Riley crawled out of the water and collapsed onto the shore to rest and catch her breath. As her heart’s pounding slowed down and her ragged breaths evened out she opened her eyes. 

“Kayla? Kayla did you see what happened? It was like I was being pulled into the water…Kayla? WHERE ARE YOU!” 

Riley frantically looked around searching for Kayla’s familiar face but no eyes met Riley’s. Riley stood up still soaking wet and smelling like pond water, a mixture of muck and aquatic plants. She looked around wondering if Kayla had run off to find help and that was when she noticed she was no longer in the lava cave but instead a jungle type clearing by the water. Moonlight was shining down and plenty of it. The moon looked familiar and yet somehow subtly different. It wasn’t quite the same familiar shadows and canyons the moon had always had but it still overall looked the same. Maybe the moon’s shadows looked less dark, more shallow? Like the moon had a facelift? 

Familiar yet different was also how the trees and bushes around the water clearing looked, too. Why didn’t the trees look like proper pine and oak trees? These “trees” looked tropical and more like enormous ferns and palms and craggy things out of a bizarro comic book drawing. The adrenaline from nearly drowning was starting to wear off. 

Riley mustered a full force holler for her roommate, “KAY-LAAAAAHHH!!!” And silently waited. 

The breeze kissed Riley’s cheeks and damp hair. The moon shone and some leaves rustled in the middle distance but no one replied. Riley trudged, exhausted and confused, over to a few tall trees and plopped down to rest and think. Where was the backpack? And snacks? What to do…? Riley didn’t notice that her thoughts were drifting along the soft warm breeze. She eased down to lie on her side in a gentle fetal position with the tree still pressing into the small of her back in a reassuring way. Riley’s breathing took on a lovely even pace and even though she would continue to deny it when Kayla teased her, Riley hum-snored ever so slightly in such a way that three giant ground sloths heard her hum-snore in her sleep and slowly meandered over to check out the sleeping Riley. 

The family of giant sloths carefully sniffed Riley and found she smelled of aquatic plants so the largest one licked Riley’s pants which caused her to roll over in her sleep and mumble. This surprised the sloths but when Riley just continued to hum-snore they curled up next to her in a pile that from afar looked like if full size sedan cadillacs could sleep in a contented pile of super fluff with Riley in the middle, keeping her warm and safe all night in this strange new land. Riley dreamt about Kayla still with the busted flashlight crying, “Riley, please don’t be dead.”

******

Then what happened. Megan McCarthy?