The time-traveler that doesn't know the magic word.

“No.” The lumberjack repeats in a dry, unemotional tone to the woman’s pleas.

“W-what do you mean no?”

“No means no.”

“You can see I need your help can’t you?” The other-worlder despairs. “Come on you just have to push a lit–”

“Nuh uh.”

“Stop interrupting me!!”

Right when the sun had set, the lumberjack stood face-to-face with the one that obviously isn’t from this era. He took his axe with both of his hands, staring at her with the most serious expression, not blinking once.

“You inside that strange machine, what exactly are you? What is your objective? If you can’t answer at least that much, then you won’t get any help.”

“…Of course, no matter the era anyone would be suspicious.” she somewhat calms down. “I’m from the future. I was sent here for a mission but…” She stops herself, the face stretched out by stress and urgency. “But I have to get back, I can’t leave her alone!”

“Then your objective is to go into that rift?”

“Yes!” She answers gladly. “Finally you get it, then–”

“Say the magic word.”

“…Euh?”

Silence overtakes the chaotic clearing, leaving only the sound of burning metal and croaking birds.

“The, what word?”

“The magic word.” He repeats confidently. “You know, that word.”

“No no, I don’t get what you’re talking about. Is it a custom in here or something?”

“If you really come from the future, no matter how far, then you should know the magic word.”

“And I’m saying!” She becomes more nervous, her teeth clenched tight. “I don’t have a damn clue of what the magic word is!”

“Lies, you can’t not know the magic word, every living being knows it, even far back in the past.”

“Am I really going to repeat myself? Argh enough, you’re so useless!” She pushes the tree trunk blocking the opening of her shattered cockpit, giving up on convincing the local jokester of a woodcutter. “I don’t have time for this, I’ll be damned if I waste another second talking to you.”

Pushing with her hands and legs she audibly struggles at making it move, something she utterly fails at. 
Something this size must be over 300 kilograms, and combined with the effect of gravity, it makes it impossible to move. 

And yet she keeps pushing desperately.
The lumberjack sighs, approaching even more, his axe still in his grasp.

“You know, it would be much more simple if you said the magic word.”

“Shut your trap, not talking to you anymore!”

“As you wish.” He retorts cynically.

At that exact moment, a sharp, high-pitched sound rings from the machine at intervals. 
What could that be, some sort of alert, the lumberjack thinks as he hears it.
Looking over the woman, he notices her terrified expression full of cold sweats.

“No.” She puts her hands over her head. “No no no no no no that’s not happening… You!”

“Me?”

“Yes you! Stop pointing at yourself like a dumb idiot!”

“Hey I’m not dumb alright? I won the vocabulary contest of the village three times in a row.”

“Who cares, come help me get this trunk out of the way!”

“Oh so now you want me to help.”

“Yes, I want you, to help, ME! How am I supposed to say it?”

“Okay… Then say the magic word.”

“AGAIN??” The time-traveler screams in a dry, fatigued voice. “Are we really doing this? Again? I told you fifty times already, I don’t know that damn magic word!!”

“Pretty sure it was just once.”

“That’s not the point!”

The repetitive noise, followed by indescribable sounds of garbled voices gets faster and faster. It doesn’t fail at making the woman gasp in shock, as she makes a most distressed expression.

“Hey, let’s make a deal.” She suggests with an uneasy smile. “I’ll agree to any of your requests if you get me out of the cockpit, alright? I’ll even let you bind me or imprison me if it’ll make you feel safer so… Will you help me?”

An earnest plea, with a sincerity she had not shown until now.
Hearing this, the tension and fear of the unknown that had built up in the lumberjack finally eased a bit. 
So with a smile, he poses his one and only condition.

“I agree.”

To this, the time-traveler sighs in relief.

“But only if you say the magic word.”

“Why the magic word again??”

“Because it’s what’s due to anyone you’re asking something of. The basic of basics, the respectful magic word that has your demands met for sure. Do you really not have it in the future?”

“What are you even talking about? I just want to get out, is it that hard to understand? Are the people of the past all comedians?”

“Good of you to mention that, I also won the comedy contest in the village.”

“That’s not, the damn, point!! Arghh!” She screams, exasperated, kicking heavily on the trunk. “How can someone be so infuriating!”

Again the ticking noise accelerates, and suddenly becomes a constant ear-ringing noise heralding immediate danger. A sound that drives her completely mad.

“The Frame! The Frame will explode!”

“Wait explode?” The lumberjack is genuinely surprised. “What do you mean explode?”

“What do you mean ‘What do you mean’? Wasn’t that hellish sound enough to clue you in?”

“I’m not the one from the future, how was I supposed to know that it would explode?”

“…Ahh, I hate my life.” Exhausted and panicked, with her tearful face, she can only utter her last plea. “I’LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT SO PLEASE HELP ME!!!”

“SO YOU KNOW THE MAGIC WORD AFTER ALL!!!”

With a precise, powerful downward strike he slashes open the metallic cage of her cockpit on one side, and quickly extracts her. 
The time-traveler on his back, he doesn’t hesitate to run away from the smoking, smoldering mass of metal and–

“Ahhh! GET DOWN!”

As prophesied, an explosion. 
A big, ridiculous explosion.
Three whole days of woodcutting done in an instant too quick to be measured.
Entire trees torn to pieces, falling like rain—a most dangerous rain.

“I’m alive.” Whispers the woman on his back. “Am I still alive?”

“You’re still alive.”

“Didn’t ask you.” She retorts angrily, but suddenly looks up as if remembering something. “The gate!”

They both stare at the sky that’s been torn by whichever unknown cosmic force, it turned back into the shape of a star, now a five-legged star.

“Oh no oh no oh no I have to, I have to get back. But the Metal Frame just… But I have to… UAHHHHHH!!!!”

Torn in desire and helplessness, her breathing rougher and rougher, her tears unstopping, she can only stare.
Stare at the three-legged star.

“This can’t be happening…”

It changes shape again, taking the form of a single line in the form of a lozenge.

“I have to… No…”

And like a candle that is swiftly snuffed out, it disappears, returning the sky its colors. From a dreary grayscale, to an evening blue. She cannot believe what she sees, so she closes her eyes in denial.

“Mom…”

And falls unconscious in shock.