Here With Me | Neteyam 💙

💙 ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 1

Giggling like a maniac, Hazel closed her eyes as a breath of relief escaped her lips.

She was surrounded by the sound of wings flapping near her ears as the wind brushed against her skin. This creature, a hybrid between a dragon and a bird, took her on another trip in her dream.

As it swooped down toward the vast scenery of flora and fauna, she clung to its neck, straddling its body as it landed with a loud thud.

Jumping off its back, she felt ticklish in her bare feet as they came into contact with the grass. Running through the forest, she brushed passed trees and plants of every kind, her laughter echoing in the wind.

Across the purple and blue sky, she can make out the faint outline of another planet. Wherever she was, she had no clue. She had never seen anything like this place, its animals, or its plants.

But she was intrigued, mesmerized by the beauty it has to offer. So, she traversed its land with every chance she got when she fell into dreamland.

In the distance, she heard a boy's voice and stopped in her tracks.

"Kiri, wake up! We have to go."

"Oh Eywa, she's doing that thing again, isn't she?"

This time, a little girl's voice.

Taking cover behind a tree, she held her breath. Then she heard it, the slightest sound of a heart beating in the nature around her. Thump. Thump.

When a girl's whisper, carried by the breeze, touched her ear, her eyes grew wide.

"Who are you?"

Gasping for air, she woke up with her heart accelerating against her chest, drenched in a cold sweat. She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the dim lighting in her room.

Glancing at the clock on her nightstand, she frowned. The clock read 6:28 in the morning, barely two minutes before her alarm went off. Her two extra minutes of sleep before school could have made a world of difference.

Begrudgingly, she forced herself to get up and start her morning routine.

Over the past several months, Hazel had been having strange dreams about a world she had never seen before. It was like something out of a fantasy novel or film.

In search of information about the place she had dreamed about, she searched her school library and the public library in town. No matter what she did, she was left with nothing.

"Good morning, crazy girl," her grandmother greeted her.

Sitting in her rocking chair, she knitted away at a quilt she was going to give to the neighbor's grandfather.

"Morning, gran," Hazel returned her greeting, a slanted smile on her lips as she took out a carton of orange juice and took a sip.

"Ugh, Haze, how many times do I have to tell you to stop drinking from the carton?"

Having licked the excess juice from her lip, she turned to her mother, who was standing in the middle of the staircase with a basket full of dirty laundry.

"Mom, you and gran don't even drink this. I'm literally the only one." She flashed her mother an innocent smile.

Her mother rolled her eyes in response. After putting the orange juice back in the fridge, Hazel grabbed her car keys from the hook on the wall and bid them farewell.

"I'm off! I gotta pick up Jules for school today."

"Hey, don't forget about tonight's graduation party for Nathan! And don't be late!" Her mother hollered after her.