When Victoria had regained conciousness in the woods, it was to the gentle coaxings of Robert. Like Kitt, she had the same symptoms of nausea and disorientation. Robert helped her through the rough going, rubbing her back as she purged herself of the coffee she had drank during their bridge game. When she regained her senses, she asked where Kitt was.

Her husband looked at her with worry clouded eyes, dropping his gaze to the ground to silently shake his head, shrugging his shoulders. Robert had to wrestle her back to the ground to keep her from going into a frenzied flight searching for their only child.

"Vicki, Honey! Calm down! We'll find him! I don't know where we are, but we can't just go dashing madly around to look for him. We don't know what dangers there are in these woods!" Robert said loudly to make himself heard over her cries for Kitt.

Terry and Paul sat on the ground nearby, watching with pale faces. They, too, had suffered the sickness and were still recovering.

Paul was Robert's younger brother by five years and had recently married Terry only a year ago. They had moved to Paxton after the honeymoon. Robert and Paul had gone into business together in the lucrative field of contractual home building. Paxton was a small town, but growing in leaps and bounds, as was their business. They had signed a large contract, with a national company that built family communities across the US, ten months ago. They began to reap the rewards after expanding their staff to fifty men two weeks after the signing. They were building two houses a week, bringing in a phenominal amount of income, for all involved, with each house they finished.

Vicki had calmed down some while sitting on the ground in Robert's arms, sobbing quietly. All her motherly instincts were wired up, going against rational thinking. She strove to remain calm, resorting to the breathing exercise she had learned in her Stress Management course she had taken in night classes at Paxton High School earlier in the year. It seemed to be working, her sobs and treembling subsiding substantially.

Paul and Terry had recovered as well, getting to their feet to join the two older adults.

"What are we going to do now?" had just left the lips of Terry, when, as if in answer, three figures entered through a small break in the trees.

The three were dressed strangely. Certainly not the usual attire of central Texans. They wore dark brown, heavy cloth robes that could be more associated with the Hari Krishnians that were common place at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, sans tamborines, leaflets and the little ponytails erupting from the top of shaven heads. Instead, their hair was slick with some kind of fragrant oil, hanging straight down around thin gaunt faces to the shoulders. Their noses were as thin as their faces, resting above thin lips. Large honey brown eyes set in faces the color of dough left out too long, gave a haunted look to them. It was strange that they all looked rather similar, to the point that you couldn't make out their gender.

In silence, the three stood before them staring. Then, simultaneously, they bowed to the four bewildered people, bending at the waist, hands sliding down in front of them to the knees, chins dropping to the chest. They remained that way for a moment before straightening up. It was the one in the middle who finally spoke.

"Welcome to Tarnagou. I am Dekani, Lord Chancellor." he spoke slowly, carefully annunciating words he is obviously unfamiliar with, his accent thick and gutteral. He raised his hands up to touch the sleeves of those on either side of him. "These are my advisors, Shendra and Pas-ta'al. We have been sent to bring the..." Here, he struggled for a moment, like he was meaning to say one thing then opting to rephrase it "...the young one, Kitt, I think you call him, back to meet Kast-ta'al, our Holy One." His large eyes darted around the area, looking for the boy. "Where is he?"

Robert got to his feet, keeping his eyes on them. Dekani and his entourage seemed harmless enough, but looks could be deceptive. He cleared his throat before speaking. "I'm Robert Humphrey. This is my wife, Victoria; my brother, Paul and his wife, Theresa," he said, indicating each with an outstretched hand. "As for Kitt, we don't know where he is. He wasn't with us when we regained conciousness."

Shendra and Pas-ta'al casted furtive glances to the Chancellor who shifted slightly.

"This is not good. We must find him, quickly," Dekani announced.

"Of course we must," Robert spoke with a hint of agitation, helping Vicki to her feet. She swayed a moment, but recovered, giving her husband an encouraging smile and squeezing his hand to let him know she was okay.

He released her hand, confident that she was well enough to stand on her own. Turning to face the opposite direction from which Dekani had made his appearence. They wouldn't need to begin their search there, since Dekani would have surely found the boy. There seemed to be a foot path of a sorts, leading him to believe that this was a regular route to somewhere. This brought a question to his mind, he turned to face the Lord Chancellor.

"Dekani, where in Texas is Tarnagou located?" Once the words had left his lips, he was sure the answer was going to be one he didn't wish to hear.

"Tek-zass?" the strange man struggled with the word, "I do not know of this place you call Tek-zass. On which side of the Great Wild is it on?"

Robert felt his heart sink into the pit of his stomach, Vicki stared at Dekani, eyes wide and frightened, shaking her head to what could only be a lie. She grasped her husband's arm with one hand, her nails biting into it.

"Robert? What does he mean? We are still in Texas, aren't we? This is some kind of joke, right?"Vicki's voice was strained.

Staring hard at Dekani, Robert patted Vicki's hand, that was chilly with fear and still painfully gripping his arm, "Texas, T-E-X-A-S! It's in the United States Of America! In North America on the planet Earth!" His voice growing louder with his increasing exasperation and thoughts of his missing son. He saw he wasn't getting through to any of the three people standing mutely before him.

"Jesus Christ!"

He started to turn away with Vicki still clutching his arm. She staggered a bit with the unexpected move, her nails tearing three lines in her husband's arm. He yelped with pain, looking at his arm as three bright lines of red appeared on his flesh.

"C'mon," he said to her and his family, as he began to walk again, "Let's find Kitt and get the hell back home."

Robert strode to the edge of the woods, not looking back to see if anyone was following him. He was intent only in finding Kitt. He had a raging headache that over-rode the sting of the scratches on his arms. Pushing back foliage that hung across the narrow path, he crashed noisily into the woods. Vicki, Terry and Paul ran to keep up with him, none of them saying a word. The three Tarnagies looked at each other, quietly conferred for a moment then began to follow the foursome. They seemed as intent as them to find Kitt, but for their own reasons.

The group trudge onward, following the path that was overgrown in spots or blocked by fallen trees. These encounters had them seeking another way around. Most times finding the way difficult through briars and thick tangles of wild ivy, drawing them away from the path for several yards, then having to refind the meandering trail.

At least, it was difficult for the four Texans. Each time they had to make a detour and refind the trail, the three strangers would already be there, waiting for them. This was beginning to unnerve them, for they never saw nor heard them pass.

"How do they do that?" whispered Paul to Robert as he bent down to pull a few rather nasty looking burrs stuck to the top of his socks. They were all having to deal with the burrs and scratches they were getting on their bare legs. They were all dressed in summer attire. The women in shift dresses and deck shoes; the men in polo shirts, walking shorts, white athletic socks and deck shoes. But, the Tarnagies seemed to be going unscathed. They didn't even look in the least winded with the rapid going they themselves were making.

Finally, the trees began to thin out as they reached the edge of the woods.

"MOM! DAD!"

Kitt's voice broke through the constant annoying humming of unseen insects.

"Kitt?" Vicki croaked through a parched throat, "KITT!"

She pushed pass the others, running out of the woods, across an open patch of ground before splashing into a small stream.

There was Kitt on the opposite bank, looking as scared as any ten year old should after finding himself alone in a strange place.