WINTER 2013, JUST AFTER THE PORTAL OPENS

As soon as the gravitational anomalies ended, Andrew felt the change.

The minotaurs were huddled in a system of caves that ran beneath their village, with nothing but glowfly lanterns to light the caverns. They had been here for about eighteen hours; the elders had ordered everyone underground once the gravitational anomalies started. Andrew deferred to the wisdom of the elders (they had, after all, been alive last time this happened), but he was restless, and he knew the other minotaurs were, too. They wanted to get outside and check on their homes and see the extent of the damage from the gravitational anomalies. They wanted to take their calves (or, children) away from the sharp edges of rock that threatened to impale them whenever a new anomaly started. Their calves, too, wanted to get outside and run around.

Andrew's calves, he knew, were no exception. His wife, Moira, was busy trying to keep them still and check for injuries; Andrew knew that he should help, but he was too dazed. Gravity had returned after the last anomaly; and with it, something had changed. Andrew didn't know what had changed, exactly, but he felt dizzy and unsettled. He felt as if gravity were still missing, even though it had settled back to normal.

"Andrew? Andrew!"

It was Moira, calling his name. He turned, blinking rapidly, trying to focus on her and not on the strange feeling in his mind. "Yes?"

"Can you hold Timmy?" Moira held their infant son, Timothy, in her arms, and she offered him to Andrew. The baby was cheerful, despite the anomalies, and he held his little arms out to his father. Andrew silently took Timmy from Moira, and she hurried off to go catch their daughter, Naomi, before she could get into any mischief.

Andrew looked down at Timmy, and the strange feeling only increased.

"What is it, Timmy?" he asked softly, shifting the baby closer to his chest. "What's different? Why do I feel like this?"

In his periphery, he saw a sudden motion. "You feel it too, Papa?"

Andrew turned. His eldest son, Enoch, stared up at him with his round black eyes. "Feel what?" asked Andrew. He sat down next to his son, who was seated on the cave floor. "What exactly do you feel?" His voice was urgent; he wanted to know what was going on.

"I. . . I don't know how to describe it," Enoch said. He reached up and grabbed one of his horns, pulling on it as he did when he was agitated. "It's like. . . like everything sped up."

Andrew shifted Timmy into one arm, then reached out and gently pulled Enoch's hand away from his horns. "Do you have this dizzy feeling?" he asked.

Enoch nodded. "I don't like it. It feels like something huge just happened, but I don't know what it is."

"Right," Andrew said. "I feel like that, too."

Enoch moved closer to his dad and leaned against his side. "Is it just us?" he asked. "Is it. . . is it something to do with the prophecy?"

Andrew looked around the cave. It was hard to tell if anybody else felt the same way that he and Enoch did, as almost everybody was bound to be dizzy and unsettled after that last gravitational anomaly. Gravity had disappeared, then pulled upwards, then disappeared again. They were just lucky that nobody was, as far as Andrew could tell, badly hurt.

Still, nobody seemed to be affected by whatever had affected Andrew and Enoch. Everybody was up and moving, trying to find their calves or shake off the effects of the anomalies.

"I think it's just us," Andrew said. "Which means. . . it probably is the prophecy."

Andrew had one of the most important jobs in the minotaur village — in the entire forest, really. He was the principal guardian over Bill Cipher's prison. He knew exactly what Cipher had to do to escape from this dimension, and he was the one in charge of preventing that. Enoch, as the eldest son, was apprenticed to Andrew; someday, he would take over as the guardian. If Andrew and Enoch felt something magical or strange, and nobody else did, then it meant that something in Cipher's prison had changed.

"What is it, then? What changed?" Enoch was eight years old — the equivalent of a human twelve-year-old — yet in that moment he appeared even younger. His mental connection to Cipher's prison was only just forming, and he wasn't used to it the way Andrew was.

"I'm not sure," Andrew said. He cast his mind back, thinking it through. Yesterday, he had met Stanford and Dipper Pines, two members of the Cipher Wheel prophecy. They had gotten fuel from the spaceship crash site so that Stanford could power his machine. And the purpose of the machine—

Andrew's brain stumbled to a stop.

"The time bubble," he whispered.

"What?"

"Remember when I told you about the time bubble?" Andrew gently pushed Enoch off him, stood up, and started pacing. "Stanford Pines just opened an interdimensional portal. He told me that one of the Symbols — his brother — was on the other side. If the portal just opened, then the gravitational anomalies are over, and Stanford's brother is back. He must be the ninth Symbol to come here."

Enoch jumped to his feet. "And when nine Symbols are here, then the time bubble forms," he said.

Andrew nodded. "That's why we feel so strange. Time itself just shifted, and it won't revert until all ten Symbols are here."

Surely that was the answer. It made the most sense.

Even when he said it, though, it didn't feel quite right.

"Don't run off like that, Naomi. Let's go back to Papa." Moira had returned, with Naomi trailing behind her. "Andrew," Moira continued, "do you think the anomalies are over?"

"I think so," Andrew replied.

"Aww," Naomi complained. "They were so fun." Naomi was six, which meant she had the maturity of a human ten-year-old. The anomalies had brought her much entertainment — and her desire to play in them had brought Moira much worry.

"Well, they're over now," said Moira, and she didn't bother to hide the relief in her voice. "Now — where is Drew? Stay here, Naomi, while I go find your brother."

"Don't worry about that," said a new voice. "I've got him."

Andrew's brother, Caleb, strolled over to them with four-year-old Drew on his shoulders. The young minotaur (about seven years old, in human terms) clung to his uncle's horns. "Can we do it again, Uncle Caleb? I wanna fly!"

"Sorry, bud, no more flying," said Caleb. He looked to Moira and Andrew. "It's been about eighteen hours. If there isn't another anomaly in the next fifteen minutes, then the elders are going to let us go back outside."

"I think the anomalies are over," Andrew said. "I can feel it."

Caleb nodded, unsurprised. "Should I go tell the elders, then?"

"I'll do it," Andrew said. "I have more to tell them than just that."

"Caleb, can you watch the calves with me while Andrew does that?" asked Moira. The four calves were quite the handful for one person.

"I'll go with Papa," said Enoch. All the same, Caleb agreed to stay with Moira. He had a way with Drew that neither Andrew nor Moira seemed to have, and he was very helpful to have around when the calves were feeling rambunctious.

"Let's go, then." Andrew held his arms out, and Moira took Timmy back.

Then, suddenly, Andrew found his eyes fixed on his infant son. He froze.

"Papa? What's wrong?" Enoch tugged on Andrew's arm.

"Timmy," Andrew said.

"What about him?" asked Moira.

"He's. . ." Andrew's hand went up to his horns. "Moira. . . how old is Timmy?"

Moira tilted her head in confusion. "Well, he's an infant. He was only born a couple weeks. . ." She stopped, then tried again. "A couple months. . ."

She trailed off, looking bewildered.

Oh, no.

"Babies grow quickly," Andrew said, "but Timmy looks just like he did a few weeks ago. Has he aged at all?"

Moira held Timmy close to her chest. "What are you saying, Andrew?" She sounded worried.

"I'm saying. . . I'm saying. . ."

It was Enoch who said it. "The time bubble," he said. "It didn't just start. It just stopped."

Andrew realized it just as Enoch said it. "It stopped." He pulled on his horns, forgetting that it was a habit he discouraged in his own calves. "Enoch — we have to go."

"Wait," Moira said. "What are you talking about? Why hasn't Timmy aged? You're — you're right; he should be a lot bigger than this, but. . . why. . . What's going on, Andrew?"

"The prophecy." Andrew grabbed Enoch's hand. "Every Symbol is here. I'm sorry, Moira, but we have to go."

Andrew led Enoch through the cave, weaving through the other minotaurs as he tried to find the elders. "Papa," Enoch panted, "shouldn't we have felt the time bubble start?"

"We should have," Andrew said. "We should have known about it. I missed it somehow." He felt like kicking himself. How could he have missed this? The time bubble was built into Cipher's prison for the safety of those who guarded it. It was supposed to give the minotaurs and other creatures of the forest time to deliberate about what to do when the tenth Symbol came into the prison. And Andrew had missed it.

"All ten Symbols are here," Andrew said. Enoch stumbled behind him, but Andrew didn't slow down. "The entire forest separated from the rest of the dimension. The next thing that Cipher has to do to further his escape. . . is to get the dagger."

"But — but Cipher doesn't know that we have it, right?"

"Right, but that's all he'll be looking for now," said Andrew. "We have to guard it — and, as soon as we can, we have to get all ten Symbols together."

They rounded a corner, and the elders came into view. Andrew felt a bit of relief: The elders could help him figure out what to do next. Still, he couldn't completely assuage his inner panic. He had missed the time bubble — and that put the creatures of the forest at a major disadvantage against Bill.

"What news, Andrew?" The elders looked concerned when they saw Andrew's hurry. Twánat, an elder with salt-and-pepper hair, stepped forward. "Are the anomalies over?"

"I believe so," Andrew said. "Enoch and I felt a change in the prison, and I think Stanford Pines opened his portal. His brother must have come out."

"So we have another Symbol?" another elder asked.

"Yes," Andrew said. "But there's more than that. We think. . . we think that Stanford's brother was the tenth Symbol to enter the forest."

The elders glanced at each other. "The last?" asked Twánat. "What happened to the time bubble?"

"It just ended," Andrew said. "The time bubble went up who knows how long ago. We missed it."

A few elders threw their heads back in surprise. "How could we miss it?" one of them demanded.

"I don't know. I should have felt it. But I didn't even notice. My infant son hasn't grown in weeks, maybe months, and I didn't even notice that something was wrong."

A troubled silence arose, surrounding Andrew like a thick blanket. Finally, Twánat spoke. "This is troubling news," he said, though that was quite an understatement. "We'll have to convene later to discuss it further. Right now, if the anomalies are over as you say, Andrew, we need to get back outside and take stock of the damage. Is everyone in agreement to leave?"

The elders nodded their agreement. "It's about time we got out of these caves," one of them muttered.

With that, the elders sent Andrew and Enoch to go spread the news: It was time for the minotaurs to go back outside and return to their homes.

If they still had homes to return to.

Andrew gathered his family and led them out of the caves. For the rest of the day, they cleaned up around the village, salvaging whatever they could and making plans to rebuild the damaged huts. Through it all, Andrew could hardly stay focused on the work. He was too busy thinking about the time bubble — and condemning himself for missing it.

All ten Symbols were here. If Bill Cipher got possession of the dagger — the dagger that Andrew had sworn to protect — then the demon could begin his escape. Andrew felt as if he were the only one standing between Cipher and freedom.

He could only hope, then, that he could stay standing.

~~~~~

It wasn't until the evening that Caleb could finally slip away.

The village was in shambles after the anomalies, and everyone was confused because of the time jump. They had lost more than three hours to the time bubble, and that was hard to get used to. The elders and Andrew did their best to keep everyone calm and organize the rebuilding of the town, but no one was quite ready to get to work after the gravitational anomalies. Least of all Caleb.

For the rest of the day, he worried. He stayed close to his family, doing his best to keep his niece and nephews entertained while Andrew and Moira worked. All the while, he worried about the other side of his family — the secret side.

Caleb walked beside the small cliffs that surrounded the minotaur village. The rock walls loomed over him, casting deeper shadows than were already present from the night. He reached the edge of the village, then slipped out into the dark forest beyond. His hooves took him automatically along a path he'd walked hundreds of times before — but this time, he didn't know if anyone would be waiting for him when he got to his destination.

He didn't have to wonder for long, thankfully. He could soon see the beam of a flashlight in the distance, and his heart lifted. She was here. That had to be her. She was safe.

Though no one in his village knew it, Caleb — the bachelor brother of Andrew — considered himself married. He had a wife; he even had a child; but he had to keep them a secret from the other minotaurs. Caleb's marriage was official only in his mind.

For no minotaur would ever allow him to marry a human.

Caleb approached the clearing. This place was the sanctuary for him and his wife; they had been meeting here for over thirteen years. Her flashlight pointed downwards and reflected brightly off the snow, and Caleb couldn't see her face. But he knew it was her.

"Yingtai," he called softly.

She started at the sound of his voice. "Caleb?" she whispered. She moved her flashlight to shine on him, and he winced in the artificial light. "Oh," she said, relief coming into her voice, "it's you."

"Yingtai," he said again, and his voice held the same amount of relief. Yingtai balanced her flashlight in the branches of a nearby tree, which created a bit of ambient light to see by, and Caleb moved across the clearing. He wrapped his arms around her. She was bundled up in winter clothes, but she still shivered in the cold night air. "You're freezing," Caleb said. "Do you have any mushrooms?"

She shook her head. "I couldn't find any in the dark," she said. "I'm okay, though."

Yes, that was true. She might be cold, but she was otherwise okay. Caleb held her close, grateful that she wasn't hurt. "What about Mei Xing?" he asked. "Is she all right?"

"She's not hurt," Yingtai said. "She's shaken from all this, but she's not hurt. She was the one who. . ." She stopped and looked up at him. "Do you know anything about the time bubble, Jiā lēi?"

"The time bubble?" He wasn't expecting that question. "Yes, my brother has been worrying about it all day. What do you know?"

"That it just ended, but nobody knew about it while it was here. We lost about three and a half hours when it ended, too. All ten of Cipher's Symbols are in town."

Caleb nodded. That's basically what Andrew had said.

"Mei Xing was the one who noticed," Yingtai said. "She noticed that the sun had moved through the sky."

"She's a smart girl," Caleb said.

"Yes, but it frightened her. And I don't know. . . I don't know how long I can keep things hidden from her." Yingtai leaned her head against Caleb's chest. "This is all moving so fast."

"Don't worry," Caleb assured her. He swayed back and forth with Yingtai in his arms. "It'll all be worth it when it's over. Cipher will take us to his dimension, and we can live in peace with our Candy. We won't have to keep secrets from her anymore."

Yingtai was quiet for a moment. Then, "She can finally meet her father," she said.

"Yes." Caleb had been waiting twelve years for his daughter to meet him. And now, with the time bubble over and the Symbols in town, that day was finally near. The thought made his throat close up. "I'll be with my baby," he whispered.

"Soon," Yingtai agreed. She looked up at Caleb again. "Jiā lēi — do you have any information about how we can help Cipher? How did you find out about the time bubble?"

Caleb met her gaze. Those eyes, he knew, held not only Yingtai's sight. They also provided a way for Bill Cipher to see into their conversation. Humans were a liability: Anything they said or did would be heard and seen by Cipher. It was why Andrew and the other minotaurs would never approve of Caleb's union with Yingtai — because they couldn't let Cipher see into their lives through Yingtai's human eyes.

But Caleb had decided long ago that helping Bill Cipher was the best way to get what he and Yingtai really wanted. Only in Cipher's dimension would they be free. Only in Cipher's dimension would they be able to live in peace with their daughter. Caleb didn't mind that Cipher could see through Yingtai if it meant working for that goal.

"Andrew is the head guardian over Cipher's prison," Caleb said. "Remember? He knows about all this. He and my nephew Enoch were the ones who realized that the time bubble had stopped."

"Do you know what the next step is, then?" asked Yingtai. "Did Andrew say anything about that?"

"I'm not sure," Caleb said. "We were busy today with the cleanup from the anomalies. But I overheard him saying something about a dagger to Enoch, and the two of them left for a while. And he mentioned to me that he was horrified that we'd missed the time bubble. He seems like he's taking on all the stress of keeping Cipher imprisoned."

Caleb hated when Andrew got like this. If only Caleb could make Andrew see the truth — that Cipher's escape was a good thing, that Caleb needed it to be with his wife and daughter — then maybe Andrew wouldn't be so worried all the time. Maybe Andrew would be able to work with Cipher instead of against him.

"I wish we could tell Andrew that it's okay," Yingtai said, echoing Caleb's thoughts. "He's so misinformed."

"I know," Caleb said. "But if we did that before the time was right, he would only keep us apart." Being kept away from Yingtai wasn't an option. The only solution, as much as it pained Caleb to admit it, was to work against Andrew behind his back.

Yingtai nodded. "You should contact Cipher, then, and keep him updated. See if you can find out anything else from Andrew."

"I'll do that," Caleb said.

They stood there in silence for a moment, swaying together in the cold breeze. Then Yingtai spoke up again. "Tomorrow, the Order is meeting to research more about Cipher's prison and the Cipher Wheel prophecy," she said. "I didn't want to go — you know how reading English gives me a headache — but maybe I should. Then I can tell you what we find out."

"And we'll be able to compare," Caleb said, nodding. "You should attend." He didn't envy her. Reading English gave him a headache, too. Andrew, like many minotaurs, was diligent in studying English and reading the books they had (the King James Bible, journals written by American settlers, simple grammar books for teaching the native human tribes) in order to better speak and understand the language for the rare occasions when he spoke with humans — but Caleb was not so studious as his brother. Caleb knew how to speak English, since it was the only language that he and Yingtai had in common; but he preferred the language spoken in his village, which was a mixture between English, the Sahaptin language of the Yakama tribe, and the native minotauran language spoken in their dimension of origin. Even though his native tongue was a jumble of other languages, it was still the language most familiar and comfortable to Caleb.

"All right," Yingtai said. She didn't exactly look happy about going to the Order meeting, but she understood the necessity. "I'll try to come back tomorrow night. I. . . I should probably leave you now."

"Already?" asked Caleb.

"I told Candy that I wouldn't be gone long," Yingtai said apologetically. "I don't want to worry her."

"Right," Caleb said reluctantly. "I'll let you go, then. But first," he added, "let's find some mushrooms for you. I don't want you to freeze on the way."

Yingtai looked like she wanted to protest, but Caleb wouldn't have it. So she followed her husband as he went off to look for mushrooms — and not just any mushrooms, but a particular species of mushroom with spores that magically gave off heat. Caleb could see far better in the dark than Yingtai could, and it wasn't long before he found some mushrooms that he handed to her. "There," he said. "Put those under your gloves. That'll keep you warm."

"I'd rather just stay with you," Yingtai said, giving Caleb one last hug.

"Me too," he said. "But Mei Xing needs you."

She held him close. "I love you, Jiā lēi."

"I love you, too."

Yingtai took her flashlight and left. Just like that, Caleb was left alone again. Alone, without his wife. Without his daughter.

He turned and trudged back to the minotaur village. He'd see Yingtai again tomorrow. That thought kept him going. Sometime before she came, he needed to learn what he could from Andrew, then contact Cipher to tell him. And there was still plenty of rebuilding to do after the gravitational anomalies.

But it was worth it, he told himself. It would all be worth it. Someday, everything he was doing would pay off.

Someday, he'd be able to live openly with his wife and his daughter.