Uhocuz pulled himself out of the small hole and began blinking hard. It was so bright! His eyes finally adjusted – but still smarted a little – and he began to take in his surroundings. The ground was brown and soft, and there were green things all over it. There were green things everywhere. Green, what a repulsive colour. He stood up and saw what looked like a stream of clear liquid. Clear liquid? He walked over and sniffed it. No odour… that's odd. He shrugged internally. Did he expect this world to be just like home? He began walking towards the largest green things on brown columns, then stopped. He could have sworn he heard something. He looked around. Perhaps it was a trick of the mind. But there it was again…it sounded like someone moaning. He approached its origin, and saw a pair of white wings. He stopped, trying to puzzle this out. It couldn't be an angel…unless he had ended in the Upperworld!

Eletoha opened his eyes…and saw a demon standing over him. They both started back. Eletoha gained his feet. "Stay away, demon," he warned

The demon eyed him. "You watch yourself, angel. I've heard about the treachery of your kind."

"It is your kind who are the evil ones. By some trickery you've brought me into your world."

"I've brought you into my world? You and your breed brought me into the Upperworld!"

they stared at each other for a moment.

"I am Eletoha, a prince of Angels. I thought I was in the Middleworld."

The other seemed interested. "Why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same."

The demon chuckled. "Fair cup. I am Uhocuz, a prince of demons. I am here because I saw the opportunity to leave. What happened to you? You look like you fell out of the sky."

Eletoha looked down and kicked at the ground. "I suppose I did."

"I see. Do you know what this stuff is?" Uhocuz knelt and tore out some green things.

"I think it's called grass. It grows here. Didn't you learn about this world before you came here?"

"Well, it was sort of sudden. What I did know is, I suppose, lies. This place doesn't seem full of barbarians. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen anything here except you."

"I haven't either. Since you don't know what these things are, I'll tell you: those over there are trees, that's water – actually, a stream – but I don't know these. Or those."

"We have these and those at home. These are rocks, and those are mountains. Mountains are big piles of rocks. Do you have this other stuff in the Upperworld?"

"Well, we have water, but there aren't any growing things. It's all cloud." Eletoha paused and eyeballed uhocuz. "Maybe I shouldn't be reavealing government secrets to a demon."

Uhocuz laughed. "Who would I tell them to?"

Eletoha shrugged. "I suppose you're right."

There was a sudden boom from overhead.

"Thunder! Gods protect me!" they both shouted, and made the same sacred sign in the air.

"We can hide there!" Uhocuz said, pointing to the trees. Eletoha started to run over to them.

"Wait!" Uhocuz shouted. "We have to cover this hole so they can't come up!"

Eletoha kept running. Uhocuz strained to lift a boulder.

"Come on!" Eletoha yelled, but uhocuz still tried to move the boulder. Rain started to pour down on them. Eletoha ran back to uhocuz and helped him carry it over to the hole. They began to run to the trees, but eletoha dragged behind.

"My wings… they're all wet. I can't go on." He collapsed.

Uhocuz looked back. "Come on," he said, and helped Eletoha up. They staggered to the copse, Uhocuz half-carrying Eletoha. Upon reaching it, they both sat down heavily, and tried to catch their breaths.

"Sorry," Eletoha gasped, "When my wings get wet, they get really hard to move with. It's only happened once before."

"Well, it looks like you'll be wet for a while. But we have to move. The bouler won't stop them for long." He looked over at Eletoha. "The thunder is their hunting call. It's happened before. It wasn't pretty what they did to her when they brought her back. If they find us, we won't want to be captured alive."

Eletoha shook his head. "My people will find us if we're under the open sky, so we have to stay hidden. The thunder means they're looking for me. Each flash of lighting helps them. It used to happen a lot, but recently it hasn't… until my teacher… and now me."

Uhocuz stared at him. "Well, whoever's looking for us, we don't want to be found."

"Agreed. I think we'll be safe if we stay here."

"I don't. We have to keep moving. If it's my people, we're safer under the open sky."

"Not if it's my people. and remember, I cant travel wet."

"I've never been wet before. I suppose we should stay here."

"Right. Let's get some rest."