Far away in Windsor, two children wandered through the forest with their mother, breaking off branches. Emily, a headstrong twelve-year-old with red hair, led the way. Since finding themselves in the land of Alledia after walking through a door in her great-grandfather's home on Earth two years ago, both she and her ten-year-old brother Navin had been forced to grow up fast, and thus grown strong and confident. The death of their father had left Navin the man of the family; though still very young, his experiences here in this alternate Earth had taught him to be bold and strong—and even violent when necessary.
It was midmorning, and they'd gone out on an errand for Cogsley, the de facto commander of the house they'd been traveling in. "Hey, Emily, will this do?" Karen asked, holding up a branch with a thick tuft of leaves at one end.
Emily turned to look at the indicated branch, took it in and grunted. "Cogsley says he needs the leafiest branches we can find."
"Like this one, Mom," Navin said, pulling on a small branch with a tiny crown of leaves.
Karen looked over, and her face suddenly became hard with concern. "Wait. Is that a cut on your hand?"
Navin looked down at the back of his hand, his eyebrows rising as if he'd only just become aware of the injury. "How'd that happen?" he wondered aloud. "It doesn't hurt."
"Come here. Let me look at it."
"Mom, I'm fine," he protested.
Karen ignored it. "You don't want it getting infected," she told him. "You have to remember, we're on an alien planet. There are all sorts of dangerous things here."
"And there weren't back home?" Navin countered. Karen stared at him, dumbstruck. "Mom, I understand there are dangers here, the same as anywhere else."
"All the more reason to be careful!"
"We need to start heading back," Emily said, heading off the impending argument. "Leon wants to be on the move by midday."
"Why are we leaving the house behind?" asked Navin.
"It makes us too easy to track."
Karen sighed in exasperation. "Why are we always doing what Leon ways?" she demanded. "You know what they say about foxes being tricksters. He might be trouble."
Emily gave her a look of annoyed disbelief. "Weren't you paying any attention when we told you about the ancient curse that makes some of the people here take on the forms of animals?"
Karen's cheeks turned a shade of pink. "Oh…yeah." Leave to a kid to make her feel like an idiot.
"I'm willing to bet that Leon's one of them. If his intention was to make trouble, he'd be making it by now. We can trust him."
They returned to the house, where they found Cogsley on the toe of its left foot yelling down at Miskit. "Cogsley, this is impossible!" the pink rabbit was saying. "There's no way we can hide it like this."
"We have to try, Miskit," retorted Cogsley.
"You don't think a mountain of leafy branches surrounded by stumps would be just a bit suspicious?"
A moment of silence, then Cogsley yelled, "We can't just leave her out in the open!"
"Cogsley's taking this pretty hard," Emily observed.
"Yeah," Miskit sighed. "He built the house with Silas; it's like his baby."
"We'll come back for you, baby!" they heard Cogsley wail.
"He must know this isn't possible," Emily said, then changed the subject. "Where's Leon?"
"Last I knew, he was in Silas' library."
Emily peered around the corner of the door to the library, watching Leon quietly. The short fox was at the desk, a set of wire-frame glasses on his snout, poring over a thick book and muttering to himself. He flipped back and forth through the pages, making intermittent noises and once almost tearing a page out in frustration. Finally, he tore off his glasses and slammed a fist on the desktop, then glanced up and his cheeks seemed to redden. "Emily."
The girl stepped into the library. "You seem to be having some trouble," she said.
Leon sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I've been searching these books all morning and I still can't find it."
Emily furrowed her brow. "Find what?"
"Our destination," he told her. "My job is to escort you to the city of Cielis. But there's one problem: The city disappeared."
Emily didn't understand this. "Disappeared?"
"Or was destroyed, depending on who you ask," Leon added. "Long ago, the elf army set fire to it. Some say all the citizens were killed. But killing the most powerful Stonekeepers in the world with fire? Ridiculous!"
"Stonekeepers?" Emily asked.
"Powerful and influential figures capable of harnessing the ambient energy that flows through this world. They ruled Alledia before the elf king came to power." He leaned back in his chair, preparing to give Emily a history lesson. "There were five of them. They worked in harmonious unity, and came to be known as the Guardian Council. They were chosen to govern the land, and for many years things went according to their plans, and Alledia benefitted from a century of peace.
"So it came as the rudest of surprises when Gulfen, the elf nation, rose up and began invading its neighbors without warning. What had been a peaceful nation was now a ruthless aggressor. The Guardian Council retaliated, but they severely underestimated the elf king's power. The great city of Cielis suffered the fiercest attack during the war. In a battle for the throne of Alledia, the elves burned most of it to the ground. When the dust cleared, all that remained of the city was a giant crater. Most believe that the people of Cielis perished in the flames, but a few—like the Resistance and myself—believe the city is still intact.
"Some say the Guardian Council lifted the city out of the ground and hid it among the clouds, where they could safely rebuild. Others call the whole story a myth. But we have to believe it to be true, because the survival of Alledia depends on the existence of Cielis and the Guardian Council. They're our last remaining hope."
"Don't listen to him, Emily," a voice interrupted, and they looked up to see Miskit enter the library. "Cielis is dead. Silas said he saw the ruins with his own eyes, and that nobody was spared. You're wasting your time, Redbeard."
Leon directed a challenging look at the pink rabbit. "If that's true, then explain this." He slapped the book Emily had found in her great-grandfather's study back on Earth down on the desk. "These are Silas' notes." Miskit picked up the book and began reading. "If Silas believed Cielis to be gone forever, then why did he spend so much time searching for it? The last notes were taken the week he passed away." Miskit and Emily looked at him, Emily in wonder and Miskit in skepticism. "Unfortunately, he was unable to complete his search."
Emily drew a silent gasp. She remembered her great-grandfather telling her that she could complete what he was unable to. She'd been new to this place then, and had absolutely no idea what he'd meant by that. But now, after hearing Leon's tale and his brief overview of her great-grandfather's notes, she finally understood that finding Cielis was what he'd passed on to her along with the stone.
"If Cielis is still around," Miskit demanded, snapping Emily from her thoughts and challenging Leon's thesis, "then why hasn't the Guardian Council contacted any of us? Why haven't they helped?"
"I don't know," Leon admitted.
"So if they won't come out of hiding to help us now," Miskit continued, "how can we expect them to help us if we find them?"
"Because they will need us." He and Miskit held each other's eyes, both daring the other to continue.
"Ma'am." They all turned toward the voice that broke the tense silence to see Theodore, the little wastebin-shaped robot, standing in the doorway on his single wheel. "The transports are ready."
Outside, two tracked vehicles sat waiting. The big box robot Bottle and the little vacuum robot Ruby were on top of a mountain of luggage and other necessities heaped in the back of one, while Emily, Navin, Karen, Leon and Miskit climbed into the other. Morrie and Cogsley stood between the transports, going over the final details for their departure, then Cogsley looked up at the house. "At least this thing won't be easy to steal," he grumbled. "I had to gut its engine to fix these transports."
Morrie, ever the worrywart, began sweating. "Are you sure splitting up is a good idea?" he asked. "Maybe we should stick together."
Cogsley shook his head. "No," he said. "Much as I hate to admit it, the fox is right. We need to stay light on our feet. And you need to tell the others what's going on."
"And once that's done, how will we find you?"
"You won't. When the time is right, we'll come find you."
"Let's go, Cogsley," Miskit said over the side of their transport.
As Cogsley climbed in and primed the motor, Emily looked over at the fox next to her. "Leon," she asked, "where are we going?"
Leon looked at her. "A small town just east of here called Nautilus. It's the only place we can charter an airship for Cielis."
"Airship?" Navin sounded excited and more than a little hopeful.
Before any more words could be said, the transport's engine growled to life. "Hold onto your hats!" Cogsley told them, then stomped on the accelerator and they were off.