Chapter 5

"It's morning." Willow said. A storm had passed over just before; it was violent for perhaps half an hour before disappearing, leaving behind sunlight. She walked out of the cave and stared up at the sky. "Where is the sun?" She looked around, but didn't seem to come up with a good answer to that question. Then she looked down. "It's like it's always noontime, or something. Weird."

"You're such a geek, Will," Oliver said. "Does it even matter?"

"Of course it matters, Ollie," their mother chimed in. "We're going to need to learn a lot about how this place works, since I have no idea how long it might take for us to get home." Their mother sighed. "Or even if there's a way to get home."

"We're out of water, Mom," Willow said. "I think we should go get some." She sighed. "If I'd known rain was coming I could have set up some sort of rain catcher."

"I'm sure there's a lake, or a pond, or a river somewhere." Their mother smiled. "C'mon, let's go see what we can find. Grab the canteens, and the thermoses, and anything else you can find that can carry water."

"What about Scarface? I don't want to be eaten alive today." Besides the canteens, Oliver grabbed his bow and some arrows.

"Like those will help against a dinosaur."

"That's looking on the bright side, dork."

"I'm being realistic, dummy."

"Kids, play nice."

"Besides, we might find something smaller we could use as food. It's not like we have a lot to eat."

With little to-do, they found a forest, a jungle almost, and within that, they found a river roaring in its rapids, and began collecting water. "We should boil this," Willow said. "It kinda smells swampy."

"Good thinking, Will."

"Shh, guys," Oliver said, spotting a horse from across the river. "Look at that."

"Well," Willow said, whispering. "We're clearly not back in time."

Oliver looked at her. "What makes you think that?"

"Horses and dinosaurs didn't co-exist."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dork. Neither did humans and dinosaurs, and we're here."

"Okay, you have a point. Maybe you're smarter than your hair color. They probably got here the way we did. But still," Willow pointed at the sky. "What about the sun and the stars and all that, dummy?"

"Okay, genius," Oliver said, "then where are we?"

"I don't know!" She startled the horse, which ran away. "I just know where we're not - Earth!"

Their mother looked over at them. "Then where are we?"

"Wherever we are, we're probably not the first visitors to this place. There's the horses, and the fire pit..."

"Do you think something like this might have happened to Dad?" Oliver mused. "I mean, they never found a body."

That got his mother's attention. "Maybe. And your father was a park ranger; he knew how to survive in the wild! Maybe he's still around here?" She started to look excited. Then she looked around, and whispered to herself. "Nicholas, are you out there?"