Binta popped the curvy hood. Tripp looked over the fluted edges of the shell and stared in disbelief. "Why is the rain falling up?"

The words plucked a thread of inspiration in Binta's mind: "rain"..."up"... suddenly the marmalade philosopher realized a curtain of water hid the island. The field mouse pointed to a heaped, dark cloud with vapor rising into it from the ocean. "Plutarch's lives! That's it!" Binta shouted with a rich brogue.

The shaggy tinker flipped a switch. Two mechanized oars folded out to row in steady cadence toward the billowing mass. Within a veil of dense sea spray, the voyagers learned the secret border came from steam vents that encompassed an awe-inspiring precipitous volcano cone that looked like it belonged to an omniscient giant sorcerer who commanded the elements just by donning it for a peaked hat.

Sea turtles flapped their fippers like wings over stunning ancient ruins of a complex civilization sprinkled among the waving seaweeds on a coral reef that bloomed like flowers lying just under the wrinkled surface of the shallow water. Jets of water sprayed from prismatic hot springs. Fish jumped out of the water to eat berries from lush tropical vegetation that surrounded the earthly paradise resembling a fairyland. They eagerly paddled into the mouth of a tunnel.