Zero turned over in his sleep, but then opened his eyes to the light. Light? Zero blinked and looked up. His eyes widened a great deal. A hovering shimmer of light was being cast right against the wall of the tent, as if someone was shining some sort of eerie light from outside.

Zero carefully got up and crept over to the tent flap, easing it open and slipping outside. The light that had been on his side of the tent was moving ever so slowly, it edges peeking around the corner of the tent, and as it did, it softened ever so slightly, until the image of a man was seen walking from behind the corner.

Zero froze with his mouth slightly agape, and watched as the man stepped slowly towards him. He was wearing a hat that looked similar to Mr. Sir's, except it had whole daisies decorating the brim. The man stopped within a few feet of Zero, a kind smile upon his face. Zero stood staring, wondering . . .

The man took a daisy from the brim of his hat and extended the hand holding the daisy towards Zero, who slowly reached out to take it. As his fingers touched the flower, the light slowly dimmed and the man was gone. Zero stood there for a moment, and then slowly trudged back to the tent.

He put the daisy in his crate for safekeeping and then stood back to look at it.

If it was still there when he woke up, all this will certainly not be a dream.

~*~

Zero was the first to wake up the next morning. As the others trudged around getting dressed, he walked over to his crate. The daisy was still there. He took it, placed it carefully in his pocket for safekeeping, and then went outside. Another day of digging, though he had many things to marvel upon.

~*~

"Hello, Zero." Kari said, walking into D-tent. He smiled at her. He had an idea. Maybe he could surprise her with the daisy.

"Okay, Zero, now today we're going to practice reading sentences and writing them." Kari said, ripping out a page in her notebook. She wrote down a few simple sentences and showed them to Zero. He looked down at the words "The hat is blue."

"Tuh...chat." He stuttered. Kari cringed.

"Okay, now when 't' and 'h' are together, it makes a 'th' sound. Try again." Kari said.

"The." Zero said. Kari smiled and gave a thumbs-up. Just then, Caveman walked in carrying a letter. He briefly smiled at them and then sat down to read. He started laughing to himself until out of curiousity, Zero walked up behind him.

"What're you laughing at?" He asked.

"Oh, it's something my mom wrote. See: 'I feel really bad for the old lady that lived in the shoe, because it must have smelled real bad.' You know, like the old nursery rhyme." Caveman said, smiling.

"I can't read." Zero said. Caveman's smile dropped.

"He can't right now, but I'm teaching him to." Kari said timidly. "Even though I'm not really all that good in spelling, I'm helping."

"Oh, that's nice." Caveman said, smiling. He eventually left after that, leaving them alone again.

"Right...dinner is in two minutes, but I won't be free after that. We'll have to continue tomorrow. Is that okay with you?" Kari said. Zero nodded. "Alright, then! Seeya, Zero!"

"Wait." Zero said. She stopped at the tent flap and turned around, curious. He took the daisy out from his pocket and held it out to her. She looked at it, and then touched it.

"Where'd you get this?" Kari asked, in awe. "It's beautiful." Zero shrugged, for even he couldn't ponder the answer. Had the man been real, or just an imagination? His thoughts were soon forgotten as Kari pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you so, so much!" She said. Zero blushed and smiled. Real or imaginary, that man deserved credit.