The Dimension Wanderer *HIATUS*

Chapter Eight ~shattered glass~

Kellan reached for his shoes by the door, tugging them on. "Where did my other sock go?" he muttered under his breath.

"So, um. How do I get home, exactly?" Hazen spoke again.

"If I'm right, then I can get you home in less than five minutes." Aelia looked to Kellan, still brooding and cold. She didn't want to talk him. She wasn't used to his anger. It was the worst kind. He was her best friend; he wasn't supposed to be angry with her. Yet he was, and Aelia wasn't sure how to react. "Kellan," she said cautiously. "You remember when I went back in time?"

Kellan nodded. His foot tapped against the ground. Somehow, Aelia couldn't tell him to stop. The neighbors could be bothered today.

"Well, time is the fourth dimension, right? And I traveled through it. So last night, I looked at your notes. I saw the fifth dimension was another world. Because if you change time, you essentially create another world. There's one without your changes, and one with your changes. And take the sixth dimension- that's a whole other plane of these worlds. Infinite possibilities. And, maybe, the homes of these creatures." Aelia watched her friends nervously. She was just as unsure of her plan as they would be, and asking them to follow her blindly might be too much. Yet they had already followed her this far; it wasn't like they had much of a choice. She wasn't sure if she wished they did have a choice or not. If they had a choice, they could either walk out and leave her to figure things out on her own, or they could follow her to certain death. Willingly. And that made everything so much better, right?

"So, I have a question, if you may," Sierra said, her voice halting awkwardly at intervals. "Well, I have quite a few, but the most pressing is- how exactly do you do this dimension travel thing?"

Not exactly sure. Aelia cleared her throat. "I, uh, I close my eyes. I think of where I'm aiming for, and try to picture it in my head, and then, I'm there." Words spilled clumsily out of her mouth. She couldn't give a scientific explanation, and she had no solid proof. There had been no time to write some eloquent speech describing her jaunt through time or how it was possible. Sierra was tugging at an earring, her face suggesting she didn't believe Aelia.

Kellan cut in. "Okay, so I've heard your account before, but if you've never seen the world you're trying to travel to, then how are you going to get there? You can't imagine it then."

"No, no, I can't. You're right. But," but Aelia might have an answer for this problem. "Hazen has this channeling thing. He, uh, he can project thoughts and emotions into other's minds, or at least my mind. I don't know how, but he can. When the creatures were squawking, squealing, roaring, or whatever, I heard words. Hazen joined them- just for a few seconds. For a short moment, I could hear all the creatures- I could feel their words and emotion and longing to be home. It was as if I had barely penetrated their minds yet I was overwhelmed already. But if Hazen were to channel the thoughts of an individual creature into my head, then maybe I could follow their mind and bring them home."

Hazen nodded. "I might be able to do that. It's easy; I used to do it all the time. I just use mindwebs. You seem to have one- yours is a bit confusing, but I think I can send you thoughts.  I'm not sure about the others, though."

"That's okay. Only Aelia really needs to have the images in her head," Kellan said. He sighed. "So, can you take people along with you, Aelia?"

Aelia felt a surge of anxious excitement rise within herself. He was accepting her plan. "I hope so." That sounded incredibly unconvincing. "Well, the paper said we all vanish, so I'm assuming. It should work."