A World Away

Chapter 1

She ran her fingers through her long brown hair. The chilly night air enveloped her body and left her exposed skin cool and calm. She looked peaceful, almost as if she could spend an eternity out here.

It's where she would call home. The powerful smell of pine trees and the crisp northern air were things that she would never take for granted. The simplicity of nature was simply alluring.

The trails behind her neighborhood park were unknown to most of the rural town, but she knew them so well she may as well have had a map of the trails carved into the back of her hand. The trail to her favorite spot didn't start off as a trail, but rather only became one throughout the years that her shoes paved the way to it.

She sat on the edge of a beaten down rock wall that wore the scars of an eternity of the river water weathering it away. Her feet dangled over the edge of the wall, just a few inches over the water, swinging back and forth carelessly.

The trees around her started to rustle, disturbing the perfect peace of mind that only the seclusion into the natural world can bring. Her parents used to reprimand her for what they thought was her being absent-minded, when in reality she was simply lost in the beauty that only the natural world can bring.

She looked up at the night sky in order to use her imagination at creating constellations. She was too busy observing and living to be bothered with memorizing parts of books and maps on the stars. She was too creative for that.

That night the sky looked peculiar. It seemed to have a light blue hue to it rather than its normal black. Her eyes were focused on one star, watching as it appeared to be getting bigger and bigger.

No way, is that a shooting star? She thought to herself, clasping her hands down on the rock wall to try to get a better look at the sky from between the branches of the trees that surrounded her. In all her time in the woods she had never seen a shooting star before, but had always dreamed of seeing one.

The circular object kept getting closer and closer, intensifying the light blue coloring in the night sky. She watched as it hurdled towards her. She stood up abruptly, craning her neck to get a view of the object that appeared as if it would touch down in the forest.

Her heart started beating faster and faster as it looked as if, for a brief moment, that the object was headed straight for her. Fortunately, it sped overhead farther into the forest.

It slowed down as it approached the top of the trees, and seemed to hover momentarily before descending. It caused a large crack in the distance as the object effortlessly split the trees in half to make room for itself to land.

The girl snapped her head around to where the noise the came from, and turned. She started running towards it to investigate. Leaves crinkled under her shoes as she ran into parts of the woods that she had never explored. She started breathing heavier and heavier with each step she took. Her legs burned and her chest started to ache, but she kept running.

She slowed down as she approached a clearing in the woods, wiping the sweat on her forehead with her worn out gray sweatshirt.

She stood frozen with awe as the light radiating from the foreign object was blinding.

She gasped as a sudden flash caused the lights to dim, revealing what crashed down in the clearing.

"It... can't be," she mumbled in awe.