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Hope opened her eyes. She had never spent a night on hard ground before, and she regretted it now, what with her entire body aching something awful. The sky was dark still, and she had little clue what time it was. The stars might have given her a bit of an idea, but she hadn't thought to get a good look at them before going to sleep. In addition, if this was New Zealand, then they were in the Southern Hemisphere. Hope, for one, was not even familiar with northern constellations, let alone southern ones.

Of course, by this time Hope had all but dismissed the idea of her being in New Zealand. That idea seemed a little too..."out there". Aubrey may have had mischievous leanings, but Hope doubted that Aubrey Thompson would have the means or the inclination to take herself and Hope to New Zealand, just to prove a point.

Hope spared a glance at Aubrey. The blonde girl was sleeping still, and showed no sign of waking any time soon. Hope chewed her lip, thinking hard.

At last she made up her mind. She could survive without Aubrey. Hope turned away from the sleeping girl and walked purposefully away.

The first thing that came to Aubrey's mind was how hard the ground was on which she had been sleeping—and how cold, too. There was, however, a spot of warmth on her back that she knew resulted from the morning sunshine. She opened her eyes and sat up. The sun had already risen, and the ruddiness of dawn was quickly disappearing.

Trying to stretch out the crick in her back, Aubrey glanced around and immediately realized that Hope was absent.

Her first thought was that Hope had perhaps gone out to have a look around, but a thorough sweep of the horizon from atop a small boulder brought an end to that idea. If Hope had indeed wanted to scout out the area, she wouldn't have gone that far away from Aubrey. But the alternative—desertion—was equally incredible. Hope had significantly less knowledge of wilderness survival than did Aubrey, and abandoning the only known human in the vicinity was simply ridiculous. But then, if one was not accustomed to the wilderness, one also might not realize the foolishness of a plan such as that. Perhaps it was plausible after all.

With this knowledge, Aubrey's heart sank. She had started out without Hope, of course, but now that Hope had come and left, the loss of a companion was much greater than the original absence of one. "Why, Hope?" Aubrey asked aloud. "Why'd you walk away?" Great. Now I'm back to square one.

A/N: Sorry this chapter was kind of short. From now on this story is on indefinite hiatus. I feel like it sort of detracts from the whole point of its prequel, even though the characters didn't exactly wish themselves into another world in this one. Thanks for reading!

Jesus' girl 4ever: Okay...I know I haven't talked about this in the story yet, but they're in Rohan.

Cowboy-4-Christ: Thanks!