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"Well, I don't know," Gale said, stuttering a bit as the nervous feeling in his stomach grew.

"Go on, Gale," Maddy encouraged, following Kya's example.

Gale stared at the ground, heart pounding. "Alright," he sighed. A small moment of hesitation followed, then he began.

"You see, we were camping near a small river, close to our house. we had forgotten the tent, and none of us wanted to go and get it. So we decided to sleep outside. There were a few clouds, but it never started to rain. Finally, we decided to go to bed. I crawled into the sleeping bag, and felt something moving. It startled-"

"Terrified," Maddy corrected.

"Startled me," Gale continued, ignoring his twin. "So I jumped out of the sleeping bag, and found a snake inside, hissing at me and showing it's fangs." He grimaced at the memory. "I was pretty sure it was going to bite me then, but Dad whacked it with a stick." He stopped. That was all he had to say, all that had happened. The only problem was, he didn't know how to end it. Maddy saved him from the uncomfortable silence.

"His face was hilarious. I swear, his mouth was a perfect 'O'," Maddy said.

Kya and Kanna giggled at Maddy's impersonation. Misaki, on the other hand, looked thoroughly confused. "...What is a snake?" She asked after a moment of thought.

Tess shot a funny look at Misaki. "You don't know what a snake is?" she asked.

"Weird," Gale muttered.

"Nope," Said Misaki. "Never heard of one, like, ever." And so it was true.

"What sort of animals live where you do, then?" Maddy asked.

"All sorts of animals!" Misaki excalimed, enthusiasm shining in her eyes. "Blue Lions and Tiger-Seals and Otter-Penguins and flying lemurs and Sky Bison and dragons and---" She could have continued for quite a while more if Kanna hadn't cut her off. "And lots of others," she finished for her sister.

"You have dragons?" Tess asked, her eyes widening. "Wow."

"What are Sky Bison? And lemurs can fly?" Maddy was thoroughly confused.

Now it was Misaki's turn to stare. "You mean you've never heard of Sky Bison? And of course lemurs can fly, silly!"

"No, I haven't. I haven't heard of Tiger-Seals or Otter-Penguin either," Maddy said. "Those just sound weird."

Misaki cocked her head. "How could you have not heard of them? Only everyone knows about them!" Setsuko shared a glance with Rue, remembering a similar conversation they had years ago.

A smile appeared on Rue's face at their shared glance, and the memories that came rushing back.

"You haven't heard of snakes," Maddy pointed out. "And everyone has heard about them too."

"I haven't," Sumi injected gruffly, "And I've heard of quite a lot of animals!"

Before the conversation continued further, Setsuko took a deep breath and interrupted. "Ok, enough about the animals!" She took another deep breath and this time, though she addressed the children, she looked at Rue. "There's something we need to tell you guys."

Rue was completely happy to let Setsuko do the talking at the moment, but she did move to stand closer to the bi-bender.

Setsuko knelt down, turning towards the children, now eye-level with Misaki and Tess. "You know how we seem so different?" She asked, her voice low. "How we seem to know such different places?" Some of the kids nodded. "It seems like we're from two different worlds, doesn't it?" Again, a few nodded. Kanna murmured, "Yeah." "Well," Setsuko continued, "We are. We're from two very different places." The group inside the icey dome was silent as the group processed the thought.

"How is that even possible?" Gale asked, thoroughly confused and slightly creeped out.