Well I don't see any Pharaohs (open)

[Gabrielle]

Two routes to take and neither one of them seemed to be very favorable to the one that knew them. Gabrielle took a quick look at the map noting all the different areas around the huge gap that was marked simply "Crystal Expanse" an appropriate name indeed. Her eyes scanned across the various names found on the map such as Isafaro, Crystal City, Hallowton, Jherrazad and of course the city near the edge Daniel pointed to, Moon Valley. This was a new world all right, Gabrielle didn't recognize a single town listed on that map. The fact Crystal Expanse wasn't charted didn't help matters as they could be wandering around for hours and still have no clue which part of the expanse they were in so retracing their steps was the only way they would get out of here.

"Ok, Daniel this is very important: I need you to retrace your steps for me."
Gabrielle then looked back to Zora who was talking about a place called London with the boy, yet another place unfamiliar with the Battling Bard of Potidaea and a place she didn't see marked on the map so either it was on another part of the world than they were in or another world entirely. This whole outer worldly experience was definitely going to take some getting used to as before she only had to really worry about one world. Instead of asking about London Gabrielle decided to inquire about the area that apparently attacked you for no reason, while she doubt it was for no reason she didn't want to take any chances until she had more of a feel on the new world.
"Would you be able to point out the place you were at on the map?" she asked Zora, "I'd like to be able to know what to look out for."

[superevil225]

Daniel clucked his tongue playfully at Zora and chuckled. "Well obviously we know two very different Londons. Are you sure we're talking about London, England. I hear there's a London in Canada." Danny laughed foolishly and smiled innocently. "I'm joking, love."

<Danny, lets ditch these two, or I'll force you to.> Pride screamed through Danny's brain, but the boy refused to listen to his evil alter ego. "I was here." Daniel pointed to the small boarder town named 'Kazhir'. "If we follow my footsteps it shouldn't take too... long..." Daniel's voice trailed off as he climbed the massive snow bank to look for his footprints. "The snow..." He mumbled. "Everything looks the same!" The mutant wailed and crossed his arms over his chest. "This is stupid!" He kicked the snow and looked out over the ice expanse. His foot prints were gone.

<If you let me take over, I know how to get back.> Pride taunted. The boy shook his head and whispered. "I can't let you do that."

[Ayen]

“You’re so funny,” replied Zora sarcastically.

Zora couldn’t really care less about the boy’s sense of humor and even less for his mannerisms. There was just something off-putting about him and the witch didn’t feel all that secured traveling with him but beggars can’t be choosers. If there was something wrong with the boy Zora was determined to get to the bottom of it. When Gabrielle asked if she could point out where she’s been on the map Zora remembered what Clash, the part woman, part shark she met after arriving to Genesis, had called the city.

“Give me that!”

Zora yanked the map out of the boy’s hands, forgetting her manners and the fact an adult was standing right there as more of her real personality kept shinning through as time went on. Scanning the content of the map Zora finally caught “Isafaro” across from whatever Hallowton was and placed her index finger towards it for the others to see.

“That’s where I was before; Isafaro. A really nasty place that was. The suns couldn’t even shine through the darkness. By the way have you noticed there are two suns? There was only one in London.”

[Gabrielle]

"Yeah. I have noticed the suns."
It was the first thing that tipped her off about this being a new world after all. Looking back to Daniel, Gabrielle frowned at the realization that the boy's tracks was so quickly covered up and that now they had but only one sense of direction left before having to submit to the fact they would need to wander around aimlessly to find a town and that was something Gabrielle just didn't want to do if she could help it.

"It's okay, Daniel. You tried. Zora, it looks like we're going to have to go to Isafaro after all."
Gabrielle looked back to the kid whose true colors was beginning to show the longer they remained out here, a bully in black, green and silver. She would have to remind herself to ask about their wardrobe and this 'London' later, as for now they needed to find out more about the world they were actually in. Hopefully Zora wouldn't have to rely on her footprints.
"Lead the way."

[Ayen]

“No!”

Zora was pleading with her eyes now, she really didn't want to go back to that place. Not after it nearly cost her her life just to get out of there. And the worst thing about it was that they were all muggles. Muggles nearly killed her and now she had to rely on muggles to save her after going for years hating them and the witches and wizards they left behind.

“Look I can get rid of our problem very easily.”

Remembering a spell she learned back at Hogwarts Zora raised up her wand, did the proper hand gestures and spoke the incantation clearly and a spark of light shot out from the tip of the wand revealing some of Daniel's footprints that was buried in the snow.

“There. I'll have to repeat the process as we go along but I should be able to uncover all of the footprints.”

[Gabrielle]

Zora being vocal about not wanting to return to Isafaro came as no real surprise with the way she talked about the place, but what she did next with the wooden stick would. She has seen magic before but rarely from someone so young and with so much importance placed upon a tiny little stick. Gabrielle couldn't complain, Zora has just solved their problem in the form of a few hand gestures and an incantation, and in turn she was able to find out more about the little girl standing next to her.
"Let's get going. Before the snow covers up and gives you extra work."
And Gabrielle moved forward, not sure what the road ahead had in stored. But that was nothing new.

The more things changed the more they stayed the same.

[Ayen]

Zora patted herself on the back for a job well done and began leading the others down the path of the footprints, repeating the spell she cast before whenever necessary. If only those wannabe witch and wizards back at Hogwarts could see her now. This would make them eat their words. Definitely. For now Zora would have to settle for patting her own back. Nobody back at that school would believe her if she told this story anyway. Unless she could bring back proof of some sorts. Then again, would she really want people knowing she was around muggles? Perhaps not.

“Don't worry about me. I can handle anything that's thrown my way!”

[superevil225]

"Which witch is which~!" Danny mutter happily as he saw Zora reveal the footprints with some strange form of magic. "Wow that's really impressive Miss Zora. "Where did you learn how to do that? Hogwarts?" Daniel chuckled foolishly, thinking of the beloved children novel, then his face fell flat as Pride's voice muttered through his conscious.

<You do realize that she could probably be from Hogwarts? Seeing the other girl with us. Possibly some Doctor Who-space-time-alternate universe thing.> Pride snickered. Daniel shrugged his shoulders and thought to himself: /Don't be a silly bot Pride. In the Second Series, the Doctor closed the link between parallel universes./ And with that Pride was silent.

"Say... Um... you don't suppose there's anything dangerous around here... do you?" Daniel Helling asked sweetly.

[Gabrielle]

Gabrielle chuckled at the boast from the young girl and then quickly put a hand in front of her to keep her from walking over a cracked part of the ice that would have collapsed had she stepped on it.
"How about for now you just concentrate on walking?"
Gabrielle guided the two around the cracks then allowed Zora to take back the lead as she kept an eye out for anything that would pop out to disturb their travel. This place was large and Gabrielle had to wonder if the entire world was as cold as it was here. If it was anything like her world then surely not but in a new world, it was hard to say. If it weren't for the map Daniel provided, Gabrielle wouldn't have anything to even be sure there was anything else but frozen wasteland.

The Battling Bard of Potidaea turned her attention back to Daniel when he asked his question. It was a good one. From past experiences that was something Gabrielle could never rule out. Now that she was no longer familiar with the area around her it was even more difficult to tell for sure. Even though nothing had attacked them yet didn't mean nothing would. Naturally she hoped that wouldn't happen but Gabrielle wouldn't lie to the children and state otherwise.
"It's possible. I can't say for sure, the two of you know more about this place than I do. Don't worry, I won't let any harm come to either of you."

[Ayen]

After suddenly being grabbed and pushed back by Gabrielle, Zora was going to yell at her, until she realized why exactly she did what she did. Laughing nervously the young witch decided to just keep her mouth shut, for once, until she heard the last thing she expected Daniel to say on their walk. Hogwarts. The muggle saying the name alone was enough to cause Zora to jump and aim her wand at him while looking at him suspiciously.

“How do you know about Hogwarts!?”

He couldn't have been a muggle related to a muggle-born. Even they weren't thick enough to mention Hogwarts in such a matter to someone on the outside looking in and just the way he said it, as if the very idea was absurd. But why?

“You better give me an answer unless you like the idea of becoming a toad.”

[superevil225]

Daniel's eyes widened foolishly in recoil to Zora's outburst. "Yeeesh." He muttered. "It's just a book. Y'know, anybody can pick it up at the local book store." The mutant snickered to himself and trotted along side the two. "Little Harry goes to school in a magical world. Meets a few friends. Defeats the Dark Lord Voldemort and they make some dank movies out of it. I bet you JK Rowling is super rich now."

"I kinda wish Hogwarts was real though. I'd fit in there much better than I did back home. It's not super uplifting when people throw stones 'cause you haven't aged in like... FOREVER. What about you? Hogwarts seems real special to you? Why are you so worked up about it?"Daniel didn't really understand what was so important about Hogwarts to Zora. It was a fictional wizarding school made by a fantastic children's author. But, Danny hoped that perhaps the topic would fuel the flames of discussion and soon they would find themselves out of the barren icy landscape.

[Gabrielle]

Gabrielle felt a headache coming on. It was just another day of the week in her life with guiding children through an extremely dangerous setting and not knowing what to expect, but to have them talk about things that her mind simply couldn't comprehend would have drove a lesser warrior from her time mad. Good thing Gabrielle has already seen more crazy things during her travels with Xena for it not to cause much more than a mild headache for her. She had to endure for the children's sake after all. In all that talking however there were one word she had no problem understanding. Zora's threat of turning Daniel into a toad. Couldn't have that.

Gabrielle bent down and rested a hand on Zora's shoulder before looking between them.
"Let's not turn anyone into a toad, okay?"
Gabrielle didn't have any reason to think Daniel would turn anyone into anything, or that he even had the ability to but the message came across all the same. No fighting. Gabrielle straightened herself and continued walking, hoping to find a town nearby soon because with all this endless snow and ice, something told her she wasn't going to have much luck finding firewood.

[Ayen]

“What!?”

Just a book? Just a book!? Zora had jumped in her turn to face Daniel once more, wand aimed towards him, ready to hex him for saying such a thing about her school. Just a book!? Who did he think he was? And people called her arrogant? Gabrielle stuck her foot in there however and upon being broken out of her rage by Gabrielle's intervention allowed the witch to think over things more rationally. This muggle, for one reason or another, knew of Hogwarts and the magical world but thought it nothing more than a book. Even though he has witnessed some magic here he hasn't made the connection. Zora decided it was in the best interest of her world to just keep quiet about it.

“Right. It's just a book. How silly of me.”

As Zora's eyes went from the others and back on the path ahead, the young witch saw the last thing anyone would have expected to see in the middle of a frozen wasteland on the horizon.

A desert.

“Merlin's Beard! Is that a desert I see?”

First it was a futuristic city, then a frozen wasteland and now a hot looking desert. What's next?

[Gabrielle]

"Who?"
Gabrielle stood next to Zora, wondering what she was going on about now and what their beard had to do with anything. Then she saw it - the bridge between hot and cold - the bridge between the Crystal Expanse and the Jherrazad's desert. (not a literal bridge)
"Well. That's new."
Gabrielle motioned for Zora and Daniel to stay put as she slowly, and carefully, approached the point where land took a literal split.

Sticking her hand out to the other side, Gabrielle felt the sudden climate change as it frightened her and prompt her to rear the arm back. The Battling Bard of Potidaea looked back to the two children for a moment before returning to face the desert. Getting over that fear of the unknown she had triumph over in the past time and time again, Gabrielle embraced the climate change, now standing between the gap of the two pieces of land, feeling both hot and cold at the same time. Emotions she were unable to put into words filled her body as she began to enjoy this new experience but not enough to be carried away by it. Taking one last step she left the frozen wasteland and stood on the sands of the desert.
"Come on guys, it's perfectly safe."

[Ayen]

“How could you not know who Merlin is? Don't you know anything?”

Zora watched as Gabrielle approached the bridge between this place and the desert. Unsure still of what to make of this phenomenon, the young witch waited to see what would happen to Gabrielle, if anything, once she crossed the border. To think that so much importance could be placed into a single step. It was gut-wrenching. Fortunately enough for them Gabrielle was able to cross the bridge without any harm inflicted upon her form but that still left them.

Zora let in a gulp but did her best to hide the blatant fear covering her face regardless. Approaching the same border Gabrielle did not too long ago she slowly started to inch closer to it. The heat from the desert hitting her face hard and almost causing her to turn away and run but she managed to resist the urge and pressed on until finally...

“I did it! I did it!”

She crossed the border. Zora jumped up and down until she realized how ridiculous she looked and quickly regained her composure to a more serious feel.

“I mean... I did it.”