Children of the Moon. Evadeen Brickwood

of chess or golf. But he couldn’t take chances now.

      Was underwear necessary? He decided that it was. Where had he put the camera Chryséis had given him? Oh, that’s right, Chryséis had already packed it. They were still unaware of Natasha’s and Holly’s scheming.

      By Friday evening, everything was ready and finally Saturday morning arrived. During the excursion everything worked without a hitch.

      At last, the young time astronauts stood on the rocky platform right by the escarpment. The time warp was shimmering right in front of them and moved in waves. The wave motion began to accelerate and then churn. Trevor already knew the process and was proud that his calculations had proved correct. There was hardly any interference around.

      “I’m going to activate the first time span now. Get ready.”

      Chryséis and Katherine grabbed each other’s hand. Trevor had integrated time-spans ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 years, because that’s how they had applied the formula. It was a giant leap. What they knew was that no monsters, volcanoes or oceans would wait on the other side. Well, quite sure.

      Katherine tried to be brave. It had been difficult enough to leave her home in England. Never mind travelling back to an ancient past now. Her father had written a postcard from Lagos in Nigeria last week. That was also pretty far away, wasn’t it? She consoled herself that she would be away for only a short while. In any case, they would arrive back in the present at the precise same moment they had left. But her courage left her, when the time portal made its appearance. Katherine stared at the swirling vortex that formed in front of the boulder now.

      A real vortex!