Alice world won't open
 

I put about a month of work (an hour and a half each day) into this world, and suddenly one day it won't open because of an error. I would go back to a backup, but it goes back way too far (about a week loss of progress) and I'd rather not lose it.
Here's the error:
Unable to load world

Alice version: 2.4.1
os.name: Mac OS X
os.version: 10.9.2
os.arch: x86_64
java.vm.name: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
java.vm.version: 20.65-b04-462
user.dir: /Applications/Alice 2.4.app/Contents/Required

Throwable that caused the error:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: Not Found: dragon/breath fire/__Unnamed3__/__Unnamed0__/elementData.xml
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.io.ZipFileTreeLoader.readFile(ZipFileTreeLoader.java:129)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.Element.load(Element.java:1445)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.Element.load(Element.java:1495)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.Element.load(Element.java:1495)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.Element.load(Element.java:1495)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.Element.load(Element.java:1495)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.Element.load(Element.java:1543)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.authoringtool.dialog.LoadElementProgressPane.construct(LoadElementProgressPane.java:42)
at edu.cmu.cs.stage3.progress.ProgressPane$2.run(ProgressPane.java:86)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:695)

I have a general knowledge of the coding and I know where to look to find it, but I don't know exactly how to best fix the problem without screwing more things up, as I am afraid to do. If anyone know's how to help that would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you for your time and help! :)

deleting missing object reference from the .xml file
 

If you are comfortable with this, you can open the .a2w file (which is a .zip compressed file), find the appropriate .xml file referenced in the error message, and delete all references to the missing object. Save the .xml file, re-zip the project, rename it as .a2w, and it may work for you.

Let us know if that does not work for you, and send us the file directly to [email]don@alice.org[/email]