"Are you kidding me?" Came Amber voice through the open window of the car. Eth was still trying to figure out which wires in the steering column would be helpful...
"One more second." He said frantically.
"It's time."
"It's time for what?" Eth didn't look up.
"I need to show you something... It's time to go."
"Go where?" He had humored her long enough; he would get this car started. Eth heard tires skidding around the corner, a van approached, and Amber slipped around the other side of the car and he unlocked the door. A machine gun began to fire. Eth shoved his body down toward the petal and pressed his head against the seat. Amber wasn't shooting. She was hiding too... She must not have had a weapon. "Any ideas?" Yelled Eth.
"It's time. Just stay with me." Amber grabbed his wrist and he waited to die. They were headed no where and there assailants were upon them. Eth closed his eyes to get ready for death. He mumbled a prayer and when he opened his eyes the sun was bright.
His feet were wet. Where was he? Eth waited for his eyes to adjust to the light. He was crouched. His feet were being rushed by a river and directly in front of him was a small waterfall. The water was clear... Trees stood on either side of the river and the sun shone bolts of light down on the water which glittered in reply. Ambers hand still grasped his wrist.
"Are we dead?" Eth asked. He touched his clothes, feeling for blood. Nothing.
"No," Amber stood and looked down stream. Eth instinctively did the same.
"How did we get here?" Eth had watched more sci-fi films and read more fantasy fiction than he cared to admit. At times he had hoped that they were somehow real. That he could slide from one dimension to another. Or that other worlds lay behind a door or out the back of a wardrobe. But the truth is, he'd never taken any of them seriously. He was too down-to-earth to believe in crop circles, or even conspiracy theories. Yet here he was. Standing in an anomaly. At first he wanted to believe he was seeing things. When the human mind is shown the impossible the choice not to believe what one sees is possible. But Eth could no more deny the cool water around his feet than he could his own hand.
"Where are we?" Eth repeated.
"No where you've ever been before." Amber spoke slowly, methodical.
"You've been here?" Eth asked. He slowly waded to the side of the stream.
"This is where I grew up." Amber paused to let the truth soak in.
"Where are we? The Ozarks are something?" Eth felt the firm trunk of a tree. The leaves. This was real.
"No... Look at me"...
Eth turned and looked into Ambers green eyes, her long brown hair toppling over her shoulders. She was beautiful. Peaceful.
"We are in a place and time that has no connection or relation to your world, except through me."
"What? You're like a jumper or something?"
"Or something..." Amber approached him. "Eth I almost died in this world once. I grabbed my mothers wrist and we were whisked to your world. My mother died after we crossed over. She was already bleeding to death. I don't always know how to control it. But one near death experience after another, I realized it was near death that brought me from one place to the other... I transported my father, sister, and brother from this world, to your world within 6 months."
"Why?"
"They wanted to go, to be together. Your world if more advanced in some ways... Medicine namely. And our world here... It's magical in comparison."
"Ok."
"Can I tell you something?"
"Yeah."
"'I've never taken anyone back here with me, to my world from yours. I wasn't sure if it would work. But it was the only way to save our lives... Trouble, welcome to Elderworld." Amber lifted her hands and closed her eyes.
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