For a long time he lay on his back just looking up at the tree tops, not even thinking about just why he was lying there, looking up at the treetops. It was like those weekend mornings when no one was around to roust him out of bed, after he'd stayed up too late reading. He would just lay in bed, not really asleep but not really awake either.

Then he remembered where he was and why, and he jerked upright. Jessica was lying on her back about ten feet away from him, one arm thrown over her face. Worried, Justin tiptoed over to her and tentatively poked at her shoulder. He almost fell backwards at the reaction.

"Soccer practice," she yelled, sitting bolt upright. "Mom! I'm late for soccer practice!"

She looked frantically around, like she was surprised at where she found herself. Then she calmed down a bit and stood up.

"What happened?" she asked, confused.

Justin walked over to the lip of the bowl and looked around. Tethion was nowhere to be found.

"I guess Tethion figured out the spell. He's not here. That must have been some spell! It was like a stick of dynamite going off."

"Like you know what a stick of dynamite going off is like."

"Well, I'd guess it must be something like what knocked us over."

"I told you it was dangerous," she said, a bit smugly. "Have you noticed it's starting to get dark?"

"You're right," Justin said, looking up at the trees. There was no trace of sunshine, even on the tops of the tallest trees. "We must have been really stunned. We'd better get started back."

They picked up and shouldered their daypacks, both of which had come off, then set off down the trail. It seemed more indistinct than usual and they lost it several times, but that was to be expected. Under the trees, it grew steadily darker, and they'd never been on the trail this late before. After fifteen minutes, Jessica began to get worried.

"We should have been back at the bikes by now," she said.

"We'll be there any moment now," Justin replied. He tried to sound confident, because he didn't want Jessica to think he was getting worried, even though he was.

"I don't think we're on the trail anymore," Jessica said a few minutes later.

"Doesn't matter," Justin said, trying to sound like the experienced woodsman he thought he was. "We're going downhill. We'll run into the fire road, then we'll turn right, and it'll take us out to the county road. We can get the bikes tomorrow if we have to."

He'd thought it out as they walked, picturing the lay of the land in his mind. The road was downhill from The Well. The road was to the south. The road ran east and west. If they went downhill they had to find the road. The road ran for miles, so far that he'd never come to the end of it in his explorations. But he knew that turning right on the road would bring them out to the gate and then back to town. It was all very simple and absolutely foolproof.

So it was a great surprise to Justin when they came out on a level place and, instead of breaking into the open of the road, they were pushing their way through alders and willows and ferns and other tangled plants he knew grew along the banks of the Twelvemile River. That was puzzling, because the Twelvemile wound through the forest well below the fire road. He stopped short, Jessica crashing into him.

"We've missed the road," he said.

"How?" Jessica asked. "You said we'd find the road by going downhill, but we haven't."

"I don't know. It's dark. Maybe we walked right across it and didn't notice it."

"So what do we do now, Mister Boy Scout?"

Justin thought for a minute. "Ok. We know we're near the river. We can get to the river itself and follow the bank. That will take us to the cove and the highway bridge."

"Do you know how long that'll take? Mom takes me canoeing on the river sometimes. It winds all over the place, and the banks are like a jungle! We'll be walking all night! And trying to push through all this stuff!" She took a few swipes at the dense vegetation with a stick she'd picked up.

"Ok. We go back uphill to where the trees aren't so thick, then we head west. One thing we know for sure. The Pacific Ocean is to the west. No way we can miss that."

"And how will we know which way is west?"

"I'll look at my compass."

"You have a compass?"

"Of course I have a compass. A good woodsman always takes along a compass when he heads into the woods."

Justin took off his daypack and rummaged around in the back pocket. He pulled out his genuine orienteering compass. He wasn't entirely clear on just what orienteers did, but this was the compass they did it with, so he knew it had to be good.

They set off uphill, trying to follow the path they'd made coming down. When they were back into the firs and oaks, where there was more space between the trees and the walking was easier, they stopped. Justin held up the compass and tried to read it, but the faint green glow of the dial was too dim to make out. He opened his pack again and fished out his small flashlight, a present from last Christmas along with the compass. It was one of those really cool LED flashlights.

"You have a flashlight?" Jessica asked, a sharp tone in her voice.

"Of course I have a flashlight," Justin responded. "A good woodsman always carries a flashlight. In case he gets stuck in the woods after dark."

"Well, why didn't you turn it on before?" Jessica asked, her voice rising.

"I didn't want to run the batteries down. We might need the flashlight more later on. It won't do us any good then if the batteries are dead," Justin said, trying to sound convincing. The truth was he hadn't thought about using the flashlight until just now.

"Justin!" Jessica shouted at him. "We're lost in the forest! It's dark! Use the stupid flashlight!"

"Ok, ok!" Justin said. "I'll use the flashlight."

He twisted the on-off knob and was really happy when it lit up. He wasn't sure when the last time he used it was, and it would be really embarrassing if the batteries had gone dead. He checked the compass to see which way was west, finding that it was to their left, which was where it should be. Aiming the flashlight in that direction Justin led the way through the trees, intentionally angling slightly up the slope in hopes of finding the road. Justin kept moving the beam of the flashlight back and forth looking for a sign of it. He finally spotted something.

"Here it is," he said to Jessica.

"Is it the road?" she asked, stepping alongside him. She looked at the circle of light. "It doesn't look like the road."

Justin had to agree with her. In front of them, illuminated by the beam of the flashlight, was a narrow patch of bare earth running from right to left. Justin moved the flashlight back and forth. The trail ran as far as the flashlight beam could show it.

"That's not the road, Justin. Where's the road?"

"It's not the road," Justin replied, "but it is a trail and a trail has to go somewhere." He looked at his compass. "We know home is west. So I say let's follow the trail to the west. We're bound to run into something."

"We're going to run into a lot of trouble when we get home. That's what we're going to run into." But she followed Justin without any more argument.

The trail made walking a lot easier, even though it seemed to meander back and forth and dip into gullies a lot. Justin checked his compass frequently to make sure they were going west, and Jessica checked it after him to make sure he read it right. After about twenty minutes the trees seemed to be thinning out. Then they were clear of them altogether, and they could see a starry sky above them.

But what they couldn't see were the lights of Ebbettsport, the lights of the houses scattered around Ebbettsport, or the lights of cars on Highway One.

"There's no lights," Jessica said.

"Maybe there's been a power outage," Justin guessed. Power outages were a frequent occurrence on the coast. Winter storms felled trees by the dozen and knocked down power lines everywhere. Sometimes the power was off for days at a stretch.

"A power outage? In August?" Jessica responded, starting to sound a bit worried.

"Well, it could be. Why else would all the lights be off? We'll just keep going towards the west until we find a road or a street, and then we'll know where we are."

The trail they were on went in the right direction, so they continued to follow it. Several times, it branched and they had to guess which branch to take. They always chose the one that was most directly heading west. The trail passed through or around small clumps of trees and through patches of tall coyote brush that blocked their view.

But what it didn't pass through or around were houses or fences or barns. And it never crossed over a paved road. This had Justin concerned. There was no way they could walk this far without encountering some trace of people, unless they had veered too far north and wandered out into the farmlands north of Ebbettsport. That had to be it, he thought. His compass was off. They were way off course. But he wasn't about to mention this to Jessica, so he kept walking and mumbled replies when Jessica asked a question.

After walking at least two hours, they came out of a patch of brush, still on the trail, or at least on one of many trails they'd been on, and Justin realized he was hearing the sound of the ocean. Jessica heard it too. They were approaching the bluffs above the beach. Ahead of them, even though it was dark, with only the moon, starlight, and a flashlight that wouldn't reach that far, they could see the edge of the bluffs.

"How could we reach the ocean without crossing Highway One?" Jessica asked.

"Maybe we did and didn't notice," Justin replied, not really believing it himself.

"How could we not see a two-lane highway? With fences on either side. Do you remember crossing two fences?"

"We've been walking a long time. It's dark. We're tired. It's possible. We just walked right across it and didn't even notice."

"So what do we do now, Mister Woodsman? Go back and look for it?"

"I think we should get down to the beach. It's windy up here, and it's getting cold. We'll be more protected from the wind down on the beach, and we can build a fire with drift wood."

"Do you have matches? Or are you going to rub two sticks together?"

"Of course I have matches. A good woodsman..."

"Does your mother know you carry matches?"

"No. Not really."

They found it was easy enough getting down to the beach. The trail led straight down a ravine and onto the sand. But they found very little driftwood, and what wood they found was too damp to light. Justin gave up after a dozen matches. He pulled his emergency rescue space blanket out of its box. He'd never had reason to use it before, so it was still neatly folded into a tight little package. He first unfolded and then shook out the aluminized plastic sheet. They found a spot at the base of the bluffs where the wind didn't seem as strong, curled up back to back under the space blanket and tried to go to sleep. Lying there, Justin wished they hadn't given all their food to Tethion.