Zann and Perda scurried out of the tree trunk.
The forest was dark and spooky, and Zann didn't want to go any deeper into it.
Besides, he didn't want to get too far from the wormhole.
"Look, a cave!" Perda pointed. "Let's hide in there."
At the cave's entrance, Zann used the small amount of energy he had left to do a quick Life Force Locator spell.
The cave was empty, so he and Perda huddled inside.
As the two monsters continued to fight outside, Zann and Perda caught their breath and talked about what had happened.
"Did you see whether Darb, Gliss, and Zing stayed together?" Zann asked.
"I couldn't tell." Perda looked worried. "If Darb gets separated from Gliss . . ."
"I know. Without magic, he'd be helpless in the vortex."
Zann's mind flashed again to Venna. What had become of her? And what about Morb?
Without his stolen magic, he was a Void, just like Darb.
"We need to figure out how to find them," Perda said. "Fast!"
"How?" Zann glanced out of the cave.
"Even if we can make it past those two monsters and back to the wormhole, we can't even navigate our way through the vortex.
Let alone find our friends." He looked at Perda.
"I can't believe I dragged you all into this," he mumbled.
Perda shrugged. "You didn't drag me—I wanted to come."
Zann gave a small chuckle. "Well, we've both said we want to be explorers. Now here we are—exploring."
Perda peered out from the cave and then smiled. "Look! They're running off!"
Zann looked out. The battling monsters had stopped fighting and were now racing away in opposite directions.
"That's weird," he said. "I wonder why they're leaving."
"Who cares?" said Perda. "This could be our chance to get back to the wormhole."
She crawled out of the cave. "Come on!"
They raced out of the forest and across the dark plain, dodging random bursts of energy.
Zann could see the wormhole winking at them just ahead.
Being in the vortex was pretty scary.
But they'd just discovered that certain worlds were even scarier.
"Hurry!" he called to Perda. "We have to—argh!"
Zann suddenly felt a stinging sensation, as if he were being stuck with burning needles all over his body.
He fell to the ground, twitching and groaning.
"What's happening?" Perda cried in a shaky voice.
Out of the corner of his eye, Zann saw her fall, twitching, beside him.
Then a new creature stepped into view.
It was much smaller than the dragon or the deca-stinger—in fact, it wasn't much bigger than Zing.
It didn't look very scary either. It resembled a hairy walking mop.
Even so, Zann shivered when he saw it. "Oh no," he said. "It's a scatter beast!"
"That's a scatter beast?" Perda said. "The thing that knocked your parents off course?"
Zann couldn't answer. As the scatter beast crept closer, the stinging sensations grew worse.
Besides, Zann didn't know much more about scatter beasts than Perda did.
All he knew was that they threw off chaotic energy that confused the magic of others.
He struggled to regain control of his body, but it was no use.
The scatter beast was still approaching. A skinny tentacle appeared from amid the dirty, grayish hair and stretched toward the kids.
Zann could only stare at it, mesmerized by the spiral-shaped claw at the end.
"We have to get away!" Perda cried. She rubbed her hands together. "Blast!"
A small sizzle of energy spit out of her hand.
It made it halfway to the scatter beast before suddenly doubling back toward the kids.
At the same time, it swelled into a fireball.
"Look out!" Zann yelled, throwing himself aside.
Perda rolled away just in time too.
The fireball blasted a large hole in the rocky ground between them.
Zann tried to turn to make sure Perda was okay.
But he couldn't move anymore. He realized he'd thrown himself even closer to the scatter beast.
All Zann could do now was stare helplessly as the creature moved toward him, its claw aimed at his forehead.
Zann knew he should be scared. After all, he was about to die.
But instead the only thing he felt was regret.
He regretted that he would never find his parents, that Boz would never know what had happened to him,
and that he'd never have the chance to make up with Gliss—or even find out if she and the others had survived . . .
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something strange.
A sparkling rain of colorful glitter was falling gently from the sky, seemingly out of nowhere.
At first Zann assumed it was an illusion, that the scatter beast's energy was affecting his vision.
Then the first bits of glitter touched the scatter beast.
They sizzled and burned some of its fur, causing the beast to jump back and howl with pain.
Its wild energy went even wilder, sparking fires here and there and making the ground shudder.
"Huh?" Zann mumbled through numb lips.
Then he felt someone grab him by the arm and drag him across the hard, rocky ground.
A moment later he felt the increasingly familiar sensation of passing through a wormhole.
The vortex felt almost welcoming after Fardark.
When he felt Perda bump against him, Zann was relieved.
They'd both made it out. But who had rescued them?
"That was close," an irritated voice snapped.
"I thought I warned you about the wormholes, boy."
Zann blinked, his vision swimming back into focus.
He gasped as he finally got a good look at the person who had grabbed him.
It was Wyssa!