They called it the death-march. It was that long, winding path leading to the south-west of campus, dotted with mockingly picturesque trees and landscaping. Sure, there were plenty of buildings that one could go to in that side of town, but everyone knew the real reason that somber-faced students trudged down the cold stone walk: it was the path that led to the Testing Center. The path to cruel, soul-crushing justice in the form of standardized exams. And, unfortunately, the path I was taking.

I passed the all-too familiar landmarks that dotted the lawns of campus as I headed south. A few other kids were walking in the same general direction as I was. I tried to distract myself from where I was going by guessing what kinds of exams awaited them at our destination. The girl on my right looked like she'd been told that the test proctors were going to ritually sacrifice her and drink her blood… so she probably had math. Or physics; those were always nasty subjects. Me, I had a midterm in Civilization. An utterly useless class on my quest to earn the mythical Degree. (Grants +10 Resilience and +5 Resume Building, for those who were wondering.)

We rounded the corner, and there it was, all at once. The school must have been feeling cruel the day they designed the Testing Center. Its dark stone face and narrow, arched windows were a stark contrast to the clean, modern designs of the buildings around it, as if someone had yanked it straight out of the Dark Ages and plopped it onto campus. Even the plants seemed to know the horror that went on inside that building—the few bushes around the entrance were scraggly and drooping. The entire place screamed 'dungeon,' or at the very least, 'abandon hope, all ye who enter here.' I saw the eyes of the poor girl next to me widen like saucers and her steps grow marginally stiffer as she took in the sight.

I felt my steps gradually slow, and let myself come to a stop. Even I, the unflappable Danielle, was feeling the effects of the Testing Center. It was like a black hole that sucked away all happiness. I had studied, and hard, but the pointless dates and times must have found a leak in my brain-basin, because they had seeped out as quickly as I had tried to ladle them in. I was gonna have to go in there and BS my way through the multiple choice… and that wasn't even taking into account the essay questions.

I looked at the door to the Testing Center. Only a hundred feet away. I just had to walk in there and get it over with.

I steeled myself, walked forward—and went straight past the Testing Center, heading towards the walking path beyond. Crap. I'd been aiming for the door… or at least I thought I'd been. My subconscious seemed to have a different agenda.

I've still got a day to take the test. My mind blurted out. I'll do it tomorrow. I can study more! This excuse might have sounded plausible if it weren't the exact same one I'd used yesterday. How long would I wait before I was forced to rush in at the last minute and pay a late fee? Or would I even make it in time at all? I sighed. I needed to go back. This behavior wasn't helping my grades. It was funny, in a way. I could handle spiders and snakes and laugh while doing it, but I was too scared to sit in front of a piece of paper and put marks on it?

The walking path behind the Testing Center was a quiet, peaceful place. I could only assume the school built it to lower the blood pressure of despairing kids who used it to walk home after failing their finals. Pines grew on either side of it, shielding it from the outside world and muffling all the everyday noises. It was like an alternate dimension of tranquil silence amongst the college bustle. The only sound I could hear was my shoes crunching on the ground below.

Crunch, crunch.

If I walked home now, I could pull out my Civilization textbooks and do some last minute cramming, then rush back before the Testing Center closed again.

Crunch, crunch.

Oh, who was I trying to kid? If I went home, I'd get on my laptop and fire up a game—and the first enemy I'd slay would be any productivity I might have had today.

Crunch, crunch… whooooo…

Huh… where had I heard that noise before? It sounded familiar.

The black wind howls…

Yeah. That phrase had something to do with the noise, I could recall. It was something out of a video game. Something to do with guns. Gun… gunblade? No, that was Final Fantasy. Gun… trigger! That's right… trigger… trigger happy? Happy trigger? No…

I realized that the whooshing noise had grown steadily louder. The ground lurched and I nearly fell over. I jerked and crouched down to keep my balance. What the heck… was this a windstorm, or an earthquake? Or both? Up ahead on the path, something black was gathering, sending crackling threads of electricity every which way. As I watched, the black nothingness stretched and gaped, billowing outwards into a circular mass. The noise was incredible, a howling, whistling maelstrom of wind.

My first thought was, what in the world? Was I witness to the birth of a miniature black hole? Or was this a physical embodiment of the black despair of the Testing Center, come to punish me for my disobedience? More importantly, was it going to grow exponentially and devour the earth? But it had stopped growing once it reached about six feet in diameter. It stayed, hovering in the air, unmoving save for its rippling border and the snapping electricity that rumbled in its depths. It looked like a very dark, very menacing tunnel.

I considered whether to run screaming back to the Testing Center. Civilization midterms had nothing on this. I crouched frozen… but the hole wasn't really doing anything besides belching out an eerie breeze. I stood up, slowly, ready to run if the thing suddenly grew fangs and attacked.

Nothing.

I waved my arms.

Still nothing.

Well, nobody ever said I had common sense. If I was the sole witness to an amazing interstellar phenomenon, I was sure as heck gonna check it out. I put an arm in front of my eyes to ward off whirling debris and inched forward. People get Darwin Awards for being this curious, you nitwit… my mind warned, but I ignored it.

I was a foot away from the black tunnel now. My hair was whipping all over the place from the wind that the tunnel was throwing out. A thread of blue electricity snaked out and struck my arm. AH! I jerked my arm back, but it only tingled where the blue light had touched it. Strange. I squinted. It was a tunnel, black and whirling and seemingly endless. Maybe this was a wormhole. And yet it was so familiar… the look of the black tunnel and the sound of the wind. I could have sworn I'd seen it somewhere before. Maybe from something in the Discovery Channel? But no, that didn't seem right…

Then, my sleeve brushed against the black edge of the black hole, and before I could react the blackness had sucked in my whole arm. Crap! Crapcrapcrap! I dug my heels in to the gravelly path and tried to yank my arm out, but an extra-strong gust of wind sent me falling headfirst into the abyss. I flailed wildly, but there was nothing to grab. It was as if I was on a sensory-dep rollercoaster; there was no way to tell what was 'up,' nothing to grab, nothing to orient off besides the endless whirling darkness and the screaming wind. I felt my lunch rise into my throat. Was this it? Was my life going to flash before my eyes before I puked and died of nausea? Would I spin around in nothingness forever unti--

And then I landed hard on my back with a muffled whump. Oooh… that hurt. I lay there for a few seconds. Right now, my primary objective was keeping my food in my digestive tract. The harsh howl of the wind faded and gave way to quiet. Once I was sure my lunch was securely back where it belonged, I opened my eyes, and almost immediately shut them again—too bright! More prepared this time, I cracked open one eye and looked around, and all of a sudden I remembered where I'd seen the black hole and its whistling wind.

Trigger… trigger… Chrono Trigger!?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hello and welcome to Utah's morning news with Grant and Amanda here on KSL," Amanda's voice buzzed on the radio. "For today's top story; a wild windstorm surges through Utah Valley with great force, but it seems to have left residents more spooked than anything else."

An old mans voice crackled to life over the radio, with the wind sounding behind it. "Woke up last night to hear it roarin' just like somfink come to life. But more than that, there were voices in that there wind! Sayin' somfink 'bout the black wind howlin'…Well, it sure as heck was howlin'! Like a durned wolf, it was!"

Amanda continued, "Residents up and down the valley are calling this mysterious storm the 'Black Wind.' The 'Black Wind' lasted for about twelve hours; from five last evening to five this morning. Fortunately, the storm did little in terms of property damage, though many residents along the Wasatch Front were left without power for the night. Over to you, Grant."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This time I managed not to face-plant by holding my arms out in front of me, which was lucky, because face-planting onto cement is never a good idea. I hurriedly scrambled to my feet, looking around for any passer-by who might have seen my entrance. If Porre was truly in power here, it wouldn't do to let anyone know I was capable of time-travel. But this section of Leene Square was empty, except for an old man wearing dark glasses and an odd double-pointed hat quietly enjoying a jug of some generic booze. He nodded in my direction and I nodded back. As I scrambled down the steps toward Nadia's Bell, the thought hit me, WTF Melchior?! and little shock-lines appeared around my head as my pupils contracted to almost nothing. I almost stopped to go back, but Frog had advised "Speak to no one. Daltons' spies art everywhere. 'Tis wiser to error on the side of caution."

I hurried along with my head down, trying my best to blend in and attract as little attention as possible. So far it seemed to be working. No one seemed to notice as I quickly and quietly made my way out of the square, passing first Nadia's Bell, then the fountain. Finally I exited and found myself at the top of a small knoll, with Truce spread out before me. And in the distance…I squinted…could that be it? That small patch of green in the bay with a single dot of white? Lucca, I'm coming! I called, but again there was no response. Torn with eagerness and frustration, I started running down the knoll toward that splash of white. As I entered the streets of Truce, there were surprisingly few people out and about. Those that were watched me with way too much interest. I slowed my pace to a modest jog, but still my heartbeat seemed to pound out Lu-cca, Lu-cca, Lu-cca, as I hurried along. I was getting frantic. How could I get there as fast as I possibly could and still be inconspicuous? And why couldn't I contact her with my mind? Surely something must be stopping her from replying because she would never-

"Hey, you!" A soldier, wearing a uniform I had never seen before and carrying some sort of rifle was looking directly at me. Part of me screamed Run, now! and the other part said Stay calm and play it cool. Being the highly logical person I am, I did neither, and froze like a deer in the headlights. The soldier stepped toward me, as did two of his comrades, seeming to tower over me. I sweatdropped. They're gonna shoot me, my mind babbled irrationally, but then the soldier asked me a question that left me totally nonplussed."Why aren't you in school?"

"H-huh?" I stammered."Why aren't you in school? Don't you know it's the law now?" The soldier demanded."The law?""Attendance for all youth ages 13 to 25 is mandatory. Didn't your parents tell you?""My parents…my parents…" I couldn't come up with a plausible lie."Ah, probably killed in the invasion. So you're one of them rebels, huh? Well, even you can't withstand the law. You go to school or you go to prison. Your pick." The soldier leered down at me.

"School…?" I meekly for the second time I found myself under armed escort, but this time to the soldiers said "school." They were none too gentle about it and as they bound my wrists behind me, I glanced over my shoulder once again at that little white smudge in the bay. I couldn't help it, tears started running down my cheeks. I had been so close…Lucca…Luccaaaaa!! I screamed silently at that smudge as I was frog-marched away.