Free Yazen (Ponith) by Nicole Sloan Page A

him. Then I hear him rustling around in his tent.
    “What’s the matter? Is everyone okay?” Alex grumbles while trying to wake up himself.
    “We’re fine. Jenn says she heard something outside and thought it was you. Then she called out to you but you didn’t answer. Have you heard anything unusual?” I ask him.
    “No, I was sound asleep. How about we go out together and check it out?” he asks.
    “That sounds good to me. I’m ready when you are. Just let me know when,” I respond.
    “Okay, let’s go now,” he says. I unzip the zipper on our tent and step outside, with Jenn following behind me. It’s extremely bright outside, brighter than it seems on Earth. The fire that we built last night has died out, and Alex comes over to us. Nothing seems to be around that we can see.
    I go back into the tent and grab some breakfast out of my bag for everyone.
    “Here are some breakfast bars for everyone,” I say while passing them out. “After we eat, we need to pack our tents and put them away.” I want to keep them with us. We look around us as we eat. It looks like everything will be okay, except we have to be careful. I didn’t forget about the tree incident last night. 
    We pack up our sleeping bags and tents and I pull out the journal, compass, and watch that my grandpa gave me.
    “What are those for?” Jenn asks me while I’m still searching my bag.
    “Well, this is a compass my grandpa gave me. He says that this compass will only point to the direction of the Yazen gem. We’re going to have to find this gem to be able to activate this portal to go back home,” I tell them, while opening the compass up. The arrow is pointing in the northeastern direction. Luckily that is the direction that we are already heading.
    “We can’t just go back home anytime we want? We have to find this gem? Why didn’t you tell us this before we went?!” Alex asks, sounding nervous, dropping his bag on the ground.
    “Yes , I’m sorry Alex, the gem that I have now is the Earth’s gem so it will only work on Earth. We can find the other gem, though, so that’s not a problem. We have to follow this compass to the Yazen gem so we can put it in the tree and activate the portal again,” I tell them.
    “What time is it?” Alex asks me while he sees me put on the watch. I look at it, and it doesn’t have a time on it. I forgot my grandpa told me that this watch will only show me where the portal is.
    “I’m not sure ; it’s not a normal watch. See what happens when I push this button,” I tell them while pushing the side button on the watch. A small holographic map shows up on the face of the watch, and it has a big X behind us.
    “What is that X for? It almost looks like it’s where the portal was ,” Jenn says, pointing behind, the direction we came from last night.
    “You ’re right, Jenn, this will show us our way back to the portal after we find the Yazen gem. That way we never get lost,” I say to her, smiling, “You can turn any which way and it will let you orient yourself toward the portal again.”
    “That’s pretty sweet, Zac. I think we’re actually going to have a good time,” Alex says while looking at the holographic map.
    “What other cool items do you have in that bag?” Jenn asks curiously.
    “That’s about it besides the journal I have. It has notes about the worlds from my grandpa’s trip,” I tell them while holding the journal in my hand.
    “Do our cell phones work here?” Jenn asks while pulling hers out of her book bag. I honestly forgot to bring mine; I figured it wouldn’t work anyway, being that far away from our towers. I see Alex pull his phone out as well.
    “Mine doesn’t work. Does yours work, Jenn?” Alex asks Jenn. I’m happy to see them getting along for once just a bit.
    “No, mine doesn’t work either. Oh well, it was worth a try,” Jenn says while putting it back in her bag.
    I’m really curious about the girl in the tree from last night. I don’t