Characters:

Bob and Sally have an adventure in their garage. They create a time machine. They go back in time to the middle ages, they check their machine for damage. They discover that they have a problem. Their battery is dead, and of course in the middle ages, batteries are not around. They have to make one. They are lost at first with what to do, they figure out that they need copper, lead, and some way to get sulfuric acid. They go on a strange quest full of mountains and volcanoes and stuff. Things get interesting. Their trajectory is not guided well, and they have landed in the middle of nowhere. They do have a nice compass to guide them as they go North, South, East and West to find civilization. They at first stumble on a weird sign in the forest that leads to a path into darkness. It says, in six different languages, “Help for anything this way”. They are intrigued.

At the sign, they find it odd that it shows up in the middle of nowhere. Keep in mind that this is around the 15^th century, there is no GPS, or cell phones, or computers, things are primitive-ish. “Should we explore this path?” says Bob. “I think we will either explore, or be lost forever,” says Sally. “You are very dramatic,” says Bob. “I think we should flip a coin. I have some change in my pocket, let’s flip a quarter. Heads we explore the path, tails we don’t,” says Bob. They flip the quarter. It lands in the dirt, and it takes an hour to find it because of the tall grass. They scrub the dirt off of it, it is heads.

Down the path they go. Everything is normal for the first little while, then things start getting weird. They both start feeling dizzy, and their vision is getting blurry. The sun starts to change colors to a more orange hue, and the sky starts turning more purplish. “I don’t feel right about this,” says Sally. Bob agrees, but they are back to the fact that their battery is dead, and they are basically stranded. They need help. “I wish their was an O’reilly Auto Parts nearby that we could buy a battery from,” he says. “Me too,” says Sally. They briefly wonder if they should turn back, but they realize they are in the middle of nowhere, and really have no choice. Plus, everything behind them is turning into pretty fractals. Things are getting interesting. They press on.

They keep moving forward through eventually a tunnel with a people mover in it, so they don’t have to walk all the way. This goes on for a while, until everything stops. Right in front of them is a big door with a spiraling thing in it. The top of the door says “this way…” Once again, they are intrigued. Bob, being Bob, sticks his hand into the spiraly thing. His hand goes through, and kind of feels some suction. He pulls it back out, unharmed. “I think we are okay,” he says. “That looks like fun, I want to try,” says Sally. She at first sticks her hand in, just like Bob, and it comes out okay with some suction, just like Bob’s. Then they hear a loud, booming voice.

“What is your purpose here?”, says the voice. Nervous, and stuttering a bit, Bob speaks: “We are from, from the future, and we are stranded.” Then, the voice says something unsettling: “Did you say something about an Auto Parts store earlier?” This caught them by surprise, as this made them realize that the voice knows things. This actually kind of makes Sally and Bob a bit less nervous. “We need a new battery for our time machine.” The voice paused for a minute.

“Hmm. I understand you are from the future, I see your time machine. We don’t have anything already made, but I can guide you to some things. Here…” the voice says. Out of the spirally thing in the door comes a human hand that gives them a big map on parchment paper. The voice speaks: “I am Sir Prise, from the great British Isles. You are about to go on a quest. Come in.”

               They get sucked through the door. Boom, they are in. “What is this place?” says Sally. She feels some Dejavu. Prise walks in from the back, and sits down in his chair. Bob kind of feels some Dejavu as well. Something is amiss. “You have come just in time, “ says Prise.