Zann felt dizzy as he and his friends tumbled through the vortex. Lights flashed and strange worlds passed by. Slowly he reached into his pocket and pulled out the guidelink.
"Give me that!" Perda called over the whooshing sound of the vortex. "I think I can make it work."
"I hope you're right!" Zann placed the device in her hand. He wished he'd paid more attention when his parents were explaining the device's abilities.
Perda fiddled with the guidelink.
"What are you doing?" Gliss asked her.
"I'm supposed to rub it to create friction," Perda said. "Then I focus on what type of magic I want it to find. It should pull us toward any world nearby that matches my thoughts." She frowned. "But so far nothing is happening!"
"You have to figure it out!" Gliss sounded frantic. "Otherwise we could end up flying through the vortex forever!"
Suddenly Perda swerved toward one of the wormholes, dragging her friends with her. Zann grabbed the wormhole’s edge. Instantly the wormhole pulled them in and spat them out on the other side.
Zann held his breath, expecting to splash into the stormy waters of Skellia. Instead he landed on wet ground. "Oof!" he blurted out.
Gliss sat up and rubbed her head. "Ouch," she said. Then she looked around. "Hey, this isn't Skellia."
"Not unless the oceans disappeared since we were here," Darb said.
The world they'd landed in looked similar to Magica. They were in a forest clearing, with tall trees shading the light of a bright orange sun. Birds swooped overhead, and an insect buzzed in the grass nearby.
"Oh well." Perda sighed. "I guess I'm still figuring out how the guidelink works."
"At least this world looks nice and peaceful." Gliss peered around. Then she wrinkled her nose and looked down. "It's kind of soggy right here though. Let's find a drier spot to rest and regain our energy."
Zann nodded. It took a lot of energy just to stay conscious in the vortex. They usually had to rest before they could travel again.
"Wait! Don't go anywhere yet," Darb said. "We need to pay attention to landmarks so we can return to the wormhole when we're ready."
"Oops. Good point," Zann said. As usual, the wormhole had spun shut as soon as they'd moved away from it. Now it was only visible as a tiny ripple in the air. If Zann hadn't known it was there, he wouldn't even have noticed it.
"I see a crooked tree over there, and some blue flowers," Gliss said.
"Good," Perda said. "We'll definitely be able to spot that tree again. Now let's go uphill. It should be dry there." She led the way up a gentle slope.
Soon they reached a sunny clearing. Zann flopped onto the dry ground and looked at Perda. "So why didn't the guidelink work?" he asked.
She shrugged and sat down beside him. "I think I know what I did wrong," she said. "I was focusing on the gulpers from Skellia, since they probably have the most magic on that world. But when Gliss said the thing about flying through the vortex, I thought about birds."
Darb watched a bright purple bird land nearby and peck at some yellow flowers. "There definitely are a lot of birds here," he said. "Maybe they're the source of this world's magic."
"They could be," Zann agreed. Then he frowned. "Uh-oh. Do you think our magic will work here?"
"I hope so, or we won't be able to open the wormhole!" Gliss' eyes widened. "We'd better test it. I'll conjure us something to drink."
She snapped her fingers. Blink!
Zann felt a sudden surge of magic energy. At the same time, the entire landscape around them changed! The sunny meadow had disappeared. They were now sitting in the shade of several large trees. A small flock of multicolored birds perched on a squat shrub with shiny blue leaves.
Zann gasped and jumped to his feet. "What happened? Did we accidentally zap somewhere else?"
"I don't think so." Darb looked around. "We're still on a hill. And the position of the sun hasn't changed. I think we're in the same exact spot."
"But everything around us looks different!" Perda said. "The trees, the birds . . ."
"That must be how magic works in this world," Darb said. "Gliss' magic friction changed the landscape around us."
"Yeah." Zann gulped. "I wonder if it made that crooked tree move around too. We might not be able to find the wormhole without it."
"Oh no," Gliss said. "What about the wormhole itself? What if it moved? What if it's gone?"
Perda held up the guidelink. "This is supposed to be able to locate strong sources of magic, right? Maybe it can lead us back to the wormhole."
"Do you know how to make it do that?" Darb asked.
"No." Perda bit her lip. "But I'll figure it out."
She rubbed the guidelink. Blink!
The landscape changed again. Now the kids found themselves standing among bushes with spiky leaves. Nearby several large, six-legged creatures with shaggy fur sniffed around in the grass.
"Hmm," Perda said. She rubbed the guidelink again. Blink!
Now a deep, tangled forest surrounded the kids.
Blink!
Again the scenery changed. Now the open meadow was back. But instead of birds, there was a swarm of large insects buzzing around a tree with purple bark.
"Stop!" Gliss grabbed the guidelink out of Perda's hand. "Every time you create friction, the landscape changes!"
"Sorry." Perda looked nervous.
Zann knew how she felt. It seemed like they couldn't use magic in this world at all—not without getting lost. So how were they going to find their way back to the wormhole?