This is not part of the story, just that list of books I promised: any and all David Eddings books, Dune, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, The Fifth Ring, possibly more to come.

Chapter 1

Well, you see, it all started when Rand broke Doroon's arm. It was just another fine spring day at Faldor's Farm, and the children (Garion, Doroon, Rundorig, and Zubrette) were playing as they usually did. Here's the story.

How it was supposed to happen: Zubrette, being the kind of girl that she is, urges Doroon into the highest branches of one of the various trees on the farm. Doroon, being the idiot little boy, quite naturally falls out of the tree and breaks his arm. Zubrette runs away for fear of getting into trouble while Rundorig just stands there, completely and utterly clueless. Garion, being the only truly intelligent one in the group, makes the decisions. He binds Doroon's arm as best he can, then gets Rundorig to help him take Doroon to Garion's Aunt Pol in the kitchen where she tends to all the injuries. Aunt Pol, of course, uses her usual methods to get Doroon to drink some medicine, binds the arm, and then everything is all better after she yells at Zubrette. With this quite normal situation, things remain unchanged and everything happens in the order and way that it should. At least, that's what was supposed to happen, but the actuality of it was very different.

How it actually happened: As we all know, things don't always go quite as we planned them, and that goes for everyone, whether you're a small little farm boy or an ancient voice of prophecy that can speak inside the mind of a boy-turned-savior and can manipulate the actions of multiple generations.

So, getting back to our story, it really was just another, normal spring day at the farm. Zubrette and her companions were playing down by the small pond when suddenly Zubrette decided that she wanted to see one of the boys climb to the top of one of the trees. Just as she was about to say something, Garion turned from his pebble-throwing.

"Guys, I'm really thirsty. I'm going to go get something to drink from the kitchen."

Zubrette scowled slightly as he turned his back to them and began to walk towards the farmhouse. Doroon continued his endless chatter, even though no one even bothered to listen to him, and Rundorig just stood there staring stupidly at the water. After a few seconds Zubrette finally tore her eyes away from Garion's retreating form and looked speculatively at the two boys still with her. Then she smiled, having made her decision.

"Oh, Doroon…" and she proceeded to coax him into climbing the tree.

Just as Doroon was getting ready to climb the tree and Garion was coming out of the kitchen door, there was a disturbance in the air near the tree, and out came none other than Rand al' Thor, who had apparently fallen into a vortex and been thrown through time and space to this very spot at this crucial moment.

Poor Doroon didn't see it coming, and as Rand fell on top of him without warning, the others could do nothing but stare incredulously. Everyone, that is, except for Garion who, after a moment of stunned silence during which Rand got to his feet, broke into a run towards his injured friend.

Doroon's arm was obviously broken, there was no denying that. Garion turned on Rand.

"What do you think you're doing!" he shouted.

Rand just stood there looking quite sheepish. "Well, uh… I just, umm…I didn't mean to…"

"You idiot! You broke his arm! That's supposed to be my job, not yours, do you understand? Either that tree right there, or me! It wasn't your job, and now you've gone and ruined a perfectly good day!"

By this time, Zubrette had, of course, run away to hide somewhere, and Rundorig was still just being dumb and clueless. Garion stooped to help his friend up and he and Rundorig walked him to the kitchen, leaving Rand standing there in utter confusion. Now, there was a chance here for a more normal kind of outcome, but of course they had to tell Aunt Pol what had really happened. She just nodded, showing an incredible amount of restraint on her sometimes horrible temper (you all remember the little episode at Riva that actually happens after all this in the real book by Eddings, right?).

The whole time Aunt Pol was tending to Doroon in the kitchen, Rand just stood there by the tree, studying his surroundings and wondering why he was here and what in the hell happened to his throne room. Suddenly he heard some weird music begin. As he turned to see, Aunt Pol came bursting out of the kitchen door like a bat out of hell riding on her favorite broomstick ('Cause she actually has one. Yeah, right). Rand turned and began to run like he'd never run before, and let's face it, who wouldn't?

Aunt Pol rode with fury, and Rand thought she had green skin, probably due to the green make-up she was wearing. Even more frightening was the song that she was singing. At least, it was frightening until he caught some of the words. "…Popular. I'll help you be popular, and with an assist from to be who you'll be instead of dreary who you were…" That's right, people. Aunt Pol is one of the biggest fans of the new musical Wicked. (She saw it on Broadway opening night).

All of a sudden, Rand stumbled into another vortex. Just great, he thought. Oh, well. At least wherever I'm going it'll probably be better than here. How very wrong he was.