Excerpt

A snorting sound came from beyond the trees.  A large hairy animal resembling a buffalo charged into the small opening.  It had long tusks, beady eyes and a piglike snout.  The thing waved its shaggy head back and forth, sniffed the air and bellowed.

This can't be happening.  Mark edged toward the nearest tree.  The instant he moved, the beast spotted him.  It pawed the ground with its large hooves and lowered its massive head to attack.

There was no time to think.  Mark jumped for the closest branch and swung up into the tree just as the sharp tusks rushed underneath him.  The animal stopped and sniffed the air again.  Unable to locate its victim, the creature snorted and ambled off into the red forest.

Mark stayed on the branch.  He was shaking and his mind was in a whirl.  "All right.  Would a hallucination attack me? This must be a real place," he whispered.  "But where is it? And how did I get here?"

He thought back to the night before and the energy-charged light.  It has to be.  Whatever that blue light was, it's the key.  When I fell into the tube it transported me to . . . to where? I don't even know if I'm on Earth anymore.

Copyright © 1998 by Gary Paulsen