy named Morb?"
"No." A look of confusion passed slowly over the Chronian's face.
"It was a trader who passes through Chronos frequently.
He visits many worlds in his travels."
"What did he say?" Zann's heart pounded.
Could this be the clue that would lead to his parents?
Maybe they wouldn't need to catch Wyssa after all!
"The trader has heard rumors," the Chronian said.
"Supposedly there's a world with wormholes that lead not only into the vortex, but directly into other worlds as well!"
"But that's not how wormholes work," Perda said.
"You have to travel through the vortex to go from one world to another."
The Chronian shrugged. "I know. The trader wasn't sure it was true either.
He hasn't seen this strange world himself."
"If it's real, it could be World X," Zann said.
"It sure sounds like the kind of place that my parents would want to find."
He glanced at his friends. "We should go!"
Perda yawned and reached for another pancake.
"Why don't we rest here for a little while first?
You heard what they said—even if we stay here for hours, only a few seconds will pass everywhere else."
Zann wanted to argue, but he could see that his friends were hungry and tired.
"All right," he said. "But let's make it a short rest, okay?"
The Chronians led them to a gray town nearby.
The local innkeeper offered the visitors food and drink, which was nearly tasteless but filling.
Then she showed Zann and his friends to comfortable beds.
Zann was sure he'd never be able to sleep.
But he drifted off quickly and fell into another vivid dream.
His parents were running in terror through a forest with dark magic swirling around them.
Like everything else in Chronos, the dream moved slowly.
That gave Zann time to see details he hadn't noticed in his previous dreams.
In the forest there were tiny houses with doors no higher than his mother's knee.
While the forest seemed dark, the sky overhead was a brilliant shade of blue.
Zann finally awoke, blinking in the pale gray light.
Could anything in his dream be a clue to finding his parents?
Lots of worlds had blue skies. But not many worlds had such tiny houses.
Even Fud from Galvan was too big to fit through those small doors.
Eager to get moving, Zann woke his friends.
It seemed to take forever for the Chronians to guide them back to the wormhole.
Then Zann had to wait for the mutual shackles to appear, and for the wormhole to open.
But finally he and his friends were back in the vortex.
"Wow," Gliss said as wormholes rushed past.
"It feels weird to be living at full speed again."
"Yeah." Darb looked at Zann. "Hey, the purple mark is glowing!"
"Good." Zann grabbed the next wormhole and pulled his friends through.
The world they landed in was dark, with jagged lightning splitting the sky. Zann recognized it and gasped.
Apparently Perda recognized it too. "Oh no! We're back in Fardark!"