Trine threw her book down with a growl and narrowed her eyes as she kicked it across the floor. Brynna looked at her sympathetically before turning back to the rabbit stew she was preparing. Both girls had had rather a rough day at work – a storm had blown in and had recovered what they had both been working several days to uncover, and they had therefore been pushed back in their research. With their sponsor coming to the site in less than a week, they were both beginning to feel the pressure. Trine, especially, was largely out of luck, as her reading too was getting her absolutely nowhere. She seemed doomed to a life of laboratory work and high school science instruction, since she could not afford to go on doing field research if her grant fell through.

She stood up suddenly, her notes fluttering to the floor around her, and stalked over to the door. “I’m going out,” she informed her housemate, and was out through the door before Brynna could open her mouth to utter a protest.

She wrapped her arms around herself and trudged through the miserable drifts of snow. She did adore the snow, but right now, she was absolutely detesting the sight of it. “You cost me six days!” she howled, shaking a fist at the sky, and was only rewarded with a splatter of wet snow to her face.

She spluttered and wiped her nose, thoroughly irritated, and kicked her feet sullenly through the snow as she moved further and further away from her cabin. She did not think about the fact that she was wandering alone, at night, in the middle of a snowstorm. All she could think about was walking.

Ten minutes later, cold and hungry, she had definitely changed her mind. She could not find the bearing to return to camp, and she was beginning to panic. She knew the hazard of wandering off alone, and her temper had gotten the better of her.

“Hello?” she cried, her voice whipped away by the wind. “Anyone? Can you hear me? Help!”

Not a sound came as reply, and she collapsed to her knees in the snow. Her fingers were beginning to go numb, and the tears of fright froze on her face. She did not want to risk moving for fear that she might move further away from the camp, but at the same time, she saw no merit in huddling in the snow until she froze to death. She decided to seek out some sort of shelter, hoping she could last out the night.

Cursing herself over and over again for her stupidity, she stumbled blindly in the darkness, snow whipping at her face and winds trying to tear the cloak from her shoulder. She tripped on a rather large clump of ice and went flying about three feet, landing on her face in the powdery drifts, and pushed herself up onto her elbows, spitting melting snow from her mouth.

“I’m going to die out here,” she realized, and the realization tore through her like a sharp knife. She shuddered with fear and distress, and, had she been a non-scientist, she probably would have burst into tears. As it was, she began thinking of anything she could possibly do to keep herself alive for a little bit longer, just long enough to find shelter. She scanned her surroundings sharply and fruitlessly, since she could see less than five feet in front of her, and clambered to her feet again.

“Think, Trine, think,” she commanded herself, sticking her hands in her armpits and looking around. Her footprints had managed to mostly cover themselves back up, and the only sign that anyone had been there was the dent where her body had fallen and the glint of green in the snow.

Hold on. Glint of green? She didn’t wear jewelry, and certainly not anything green. She dropped to her knees quickly and plucked the object out of the snow, wiping it clean on her cloak and holding it close to her face, squinting at it.

“Traveler from a distant land,” she read haltingly, trying desperately to make out the tiny, carved letters. “To travel by four is impossible, by five improbable, but six is truly magic – it is as simple as uttering the word ‘Go’.”

As she read the odd saying out loud, she felt a jerk at her navel, as if someone had hooked a cane through it, and the unmistakable rushing sensation of traveling at incredible speeds. She squinched her eyes shut and wondered if this was a side effect of hypothermia, or perhaps what dying felt like.

The rushing feeling seemed to go on for several moments, during which drawing breath was a near impossible feat, so when the sensation stopped and she was thrown violently to her knees, she found herself gasping and coughing, trying to regain some semblance of normal breathing.

When the roaring sound in her ears stopped, she opened her eyes, and immediately squinted as she found herself in a well-lighted, vibrantly green forest clearing. The sound of a babbling brook made itself known behind her and to her right, and bird song rang through the air so sweetly, she became convinced she was hallucinating. It reminded her of home, in the Rocky Mountains, but amplified and perfected to the nth degree.

She blinked several times, her eyelids feeling like heavy lead, and rolled her eyes around to discern her location. “Wh-where am I?” she forced out, her voice cracked and painful to hear.

“Milady, you have found yourself a very fortunate visitor in the Realm of Lady Juliette,” replied a voice, gentle and sweet, with a strange accent she could not make out. “We bid humble welcome to the Keeper of the Crystal.”