Sam and Daria: Adventures on the Moon Titan

I sat up in bed, my chest heaving for air. My mind was running in a thousand directions at once. I looked over to see Daria sleeping peacefully beside me. Her blonde hair was splayed out around her head like some kind of halo. She was only wearing one of my white t-shirts and the moonlight cascaded across her pale skin, making her look almost angelic.

I took a deep breath and leaned over to kiss her forehead. She stirred and let out a soft moan as she pulled the covers up closer to her chin.

"Daria," I whispered, "are you awake?"

She mumbled something unintelligible and rolled over towards me. The moonlight illuminated her face and I saw that, even in sleep, she had a serene expression on her face. A small smile crept across my lips as I looked at her, remembering how we'd fallen asleep after our latest adventure together. After a moment, I gently shook her shoulder again.

"Daria?" This time she opened her eyes halfway and looked up at me with a dazed expression on her face.

"Sam? Is it morning already?" She yawned and stretched before closing her eyes again. "I'm so tired."

"No," I said, my voice taking on a strange urgency that I barely recognized as my own. "Daria! Wake up! Something's wrong!"

Her eyes snapped open and she looked at me with a start, now fully awake within seconds.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Her voice took on a worried edge as she sat up next to me on the bed and wrapped the covers around herself loosely. I didn't answer her immediately; instead, I just stared at her until she broke eye contact with me and turned around to look at the clock on my bedside table. As if by magic (and maybe it was), the clock seemed suddenly to be glowing like it does when it tells us what time it is in another place or time. But this time, it wasn't showing us any numbers or locations: instead, there was just an image inside the glass tube -- an image of Daria and myself standing side by side in front of an enormous tree in a garden full of flowers larger than any flowers I'd ever seen before -- flowers that were changing colors faster than anyone's eyes could follow -- all set against the backdrop of an immense castle floating high above the clouds in space!