Book One: The Era of Change

Chapter One: An Encounter in the Woods

Naomi's pov

Ugh...w-...what?

When consciousness greeted me after the initial darkness I could feel light seep through my lids slightly. They snapped shut as soon as they had opened.

Okay there was light. Light is bad.

Slowly cracking my eyes open again, I could make out some blurry shapes this time. As I shook off the lethargy, I propped myself up to survey my surroundings.

The last thing I remembered...oh god. Ice skating...Eva getting hurt...Keira losing it with Grace...someone laughing. Then nothing.

I looked around frantically after noticing my surroundings were decidedly less cold and a lot more green. A forest? Okay, I must be going crazy. My last memory clearly tells me that we were in an ice rink. An ice rink.

Breathe....

After checking in with my emotions, I popped the edging fear to the side for a moment and analysed the clearing around me.

My classmates were sprawled on the ground in the clearing, all in the different stages of waking up. Many were rubbing their eyes in disbelief and frantically evaluating their surroundings.

Catching a glimpse of mouse brown hair, I nodded mentally. Good, Eva looked fine. Other than the fact that her hair seemed slightly brighter and redder than usual, there wasn't anything off about her.

Turning around, I caught Keira's eye.

"Hello?" I waved my hand in front of her face.

Keira's pov

Total darkness. For a while longer, the world remained black and silent.

And when I did open my eyes, what I saw was not the ice rink ceiling, but greenery. I bolt up by reflex and swung my gaze around, alertness kicking in.

What the...where am I? Well, where are we?

How long did I blackout for? Seconds? Minutes? Hours, maybe?

"Hello?"

I blinked, "Ah. Oh, hi,"

Naomi's unimpressed face came into view.

"I don't think it's time to be daydreaming,"

"I don't either. But what is this?" I scratch my nose, "We were in the ice rink, then Eva got tripped, I remember seeing you fall as well. Then...well, then nothing,"

"And now we're someone in a forest, in the middle of nowhere. I don't even hear any cars. Convenient," Naomi muttered, looked around at the class.

"I know right?" I groaned.

"Ugh, I knew something bad was gonna happen today but I didn't expect everything to go to shit so quickly," Shiori grouched, scanning the clearing once more.

"It's freaking supernatural, don't you think?" I muttered.

Naomi's pov

"What is supernatural?" I asked, with a tilt of my head.

"Everyone looks the same," she continued as I frowned.

Of course they do the look the same. Did she expect them to look different?

"But Eva and Ella are starting to look like different people," she whispered.

Oh.

And indeed. As I looked towards my two friend who were busily gaping at each other like fish out of water, their hair had somehow turned red. And their faces were morphing. With each passing moment they were beginning to look more and more alike.