He led Yulia beside him, who also collapsed to the ground. The hum began to diminish. It became easier to breathe. David looked up and got dizzy. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t. Above him there were clusters of twinkling stars. The sky was as dark and deep as the heart of the ocean, and the stars were as bright as pearls that joined together in beautiful necklaces. David could only softly stretch out an ‘oh!’ sound.

The doctor, Debby, and Yulia began to look around, too, they felt cold inside. They couldn’t say anything and didn’t understand what they were seeing. Yulia stared into the sky with her mouth open. The doctor gingerly touched the ground near his feet, fearing getting burned. Debby squeezed David’s hand with horror and incomprehension.

“Hey. What is it?” Jean-Pierre’s voice was heard.

“I don’t understand,” David said to himself.

“How is it possible?” Dr Capri said in amazement.

He stroked the ground beside him as if it were ice, under which strange fish were swimming.

Jean-Pierre appeared from behind a high rock. He moved on the ground, but the ground moved with him. It was bright yellow, even orange, as if lava flowed beneath his feet, but it didn’t burn. The earth glowed, and though everything was visible as if it were daytime, there was no sun in the sky. Above was the darkness of night.

“What is it?” stomping his foot on the ground, the doctor asked himself. “It looks like stone, but it feels like it’s flowing.”

The ground was solid, and the doctor couldn’t figure out what it was made of. To the touch it was hot and smooth, but looking at it, one could see that it was like a river flowing slowly.

“I feel sick,” Yulia said and closed her eyes.

“Look up,” David told her.

Jean-Pierre walked over to the doctor and looked at the ground beside him, and then at his face, stretched out in surprise. He looked around. The landscape was monotonous and resembled the desert with small hills behind them from whence they had just come.

A desolate, fiery yellow valley spread out in every direction. On the horizon, the redness was abruptly interrupted by the blackness of the sky. Not a hint of mountains, plants, or clouds.

“We should go back to the cave,” Jean-Pierre suggested.

“What?” said first Debby and then the doctor almost simultaneously.

“To the cave?” Tulu-Manchi interrogated. “Are you kidding? We have to figure out what’s going on here,” the doctor paused for a second. “We have to figure out where we are at all. This isn’t Nepal or India,” he spread his hands and looked questioningly at Jean-Pierre.

The doctor took the stone in his hands, which resembled amber, weighed it, and smiled:

“Strange, not heavy, and not light.”

David and Yulia approached to look at it. The doctor handed the stone to Yulia, and she began to spin it in her hands. She crouched down and slammed it against another large stone. The muffled sound reminded her of a hammer hitting a tree. Yulia looked at the stone in her hand – it poured red at the point of impact and got hotter.

“There’s some kind of reaction in it,” Yulia remarked.

Jean-Pierre watched the scientists and David; when he saw the stone turn red, he shook his head:

“We have to go back!”

“Where?” said Debby, looking around frightenedly.

“To the cave,” Jean-Pierre wanted to give the obvious answer, but realized his own mistake.

There were large stones scattered on the ground all around, but nowhere to see the entrance to the cave. He rushed back, but realized that this would not help.

“Where were we moving from?” Jean-Pierre began to calculate the direction.

“From those boulders, I think,” David doubted.

Jean-Pierre took several steps in that direction – nothing. He was thrashing around, looking for the entrance to the cave. The others looked at him.

“Jean-Pierre!” shouted the doctor.

“What?”

“This is not Earth, do you understand?” the doctor shook his head, looking into the Frenchman’s eyes from twenty meters away.

“What are you doing here?” a high, unfamiliar voice sounded.

Jean-Pierre perked up and began to look around, ready to protect everyone. Everyone jumped to their feet and piled back to back.

“Who are you?” the squeaky voice repeated.

“Who are you?” Jean-Pierre shouted very loudly.

“Me?” someone squeaked.

“Yes!” shouted Jean-Pierre again. “Where are you? Show yourself.”

“Why are you yelling like that?” said the voice. “I’m right in front of you.”

Jean-Pierre slowly lowered his eyes and saw someone very small standing right in front of him. The creature was the size of his thumb and looked up at everyone with undisguised contempt. Jean-Pierre knelt down and tilted his head even lower.

“Who are you?” Jean-Pierre rounded his eyes.

“Humans,” the creature said in a disappointed voice. “I am Van. Valikhilya.”

“What?”

“Aaah,” Van said, shaking his head in displeasure. “You are humans, and I am Valikkhilya. My name is Van, and you are…” he paused.

“What the hell is that?”

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s not a name,” Van muttered.

Jean-Pierre shook his head and put his palms to the top of his head, trying to get rid of the obsession. He looked back at the others; they were squinting their eyes at the creature, expressing complete incomprehension.

“You are in the kingdom of His Grace the great Vivasvan, King of Light,” the little man squeaked.

“Vivasvan?” Dr Capri said, coming out of his stupor. “I know who Vivasvan is.”

“Then you must bow down before him right now,” the little man said proudly.

Jean-Pierre stepped back from Van and looked at Dr Capri with an expression of bewilderment. Even more bewildered than he had been a second ago.

“Do you know him?”

“It’s the name of god from Indian philosophy, like Ra in Egypt or Apollo in Greece. He rules over the Sun.”

“God?” David clarified, confused.

“Yes and no,” answered the doctor, trying to explain. “He is a demigod, a powerful living being who controls the most important star in the universe.”

“Yes and no?” Van squeaked grudgingly. “Vivasvan’s greatness is equal to God’s greatness.”

No one was listening to him. He kept muttering something, slowly approaching the group of people.

“Hold on!” entered Yulia. “Are we truly on the Sun?”

She began to breathe heavily, panting in a panic attack.

“The Sun?” Van snarled maliciously, mocking Yulia. “Oh, I think we’re on the Sun,” he rolled his eyes in a look of surprise. “No, no, we just accidentally, really, honestly.”

At this point, he walked over to Jean-Pierre’s foot and kicked his boot. Jean-Pierre heard the kick and put his head down:

“Hey!”

“Was I being polite?” Van began. “Did I say my name? I asked yours.” he paused. “Who-are-you?”

“Excuse me,” Dr Capri stepped in, “my name is Tulu-Manchi.”

Van smiled:

“A strong man?”

“Yes,” the doctor nodded embarrassedly. “This is Yulia, David, and Debby,” the doctor said, pointing to each of them. “And this young man’s name is…” he didn’t have time to finish.

“Women?” Van was surprised.

There was surprise and fright in his squeaky voice. He looked around and said in a loud whisper:

“You shouldn’t be here. You must leave.”

Jean-Pierre got down on his knee again and asked the little creature quietly:

“Okay. We’ll leave if you help us,” he thought and added. “What scares you so much?”

“There are no women here. No women here for a very long time,” Van continued to whisper.

Debby and Yulia looked at each other. Debby shrugged.

“Why is that?” Jean-Pierre continued, looking at the girls.

“Why?” unsatisfied with the question, Van looked at him. “Because they’re not here.”

“Okay,” Jean-Pierre said, raising both palms up. “We are leaving.”

“Wait, Jean-Pierre,” David said, holding the Frenchman back. “Are we on the Sun? On a burning ball that… I don’t understand.”