The idea of the L-ementals was originally collectively created by AxelGripp, Khalalat, juribelit, Bry-Guy-1996, and Syfyman2xxx.
The cover image belongs to AxelGripp on DeviantArt and is used with permission.
This story is co-written with dubb1.
Chapter Two
When the blast went off, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne had expected it to hurt. But instead of pain, they felt a sense of weightlessness. When they could see, they saw the two of them in some weird kind of void that looked like spilled paint everywhere. They felt like they were in some kind of liquid as if they were swimming, but neither was holding their breath.
"What's happening? Where are we?"
The next thing they saw was a cluster of featureless... things gathering en masse. It was unclear how many there were, but there had to be at least twenty but no more than fifty. Each of them was white, the only white in this psychedelic void, and they all looked like amoebas or jellyfish. The majority of them moved like fish swimming towards the surface of water, but two flew right towards the two. Each reached out a tendril and touched the two, Lincoln felt like he just got put on a roller coaster in full throttle, while Ronnie Anne felt like her skin was on fire. Then the entity's before them vanished.
The two looked up and saw all of the other strange figures flying into what they assumed was the surface of this non-liquid void, looking like they were leaving this place. Not only that, but there was a pair of normal human legs kicking, as if someone had almost followed them into this void. The legs were approached by another albino figure that touched them and disappeared, but the legs disappeared too through the white area, as if someone on the other side had pulled them out.
Ignoring the strange new sensations they were still feeling, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne tried to swim to the surface, but whatever they were suspended in wasn't acting like water. Instead of going up, it felt like they were sinking.
"Help!" Lincoln called out before covering his mouth, worried he was about to drown.
"Lincoln?" Lynn Sr's voice could be faintly heard from above the surface.
Ronnie Anne pushed against her surroundings like a madwoman, and to her relief, she was making progress. She reached out her hand and felt the air, she had reached the surface. But whatever force was pulling her away seemed to get stronger, and she could feel nothing to hold on to.
"Get me out of here!"
"Ronalda?" Maria's voice called to her. "What in God's name?"
Ronnie Anne struggled to get more than her hand out, but her body felt weaker and was giving in to the sinking feeling. She went down, protesting, but down nonetheless.
"What's happening to us?" Lincoln asked, going down with her. At least talking didn't seem to pose any risk, but that was hardly any comfort.
"I don't know, but I feel like my body's going numb." Ronnie Anne replied, noting that by now, her muscles were cooperating less and less. Like every part of her body was going to sleep while her mind stayed awake.
"I'm feeling…" Lincoln started, but when he held up his hand, he gasped. "My hand? What's happening to me?"
Ronnie Anne gasped too. She could see through his hand. Like it was turning invisible, and what was left of it was white like his hair.
Lincoln checked his other hand and saw the same thing happening to it too. Not only that, but wisps were coming off his body as if he was steaming.
Ronnie Anne checked her hands too, and to her horror, it looked as if they were slowly melting.
The sensation of sinking soon turned into a sensation of falling, and the two plummeted into a dark void.
Then they both landed on something hard, but neither felt any pain. At the same time, neither felt like they were submerged in anything. It was like they fell out of whatever they were sinking in.
"What was that? Where are we?" Lincoln asked, trying to sit up, but his body was… not behaving like it should have. He could move again, but he felt lighter. Like he had lost a lot of weight all of a sudden. He looked at his hands and saw white puffs of… something. Whatever it was, it wasn't flesh.
"What happened to me?" Lincoln asked, looking over himself. He could see his clothes on the ground, and whatever his hands were made of, the rest of him was made of it too. He was apparently naked, but nothing was visible. Still, he felt vulnerable and tried to grab his clothes, but his fingers couldn't take hold of his pants or shirt.
"Lincoln?"
He turned and saw a pile of purple goo splattered on the ground too, but this had eyes. Parts of it rose up and formed arms which pushed against the ground, and more of a body began to take shape. It was like the slime was trying to stand up.
"Ronnie Anne?" He asked.
"Lincoln? What happened to you? You look like vanilla cotton candy." The Hispanic girl asked, her body fully forming in a kneeling position. "And what happened to me? I'm like a giant purple booger."
Lincoln didn't know what to say, so he looked around. The first thing he noticed was that they weren't in the convention center anymore. They were outside, except the sky was pink and the ground they were on was more like a desert or wasteland, with no signs of civilization in sight. There was no visible sun or clouds, but there were dozens of full moons providing plenty of light. Each moon was featureless too, just a shade of white, except for one that had a blue-green spot on it with black veins around it.
"I don't think we're in Michigan anymore," Lincoln told his friend.
"Wait, are you naked?" Ronnie Anne asked, realizing that he wasn't wearing his clothes. She immediately looked over herself, and while she didn't have any features, she had no clothes on either. Her reaction was to scream and melt into a puddle.
Lincoln jolted in a panic, and his body huddled into itself, making him look like a cloud with a face.
A weird sound was heard off in the distance.
"What was that?" Lincoln asked, looking around.
Ronnie Anne reformed her head but not the rest of her body. "It sort of sounded like a whale or dolphin. But how can one of those be here? Wherever here is."
Lincoln saw something fly their way, something bigger than a normal bird, but he couldn't see what it was.
"What was that thing?" Lincoln asked, seeing the flying creature pass over them.
"I don't know." Ronnie Anne replied, reforming the rest of her body. She tried to put her clothes back on and while it worked, it felt uncomfortable. Like they were sticking to her new slimy body.
Lincoln tried to reform his body and put on his clothes but it wasn't working.
"You look like a human cloud." Ronnie Anne said, getting a better look at him. At least he was as anatomically correct as a Ken doll, but that meant the same could be said about her right now.
"Hello?!" Lincoln shouted, hands around his mouth. "Is anyone out there?!"
There was of course no answer. This place was so desolate that Ronnie Anne wouldn't have been surprised if a tumbleweed rolled by just then.
"We should go." Lincoln said.
"Go where?" Ronnie Anne asked, spreading her arms out.
"Well we can't stay here."
"You're a cloud. Get a bird's eye view."
Lincoln smiled. "Good idea."
The human cloud jumped into the air and sort of hovered there, but only as high as he had jumped. He tried to jump again and got more altitude, but only a small amount. Fed up, he tried to 'swim' against the air and actually got better results. After a while it started to feel less like swimming and more like he was flying.
'Okay, as weird as this all is, I have to admit this part is kinda awesome.' He thought, unable to resist doing some spinning in the air.
"Showoff." Ronnie Anne muttered as she saw him do some loops in the sky. She looked over herself and decided to test something. Her hand changed into a hammer shape, making her smile, then she stretched her legs to make herself look like she was on stills.
"Alright, so I'm a slimy shapeshifter. This could come in handy."
Back in the sky Lincoln was high enough that he thought to stop and look around. He could see a mountain peak off in the distance and what looked like a river with some trees, so that looked like a good place for them to head to. He looked down and for a moment panicked, seeing just how high he really was. In that panic he huddled into himself, making himself look like a cotton ball.
"It's okay, gravity isn't pulling me down." Lincoln assured himself, feeling like his pulse would be racing if he still had a circulatory system. After a bit, the fear dissipated and the excitement returned. With that, he tried to fly like a superhero and it actually worked.
"I'm actually flying!" He cheered, even going so far as to get a little higher. "Wish my sisters were here to see this! Bet they'd be jealous as hell!"
Up ahead he saw another bird coming his way and he got the idea to race it. So he stopped and waited for it to come to him. But as the bird got closer, Lincoln started to notice a few things. For one, this bird did not look normal. There were vapors coming off it, like the bird was on fire. It came in close and Lincoln's eyes widened.
The bird wasn't on fire, but it was smoking. Or more specifically, it was smoke.
"What the-?" Lincoln asked before this bird came at him with an eagle-like shriek and vaporous talons extended, ready to claw at him. Acting on reflex, Lincoln rolled out of the way and the bird just barely missed before turning around and digging its claws into him.
"YOW!" Lincoln screamed. 'I can feel pain like this?'
Then the smoke eagle bit down on his collarbone region, making him scream some more. Lincoln punched the creature in the eyes and spun around to the point he turned himself into a tornado. His clothes got ripped off and fell to the ground.
"LINCOLN!" Ronnie Anne yelled from down below, seeing her friend getting attacked by what looked like a small balrog. She tried to stretch up higher but her legs lost stability and she fell over, her body aching. 'That hurt. My body is made of mucus, and I can still get hurt? What the heck?'
Now free but still hurt, Lincoln stopped spinning and flew back down to the ground. This was weird, he was actually having to make an effort to go down instead of relying on gravity. The smoke eagle dove after him, so Lincoln timed a loop over it and did a kick at the bird's back. It yelped and decided to fly off, so Lincoln decided to get back to the ground.
"What was that?" Ronnie Anne asked when he got back to her. Her concern grew when she saw him holding his side while wisps seemed to escape his body.
"Some weird smoke creature attacked me, but what was really up was it actually hurt me. Still stings." He said, moving his hands while more wisps evaporated before he put his hands back. "I think I'm actually bleeding, or at least the cloud version of bleeding."
"When I fell down, I got hurt too. How can we be hurt in these bodies?"
"I don't know, but we can. On the plus side I saw someplace better that way." He replied and pointed towards where he saw the river and trees. "We should head that way."
Ronnie Anne nodded and the two walked off. As they moved Lincoln started to feel better and his body 'bled' less. It seemed like with each breath he was healing. The terrain was rocky and uneven, making walking hard so he took to floating.
"Mind giving me a lift?" Ronnie Anne asked.
Lincoln nodded and morphed back into a cloud but still this low to the ground, so maybe he was fog now. Ronnie Anne tried to climb on him but she naturally couldn't get a foothold on a cloud. Lincoln tried to make himself denser, not sure how other than just 'willing' it to happen, and surprisingly this time it worked.
"How are you doing this?" Ronnie Anne asked as she sat down on top of the living cloud, feeling very cushioned.
"I don't know, I'm just sort of wanting it to happen. Same with flying. Maybe you can do the same."
Lincoln rose from the ground and went back on course, without going too high this time. Going over the landscape like this allowed the two to get a better look at it. The soil seemed to be a reddish color, like on Mars, with the rocks ranging from quartz pink to ruby red. Grass was sparse and colored orange, with no flowers or other plants seen yet. Up ahead they saw what looked like horses running in a herd, except they were made out of various crystals. As if someone had carved horses out of giant sapphires, emeralds, or diamonds.
"Are those things actually alive?" Ronnie Anne asked, seeing them move and act alive.
"We are definitely not in Michigan anymore." Lincoln remarked.
They passed a small stream made of pinkish liquid, like watery Pepto Bismal, with a few other animals drinking from it. There was a lizard on fire, or made out of fire, along with what looked like a giant tortoise made out of wood with plants growing out of its shell.
"It's like we're in some sort of strange element world." Ronnie Anne claimed.
"Maybe we are. Did we turn into elements when we came here?" Lincoln asked.
"But then what am I made out of? Is there a slime element?"
Lincoln saw what looked like a rabbit made out of electricity run by very fast, chased by what looked like a fox made of the same purple stuff his friend was made of. Curious, he followed the chase. The electric rabbit darted everywhere like it couldn't run in a straight line, rebounding off the red rocks which sparked upon contact. The fox meanwhile spat out globs of sludge at its prey, missing but when it hit the rocks there was steam and a corrosive reaction. Like the rocks were dissolving.
Ronnie Anne saw this and her eyes widened. "Can I do that? Is my slime... acidic or something?" She looked at her clothing, seeing how they were dissolving slowly and falling off her.
After a while the electric rabbit got too far ahead, prompting the slime fox to find new prey. Lincoln moved on and went back to the river he saw originally. Despite seeing the pink water from before, he was certain that the river he had seen from high up had been blue. Like normal water. Surely an elemental world would have normal...
Lincoln came to a sudden stop, making Ronnie Anne fall off him and splat on the ground.
"What gives Lincoln? Couldn't you have given me a heads up?" She complained while reforming, not bothering to gather what was left of her clothes except for her phone.
"Ronnie Anne, wherever we are, everything here is a living element, right?" He asked.
"From what we've seen, yeah."
"What if the river I saw is alive too?"
Ronnie Anne blinked. "Now that you mention it, that makes sense. But then what do we do about water or food here? And how do we get out of here?"
Lincoln took some time to think. "So far none of the rocks or the pink water we saw looked alive, so I don't think everything here is alive. The river could still be just water, and we know there's plants here, even if a few seem alive too. I think we're just going to have to forage until we find people."
"If there are people here." Ronnie Anne grumbled.
"We're here." Lincoln pointed out, allowing her to climb back on him. She did so and he resumed his hovering trek towards what he saw.
Time went by and soon Lincoln had to come to a stop. There was a bellowing roar along with sounds of fighting and of all things, recognizable words.
"Get it!"
"Hold steady men!"
"Aim for the neck!"
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne looked at each other, surprised but happy. There were people in this world, and from the sounds of it they knew how to protect themselves. Maybe they could at least help the two of them find food and shelter if not a way out of here. And if they were really lucky, maybe someone knew of a way back home.
Maneuvering to avoid being directly spotted, Lincoln went around some trees that looked like they were made out of purple wood. He and Ronnie Anne saw some people in old-fashioned clothing fighting what looked like a giant water snake. The river was in fact alive and fighting against these people, who were armed with spears and arrows fighting against it. Oddly, each spear and arrow was tipped with bright pink stone, like quartz, and each hit against the giant water snake was causing it to bleed water despite no visible wound.
"They look like ordinary people." Ronnie Anne noted, seeing that despite their strange clothing they were no different than the people back home. Except that two of them were blue like smurfs, and there was one that was yellow like a Simpsons character. Other than that, they were near some wagons and had some horses harnessed to them. Real horses, not made of rock or anything.
A few spears went into the water snake's throat, making it yell in agony before thrashing. One of the wagons got knocked over, making a few barrels break and some stone horses to get away. No one stopped attacking, they relentlessly persisted in killing this thing, if that was what they were doing. When the water snake fell to the ground people went in and lashed at it with red blades until the creatures stopped moving.
"It's dead! Quick, get the barrels!"
Everyone immediately went for the barrels and other things before getting back to the river snake, which looked like it was slowly melting. They carved watery chunks out of the water snake and put them in the barrels as quickly as they could, while some were using shovels to dig up the ground that was absorbing the runoff.
"Is that how they get water in this world?" Lincoln asked.
"What will they do if they see us?" Ronnie Anne asked, getting nervous.
"Wait here, I'll go find out." Lincoln said, returning to human shape and making her get off him.
"Don't do it Lincoln." Ronnie Anne objected, grabbing his fluffy arm.
"It's okay, why would they need to kill a cloud?" He asked, breaking free and going up to them while Ronnie Anne stayed behind a tree. He came up to some people putting barrels into the wagon, struggling since the water was weighing them down, then the people saw him and froze.
"Hi. Can you tell me where I am?" Lincoln asked.
The people there backed away gasping, dropping the barrel but fortunately it did not break and spill.
"Did that elemental just speak?" One of them asked.
"Kill it!" Another replied, taking up a spear.
"Whoa, calm down. I'm just a kid." Lincoln claimed, floating back and holding up his hands.
The other people in this group gathered their weapons and came right for him, a few arrows being shot too. Lincoln dodged them, silently thanking years of practice avoiding various projectiles in his own house.
"Stop! I'm just a lost kid!" Lincoln pleaded.
"How can an elemental talk?" Someone asked.
"Who cares? It's an untamed elemental! Kill it before it kills us!" Someone else responded.
Lincoln decided to stop trying and ran off, or more rather fly away. A few of them gave chase. Ronnie Anne saw this and stepped out, grabbing a dark pink rock in the ground and then throwing it at the people. Surprisingly, her hand detached and flew off with it, and the rock hit one of the people getting them covered in slime.
"AHH! It burns!" They shouted, trying to get the slime off themselves.
Ronnie Anne looked at the stump where her hand used to be, and then saw it grow back. 'Why didn't that hurt? I literally lost a body part, and I felt nothing.' A few arrows came her way and Lincoln grabbed ahold of her. 'No time to ask questions.'
The two fled, Lincoln getting back into cloud form and her riding him. She threw a few more slimeballs at their pursuers, making them stop and just curse at them.
"What the heck was that?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"I have no idea, it's like they thought I was a monster. They must have thought I was one of the creatures that live here."
"So we're not going to get anyone to help us? What are we going to do Lincoln?" Ronnie Anne asked, starting to sound afraid.
"It's okay, I'll think of something. I will get you back home Ronnie Anne, I swear." He declared.
Time went by yet the sky did not change. The moons did not move and the sky did not darken, it was as if day and night didn't exist here. But hours had certainly passed with the two trying to find somewhere to rest away from danger. But everywhere they went was wasteland.
"I'm so hungry." Ronnie Anne groaned, kneeling and holding her stomach, or rather where it would be if she still had one. "Lincoln, could you please take another look up high to see if there's anything around?"
Remembering the smoke eagle attack, Lincoln couldn't say he was too enthusiastic, but seeing his friend suffer made him nod. He flew up, more careful this time, and looked over the landscape. This time he saw some lights by some plateau, perhaps a mesa, but the top of the plateau caught his eye the most. It was lush and green, and what could have been a waterfall. At the base of the plateau were lights which made him think a city was there.
He went down with a grin. "I saw a place with what looked like a normal forest. There's got to be berries or something in there. I think there are some people there too, but I'm certain we can avoid them."
"You sure?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"Do we have a choice?" Lincoln asked.
Sighing, Ronnie Anne climbed back on Lincoln's back as they took to the sky. "I feel like that guy from Dragonball when we do this."
"Then you ought to try some slimy kamehamehas." Lincoln joked.
"Bet they'd be stronger than your cloud versions." She remarked teasingly.
The two got to the area, though Lincoln did take the time to at least try and see the source of light. It turned out to be a town, one that looked a lot like something you'd see in a western movie. Wooden buildings down two streets with fences around the perimeter and a residential area with each house having something like a garden. He saw some people outside doing work or socializing, and some normal farm animals in pens. Nothing seemed odd other than the fact that a place like that was in a place like this to begin with.
The plateau itself however looked like untouched wilderness. A canopy of trees covered everywhere except an open patch of grassland and a land. And unlike the plants they had seen in the wasteland, these looked like real plants from earth. It was like a piece of their world the size of Detroit had somehow found its way here. Up the side of the plateau there was a wooden walkway attached along with a pulley system, allowing people and supplies to go up and down, and there was indeed a normal waterfall that created a basin by the western village.
Not wanting to take chances with the townsfolk, Lincoln landed in the forest. A closer look didn't change things, it still looked like an ordinary place from earth. By some stroke of luck he had landed near some apple trees with ripe fruit.
"Oh, I remember my family going out for some apple-picking once." Lincoln said as he and Ronnie Anne settled down. He reached up, stretching his arm to do so, and picked an apple. "I think these might be good."
He handed it to Ronnie Anne who took a bite into it. She smiled, glad to finally have something to eat, but noticed he wasn't getting anything for himself. "What about you?"
"For some reason, I'm not hungry. I haven't felt hungry at all in this world. Maybe in this form I can't get hungry?"
"I doubt it. If I can get hungry I'm sure you can too." She sat, finishing off her apple then sitting against a tree. "Lincoln, are we stuck here for the rest of our lives?"
"If there's a way in, there's a way out. Besides, I know Lisa can do something about it sooner or later. So even if we just have to lay low and wait, we will be back home." Lincoln assured her.
The slime girl didn't say anything. A part of her suspected he was just as afraid as her but he was trying to be her rock. She appreciated it, even if she knew it was just words at this point. It wasn't like he could actually promise anything right now.
Lincoln sat beside her and the two looked up at the sky through the canopy. There was no sound, as in no birds chirping or even wind going through the leaves.
"Hey look, some clouds that aren't you." Ronnie Anne said, pointing to the sky and seeing some clouds pass over. "That one looks like a whale."
"Maybe it is a whale."
"Go up and take a look."
Lincoln shook his head. "Naw, I'm too tired. Flying is fun, but it's like running, at some point you've just got to stop."
"At least you can fly. Look at me." Ronnie Anne remarked, moving to show that the grass she had been sitting on was now burned and withered. The tree she was leaning against showed signs of burning too. "I think I'm made of acid or something. I'm literally a toxic person right now, just like a lot of people said I was."
"What? Since when has anyone called you toxic?" Lincoln asked.
Ronnie Anne looked away. "Lincoln, remember what I used to be like. I wasn't exactly a liked person back in Royal Woods. Think about it, other than you, who actually missed me after I moved away?"
Lincoln had to admit he had no answer. In fact, thinking it over he couldn't recall any old friends of hers back in Royal Woods. Clyde didn't count since he was only her friend through Lincoln, and he couldn't recall anyone asking him about her after she left.
"You're not a bad person Ronnie Anne. You might have been aggressive, but so is Lynn. Besides, you got Sid to like you, and me too. You're not toxic, if anything that word applies to people like Chandler or Dr Linneaus."
"You only say that because I stopped being mean to you. I still had a bit of an attitude with other people, not wanting to be seen as weak. I only really changed when I moved to Great Lake City, realizing I needed a fresh start if I didn't want to be alone all over again. If I hadn't opened up to you, I'm pretty sure you would have been happy to see me leave too."
Lincoln engulfed her in a hug, surprising her but she did not try to remove him.
"Ronnie Anne, you're one of my best friends. For a reason. When my sisters told me that you liked me, I was flattered, not disgusted. Would I be flattered if I thought you were a terrible person?"
Ronnie Anne shed a slimy tear and smiled, putting her hands over his. "Thanks Lincoln. And at least I can't poison you like this."
The two leaned back on the ground and got comfortable. Since it had been a long day, they slowly closed their eyes and started to drift off to sleep, until they heard something moving through the foliage. That made them more alery and get on their feet.
From behind some trees, they saw a kid come into view. It was a girl who looked like she was their age, one with bright yellow hair and blue skin. She wore an old fashioned green and white dress that looked like something out of Little House on the Prairie, with a red ribbon in her hair holding it back in a ponytail. She looked curious but also a little cautious.
"Are you... can you understand me?" She asked.
"Of course we can. Who are you?" Lincoln asked.
The blue girl stepped closer, looking amazed by them. "Amazing, you're... elementals, but people too? I've never seen elementals that talked before."
"What is this place? Why are all the animals here made out of rock and water and stuff like that?" Ronnie Anne asked.
The blue girl looked confused. "You don't know what an elemental is?"
"This is kind of our first day here and we don't have anything like this where we're from. In fact, we're not supposed to be 'elementals'. We're supposed to be normal kids like you." Lincoln claimed.
The blue girl blinked. "Wait, are you.. oh wow."
"Wow what?" Both elementals asked.
"Earlier we saw some kind of big bang happening on one of the universes. We thought it was dying, but it's still there, just hurt. Maybe you fell out of your universe into here, and you somehow changed when you got here."
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne just looked at her in confusion.
"Can you explain that again? This time in a way that makes more sense?" Ronnie Anne requested.
"Oh sorry, let me try this again." The blue girl said before clearing her throat and pointing up to the various moons in the sky. "You see those up there?"
"Kind of hard not to."
"Those are universes. Worlds made by this world. This place has many names, but it's like a universe that holds all the other universes. This world is made out of something the adults call ether, and ether can become an element of all sorts, usually an elemental like yourselves. When enough ether gets together, it combines and creates an entire universe with people and worlds inside it. Or so the teachers and priests say here."
"So we're in some sort of hub world of the multiverse?" Lincoln asked.
The blue girl looked confused and tilted her head. "What does that mean?"
"Um... if a book was a universe, then we're in the library. Is that what you're saying?"
The blue girl nodded. "Yes, that's a good way to put it. Follow me."
The blue girl walked off with them following to the edge of the plateau, then she pointed to the moon that had a blueish spot on it. "See that? That's the universe that had the big bang earlier. I think that is your universe. Something happened and you two fell out of it, landing here. And maybe that something is why you're elementals now."
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne looked at the moon, hoping that this girl was right. "Where's your universe?" Lincoln asked.
"I don't have one. The universe that my people came from died a long time ago. Pieces of it landed all over this world. This forest we're in was a piece of it that survived with us. That town has what's left of my world, and some friendly others who moved in too. It happened in my grandparent's time, this world is the only one I've ever known as home."
"So this is a universal graveyard?" Ronnie Anne asked.
The blue girl nodded. "Yep, ether gathers and creates new worlds, and when those worlds die the remains fall here. Sometimes people survive and make new homes here. But resources are scarce and elementals can be aggressive. The many tribes of this world always fight over them. If anyone sees you, they'll think you're just more monsters."
"You didn't." Lincoln pointed.
"I heard the two of you talking. I saw you were people. Somehow I doubt other people will give you the benefit of the doubt."
"Can we get back home?" Ronnie Anne asked.
The blue girl looked at the damaged moon. "I don't know. Maybe if you fly back to it and find the hole you fell out of, I think you can. But if that hole is there there then more people should have fallen through. And if your universe is damaged then sooner or later it's probably going to die anyway so why not find a new home here?"
"I think I know what damaged it, so maybe we can fix it from the inside." Lincoln said.
"That's right, Lisa's machine. Maybe she can fix this and return us to normal." Ronnie Anne added.
The blue girl shrugged. "It's worth a try, but what will you do if you can't get home?"
"I don't know, but we've got to try."
Lincoln turned back into a cloud and Ronnie Anne climbed on top of him.
"Thanks for your help." Ronnie Anne said to the blue girl before Lincoln took off into the sky.
"Good luck." The blue girl said as she saw them leave.
Lincoln flew towards the damaged moon while Ronnie Anne kept an eye out for any threats. They passed the cloud whales from behind who bellowed like thunder but made no attempt to harm them. A couple of cloud dolphins came by them and made cheerful gale sounds. Ronnie Anne smiled at this surreal experience.
Time went by with Lincoln getting higher, trying to fly up to the moons. He could feel the air getting thinner but on the plus side the moons were getting closer, particularly the one they were going for. When Lincoln got close, he felt a shift in gravity pulling him towards the moon instead of the elemental world below, so he had to shift position along with Ronnie Anne. Once reoriented, he descended to the moon's surface, specifically on the blue-green spot.
"How many kids can say they walked on a moon?" Ronnie Anne joked when they settled down on the surface.
"How many kids can say they've been to another dimension?" Lincoln joked back, looking around. "Weird, this place looks like it's made out of porcelain, not rock."
"Yeah, it's not a normal moon. Is this just how a universe looks from the outside?" Ronnie Anne asked.
The two went to the blue-green spot, seeing it was smooth and solid now like the rest just colored differently. But there were lots of cracks spiderwebbing around it with small pink goo filling up the gaps. Almost like a scab was forming.
Lincoln knocked on the blue-green porcelain, not sure what he was expecting, but he got no reaction. Ronnie Anne tried to pull out the pink goo but it resisted her efforts. The two walked around, trying to find anything that stood out.
"There's nothing here. I think whatever 'hole' we fell through has already gotten patched up." Lincoln said with a sigh.
"You mean we can't get back home? We're stuck here?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"No, if I know Lisa then sooner or later she's going to figure out that her machine sent us somewhere else and she's going to try using it again to open the door to find us. All we have to do is wait for her to do that, and then we'll have our chance to get through."
"What do we do until then?" Ronnie Anne asked.
Lincoln turned back into a cloud, motioning for her to climb aboard, which she did. "Keep an eye on this place, and try to survive in this new world. What other choice do we have?"
He flew off, both wondering how long they would have to wait.