Excerpt: A Place out of Time

"Reminds me a little of our wedding day," Michael said, kicking up the mist, watching it dissipate.
"If we were naked," she joked, "it would be exactly like it."
"It's a lot wilder here than back in Zagroda. Thorns, burrs, a lot of things I would not want to step on."
"I kept hoping the mist would turn into a faery or something, but," Juli said, stopping abruptly. "Did you see that?"
"Did I see what?"
"There," Juli said, pointing.
"I don't, wait, over there," he said, pointing in a different direction.
Juli turned around for a moment. "No!" she screamed and began running away.
Michael turned around, but was unable to see anything. He began chasing his wife who was now climbing up a steep hill. Michael tried to catch up, but lost his footing and slid down to the bottom.
As Michael looked up, he could see an army of soldiers in chain mail, all five centimeters tall. They bore halberds and started poking him with the point. Michael got to his feet and started running away.
Meanwhile, Juli was nearing the ledge She could feel her back start to hurt and throb. The pain became unbearable, as if her tunic was keeping something trapped inside her body. So she threw off the garment and immediately a pair of wings sprouted from her back.
She ran to the ledge and jumped, falling a good six or seven meters into the river. She landed in a meter of water, which broke her fall. As she looked at the opposite river bank, she saw not the East Morava river and the woodlands, but the Colorado river and the Grand Canyon.
She stood there, dazed for close to a half hour.