“Perhaps we'll get lucky, and there won't be any jailers at night. They probably didn't care what happened to accused witches.”
Freya became somber. She pictured her grandmother, who seemed to be sick, and her sister, who looked as if she'd lost 20 pounds she couldn't afford. Hopefully, they could just break in, get that cell open, and finally get her family out, without any lasting complications. And then they had to hope they could find that portal back to the correct timeline again. No pressure.
“You know what I'm most afraid of?" Freya said quietly.
"What's that?"
"I'm afraid we will never find the portal at all. That none of this stuff we've prepared for will be needed, that we don't have to worry about speaking seventeenth-century English… that we will just fail utterly and completely." An owl hooted. Leaves rustled in the wind.
Devon reached out and grasped her arm, pulling her to a stop and stepping into her space. He held both her arms, making eye contact. "There are no guarantees in life. All we can do is the very best we can. No one, not even your wrongly incarcerated family, can ask for more than that."
Freya took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I know that, but I just feel like I should keep trying, now that I have a little more information. I hadn't even thought of the possibility of time travel a few days ago.”
"No, you wouldn't have. Most people think that time travel is a myth."
"You don't?"
“Freya…” He gathered her in his arms and just held her gently. "I don't know what I don't know. All I can do is be open-minded. If they found their way back in time, perhaps we can too. If they spoke of a portal, maybe we will find it. All we can do is believe it’s possible and try."
Freya lay her head on his shoulder and held on a little tighter. She didn't want to say anything; she just wanted to hold onto hope. Devon had given her the most hope she’d had in months.
Devon’s warm arms were real and strong. He was right. They didn’t know what they didn’t know.
There was no reason not to hope… yet.
They resumed their journey along the river, scanning the air for any anomalies. At night, it wasn't easy to see what might be visible during the day, but darkness was what they needed to keep their existence as much of a secret as possible.
“Can you imagine how they must've felt when they were just walking along this river and suddenly wound up in a time period so long ago?" Devon mused.
“What's that?” Freya stopped walking and pointed to something in the air ahead and to the left. She skimmed her flashlight over the section and said, "What was that?”
“What did you see?"
"I'm not sure. I just thought there was something different over there. Some kind of movement that looked more like the river, as if it were reflected against a tree, but there was nothing, just air. It wasn’t a critter running along the ground or hopping around in the trees."
"Here, hold my hand. Walk right over to where you saw it."
She walked slowly toward the spot, holding tightly onto his hand.
He reached out his free hand in front of them, as if feeling for something airborne.
There was no indication of anything nearby. No rustling of wildlife on the ground or birds in the trees. Nothing but the river making the occasional burbling sound, but little else.
Suddenly, everything quieted. There was no sound, no wind. It seemed as if the air itself stood still. If Devon hadn't been holding onto her hand, she wouldn't have known where he went, because he simply disappeared.
Surprised, Freya dropped the flashlight. Devon returned to her view, thank goodness, but everything seemed darker. When she looked down for her flashlight, it was gone. Scanning the earth and sky, she noted the moon seemed to have changed slightly. It was almost full when they left. Now it was starting to wane.
"Oh, dear, I think something has changed. Did you notice?" Freya asked.
“I noticed a slight shift in sound and breeze as if there were none of either for a moment."
“Exactly," Freya said.
"Where's the flashlight?” Devon asked.
"I dropped it, and now I can't find it. I think it's on the other side.”
“Of the portal? So, you're saying we did make it through a portal of some kind?" Devon asked excitedly.
