The Innocent

Rifts

"How do you think we got so far?" Jon looked over at Melanie as he asked, but she didn't even glance at him.

"I don't know." Her eyes were still roaming the ground.

"This is ridiculous, we have more chance of finding a needle in a hay stack than we do of finding our camp. You even put up a deterrent."

"The spell was only to ward off people who meant us harm, beside we should be able to sense our own bodies."

"And you came to that conclusion how?"

"I don't know, all I know is that normally I can follow a thread back to my own body, but since I touched the nothing a second time I haven't been able to find that thread."

"That's another thing, why did you run off? I mean I knew you didn't like it but you could have waited with me."

"I'm sorry, but I did come back." Melanie stopped suddenly, "How could I have been so stupid?"

"I'm not going to argue with that."

"Shut up. I just remembered something."

"Go on." This time Jon was prepared to hear Melanie out.

"When I got back to my body, just as I got back. Your face went white. I was worried, I tried to call you back but you didn't seem to hear me. Your hands were freezing, I even tried throwing some cold water over you, but you wouldn't react. It scared me more than anything."

"You mean my real body?"

"Of course. When I realized I wasn't going to be able to wake you up without going to you, I went back to where I had left you. Even your spirit felt cold. I was scared you didn't seem to be there like you were empty. I was really scared; I threw myself at the nothing. I don't like being scared."

"You do realise that I went looking for you after you disappeared. I went back to camp. But couldn't find it then when I turned around going back to where the nothing had been, I saw a clearing. There were all these creatures there, they all looked dead. I picked up a bird and slowly it woke up it was really weird."

"That's not all, after the nothing disappeared..."

Jon cut her off, "Mel, you weren't there when the nothing disappeared, you had already left."

"But... that's not possible. I know what I saw, you were there and so was the nothing when I turned around neither of you were there."

Jon slapped his forehead, "I can't believe I didn't think of this before."

"Think of what?"

Jon looked at Melanie, "It's a rift."

"Elaborate. Because I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Sorry." A sheepish grin spreading across his face, "I just thought you would know."

Melanie glared at him.

"Okay, okay." He put his hands up in submission, "A rift is basically a door to somewhere else. Most of the time it's used as a portal, although on occasion it's used as a trap."

"I guess that makes sense, anyone could wander through and get stuck."

"Well not exactly, its more specific than that. The portals can be used in that sort of way, but the traps are normally more specific."

"You've lost me again."

"It doesn't really matter. It just means we could be anywhere."

"Great, not only are we lost, we can't even tell if we're on the right continent."

"It's not like we had much choice."

Melanie stopped turning in midair and held up a hand, signalling for quiet, "I think I know where we are."

"You do? Great, I'm really getting tired of this out of body experience." Another glare and Jon changed what he was saying, "So how can you tell?"

"I can tell because while you have been imitating a text book I have been looking for our camp."

"Don't need to get tough, besides I'm quite proud of my text book imitation."

Melanie gave a patronizing shake of her head and took off towards the north. Jon quickly caught up and overtook her; he was shooting on ahead looking for any signs of the camp when he realised that Melanie was no longer following him. He paused hovering surveying the tops of the trees,looking for any sign that Melanie had been past. There was nothing, Melanie had just disappeared.