In an hour more the entire party was in the valley, standing beside the little circular opening out of which they had come.
The Very Young Man found himself beside Aura, a little apart from the others, who gathered to discuss their plan for growing out of the valley.
"It isn't much of a trip, is it, Aura?" the Very Young Man said. "Do you realize, we're nearly there?"
The girl looked around her curiously. The valley of the scratch appeared to them now hardly more than a quarter of a mile in width. Aura stared upwards between its narrow walls to where, several thousand feet above, a narrow strip of gray-blue sky was visible.
"That sky—is that the sky of your world?" she exclaimed. "How pretty it is!"
The Very Young Man laughed.
"No, Aura, that's not our sky. It's only the space in the room above the ring. When we get the size we are going to be finally, our heads will be right up in there. The real sky with its stars will be even then as far above us as your sky at Arite was above you."
Aura breathed a long sigh. "It's too wonderful—really to understand, isn't it?" she said.
The Very Young Man pulled her down on the ground beside him.
"The most wonderful part, Aura, is going to be having you up there." He spoke gently; somehow whenever he thought of this fragile little girl-woman up in his strange bustling world, he felt himself very big and strong. He wanted to be her protector, and her teacher of all the new and curious things she must learn.