1 HE IS LOST

It happened so quickly, so unexpectedly, that Little Jon's cry was almost instantly cut as the blackness closed over him. No one knew the hole was there. It hadn't been there the day before, and in the Twilight no one had noticed it.

At the moment it happened, the first shooting stars were crossing the sky--- they were beginning to stream across like strings of jewels flung from another planet--- and everyone was watching them. The smaller children were exclaiming in delight, while the older ones stood silent and enthralled.

Little Jon, whose eyes were sharper than most, should have seen the hole, but all his attention was on the stars. Small for his age, he had moved backwards, there was suddenly nothing under his feet.

It was astonishing at that moment to find himself falling swiftly into the hill at a spot where he had walked safely all his life. But in the brief seconds before the blackness swallowed him, he realised what must have happened: there had been a cave-in over the old door--- the door that led to another place, the one that had been closed so long.

He cried out and tried to break his fall in the way he had been taught, but the effort came an instant too late.

His head struck something, and darkness engulfed him.

Long later,when Little Jon was able to sit up, he had no idea where he was or what had happened.

Memory had fled, and he ached all over. He would have been shivering with cold, but his thick jacket and trousers and heavy, woven boots kept him warm.

He seemed to be in a narrow cleft of broken rock. There were mossy stones around him, and just ahead he could make out a bed of ferns where water trickled from a spring.

He was still too dazed to be frightened, but now he realised he was thirsty and terribly so. He crawled painfully forward and lay with his face in the water while he drank.

The coldness of the water startled him at first, but it was wonderfully sweet and satisfying. He bathed his face and hands in it, then sat up at last and looked around again.

Where was he? How did he get here? He pondered these questions, but no answers came.

He felt as if he had fallen. Only--- where could he have fallen from? He tried to remember up to the point that his head ached alot. The Rocky walls met overhead, sloping outward into a tangle of leafy branches.

There was another question his mind carefully tiptoed around, because it was so upsetting than the others. Whenever he approached it, it caused a full aching in his forehead. Finally, however he gave his head a small shake and faced it squarely.

"Who am I?"

He didn't know. He simply didn't know, and it made everything terribly wrong.

All at once trembling, he got to his feet and fled limping towards a shaft of sunlight ahead. Thick shrubs barred his way. He fought blindly through them, tripped, and fell sprawling.

Fortunately, he missed the boulders on either side and landed in a soft bed of old leaves under a tree. He scrambled up in panic, started to run again, then stopped himself just in time.

This place wasn't the sort of country where you could run. There were steep ledges here, and below them the ground sloped sharply downward for a great distance.

All of it was covered with a wild tangle of forest. Little Jon rubbed his eyes and looked around him with growing wonder and fright.

Nothing here was familiar. He was sure of that. He had never seen trees quite like the ones around him. Many of the smaller trees were in bloom, covered with showers of white blossoms-- these were almost familiar, as were the ferns and the lichens on the rocks. But there was a difference, but what the difference was, he was unable to tell.

Carefully he worked down to an open area below the ledge and stood listening. The sounds were familiar, and hearing them made him feel a bit better. Birdsong, the gurgling of hidden Springs, the faint clatter and fuss of a rushing stream somewhere. And there were the hesitant steps of wild creatures that came pleasantly to his sharp ears.

Without quite realising his Ability, which was as natural as breathing, his mind reached towards them and found nothing strange in them--- except that they were afraid. Afraid of him!!

"Don't be afraid," he told them, so softly that his lips barely moved. "I'd never hurt you."

After a minute, two of the creatures-- they were a doe and her fawn-- moved hesitant down the slope and Stood looking at him curiously. Little Jon held out his hands, and presently the doe came close and nuzzled his cheek with her cold nose.