The old lady had been right. Shortly after she left, someone had come to pick Rachel up. A tiny brown mouse had come into the room and jumped up onto the desk where Rachel was. Of course it wasn't so tiny to Rachel. It would be the size of a dog to a fairy, or a totem for that matter, but to Rachel it was more of a whale. In her mind she named it Sandy, after the color of her fur.
- "You're my ride out of here?" she asked Sandy. There was no response from the mouse. "Well... you can't blame a girl for trying. I've seen some strange things lately, and if you were able to talk, I wouldn't be surprised." She started to climb the mouse, which was no small feat. The fur was helpful to grab on to at first, but climbing it was hard. Rachel got tangled up in it sometimes but after a couple of minutes she was on top of Sandys head.
- "Okay, I'm ready." The mouse moved quickly and came to a sudden stop and Rachel almost fell off. It was like she was trying to tell Rachel that this would be a bumpy ride and you'd better hold on tight. Rachel, who don't speak mouse, still got the message. She purposly tangled herself in the fur and held on tight, and then Sandy took off. She took a leap and jumped down from the desk, and landed surprisingly smooth on the floor. Rachel was thankful for the soft landing, but the speed and the sudden change in altitude had made her nauseous. The mouse might be whale-sized but it still moved like a mouse: quick and agile.
   Rachel was still worried about the whole situation. She had no idea where they would go and how they would find August, or even if she could escape from the totems without notice. But some part of her suddenly started thinking about roller coasters, and astronauts. She guessed that she was pulling several Gs the way this mouse moved. Like going on a race car that could do 90 degree turns in full speed without flipping over and crashing. She tried to keep an eye on the surroundings, but everything was kind of blurry. She heard that strange language fly by a couple of times, but it was just the Totems talking amongst themselves. No one was chasing them, and soon everything went completely dark. Rachel gathered that they turned into a tunnel leading away from the Totems lair and that there wasn't any need for torches to light this path up. Rachels heart was beating fast and she was feeling really good for the first time since she was snatched from the comfort of August. She was headed for safety, and once the nausea was gone, the ride was actually kind of fun.

August was lost. Not physically. A worse kind of lost. Lost in despair, hopelessness, lost in thoughts. She was at her warehouse again. She had been up all night, searching all over town for Rachel, and she had no idea what to do now. She was ashamed of herself. She should never have agreed to shrink Rachel. This innocent experiment had turned disastrous. And it was all her fault. Her fault that Rachel was lost, and probably hurt. What if she had been eaten by some animal? August was determined to find Rachel when she stepped inside her indoors garden, but when she got to the bedroom and saw Rachels clothes she lost it. That's where she got lost. She threw herself on the bed in tears. It still smelled of Rachel.
   August was crying uncontrollably by now. She tried to choke her tears and screams with a pillow, but it only made things worse. With each breath she felt that her tears were washing away the scent of Rachel. She wasn't even sure what to do now. She wanted to throw the pillow away, to save the scent, but she needed to smell it. She had to, or else she felt that Rachel was really lost. She curled up and hugged the pillow as hard as she could. She had a flashback to when she was younger. To the night after a strange storm. No fairy in the village had sensed this storm. It came in a matter of minutes, it lasted for an hour or two, and then it was gone. Lightning had struck at several locations in the forest and started fires. August remembered this night because it was the only time before losing Rachel she had been this sad. The storm had taken away her most prised possession; her very first tree.
- "There there... I told you before that things will be okay." her grandmother told her.
- "No they won't! I screwed up!"
- "You did no such thing..." Her grandmothers eyes were glistening in the light from the fireplace. Augusts parents were out, and so were most of the village, trying to make the most of the forest fires. A forest fire might not always be a bad thing. They are scary, sure, but the wake of the fire most often brings new life to the forest. August however wasn't crying because of the fires.
- "I DID screw up! I lost the tree... my tree... your treasure. It's gone!"
- "And that had nothing to do with you. You must never forget that mother nature gives, and she takes. There is a reason that she took your tree. We might never know it, but we don't need to care. She has given us a gift already..." August looked at her grandmother, waiting for her to tell what this gift was. "The forest is her gift to us. And the power to tend to it. You and I are going to plant a new tree tomorrow. It will bring new life to the forest. Besides, you should be proud of yourself for what you did today."
- "I did nothing!"
- "You saved that little girls life. If you hadn't brought her father, she would have expired..." August thought about it for a while... She still felt like she hadn't done anything. All she had done that day was go in the direction her grandmother had pointed her. It was her grandmother that found the girls dad. With that thing she did. The magic bubble. Augusts heart stopped beating for a moment as the gears in her mind started turning, and with every click of a gear, hope was returning. She wasn't lost anymore. She didn't know exactly what she was doing, but she didn't care. She already knew it would work.