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Chapter 2; An Unexpected Voyage
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It was a Tuesday. School had been the regular seven hour torture chamber it usually was, and being grounded for the second week for failing that chem test didn't help either. Overall, things were pretty bleak. I didn't have much to look forward to, nothing to do at the present, and the past was full of screw-ups and stupidity I'd like to leave behind.
The time was 5:49. School had been out for two hours, and already I found myself painfully bored, sitting in my room, reading a book that I despised simply for the sake of Lit class. I sighed, and placed the book on my desk. Looking around the room, not much intrigued me. I had my guitar, but I never got around to learning to play very well, and I'd already read all the books on my bookshelf. I glanced back at my desk, and eyed the empty spot in the center where the monitor would've been. She really did mean grounded from everything; computer, Playstation, phone, all gone.
I sighed, and walked out of my room, through the living room. Not much in here either. Looking outside, clouds hung low, and small flashes of lightning flickered in the distance. As if I wasn't bummed enough already. I grabbed my rain jacket from the living room closet, and pushed open the front door.
Mom apparently heard this from the other room and questioned, "Where are you going?"
"Out for a walk," I replied.
"I want you back in ten minutes."
"Fine!"
"Ten minutes!"
I stepped out into the front yard, and began surveying the neighborhood. It had definitely seen better days. The house directly across the street from us was the worst of all. It's bare wood exterior had splintered, and began to chip away, revealing sheet rock and plaster beneath. Useless junk and random boxes were stacked up to the ceiling of the car port, and the front door slammed open and shut in the wind, it's deadbolt and handle broken off long ago.
Without much further thought, I began advancing down the steep road in front of our house. The neighborhood had been built in the early seventies, and many were in states of disrepair. Gaudy yellows mixed with beige and white was the main color scheme. Plain colored cars sat in driveways, indicating no sense of creativity from its owner.
For sale and foreclosure signs dotted the sidewalk, indicating that the recession was still taking its toll. The population of the small neighborhood had dropped from almost one hundred, to just over thirty. The roads that once were filled with people and children walking animals were now all but deserted.
I walked further, trying to ignore the bleak setting. To the left of the road lay a large forest, stretching for miles. During the summers, my friends and I would always go in there and explore. It was a very thick forest, barely letting light in through the canopy. Small streaks of light shot through, dotting the ground with luminescence. To the right were more houses, each one eerily similar to the next, with the occasional for sale sign stabbed into the front lawn. I walked another hundred or so feet, until I reached a small access road on the left. It led between two houses to a clearing, and just beyond that was Lake Lanier.
I began to advance down the access road, until I was beyond the two houses, and approaching the small clump of forest that lay between the lake and our neighborhood. Birds chirped, and butterflies hopped from flower to flower, performing their natural duties. I sighed, and let a small smile form on my face. Whenever times were tough, I'd go down to the lake, and just take in all the nature. Birds could always be heard singing their cheery songs, squirrels would jump from tree to tree; it was always a good place to come to relax. During the summers, I could lie there for hours, looking up at the sky through the trees.
Looking up now, however, the sky was grey, but the balmy warmth of May still hung. I continued regardless. Soon the shimmering of the Lake was in sight. I jogged down to the shore and looked out. Boats were speeding across the surface, water skiers skimmed along after them, and families ate lunch on pontoon boats. My smile faded, however, as the boats began to clear, and the sky darkened. I looked up, and was promptly struck by a drop of rain. Crap. I gotta get home. I turned around, and began the trip back home, but began taking note of the increasing frequency of raindrops striking my head.
Flipping up my hood, I continued. Before long, I began hearing the low rumbling of thunder. Every few seconds, another rolling wave of bassy booming would erupt from the sky. Before long, however, the deep reverberating tones began to emerge as claps of lightning, and I could see the jagged outlines forming into wicked lines only miles away. I wasn't even halfway home, when a massive crack stood the hair on my neck on end, and clashed to the ground only a hundred feet away, falling a tree. My ears rang in pain, as my hearing slowly began to recover.
My steady walk soon became a hurried sprint, as the rain pelted harder and harder, and the wind sent rain drops flying like tiny missiles. Another tree fell in front of me, blocking off my path. My mind raced, and my heart pounded in my chest. Oh, no no no no no no! After struggling over the fallen tree, I resumed my sprint out of the forest, thunder clapping all around, and debris striking me all over. Soon, the empty pasture between the forest and the neighborhood was visible.
I hurdled over fallen trees, and dodged branches, and soon found myself just fifty feet from the pasture. Another tree fell just behind me. Forty feet. Lightning exploded a tree a hundred feet away, shooting splinters out like bullets. Thirty feet. A sudden gust whips rain in my face, and sends a branch just over my head. Twenty feet. I could only hear my own breathing. The pasture was so close. My feet pounded against the ground, sending me forward as fast as they would take me. Ten feet. Before I knew it, I was in the open, staring back at the forest in triumph, a dopey smile on my face.
My smile faded, however, as I heard a crackle from beneath me. The hairs on my neck stood straight out, and time slowed to a near stop. I couldn't tell what was happening, but it hurt. My jaw clamped down, and all my muscles seized up. An intense burning started at my shoes, and shot through my chest, and a white light flashed in my vision. Then it all went black.
~~~
When my eyes cracked open, I was laying down in some sort of forest. But something was off. It wasn't the forest I was just in. It was darker. After standing up, a piercing ringing plagued my ears, and my head ached. Looking down at my shoes, I saw that the fronts were singed, and tracing my gaze up to my shirt, I saw a large scorched hole. What happened? Last thing I remembered was running through the forest in a massive storm, and then... blank.
I shook my head, and tried to get my bearings. Looking to my right was just deeper forest, and directly in front of me was a large rock wall of some sort. Turning around, I discovered that I was near the ledge of a large cliff. Looking over the edge, I could judge the fall to be easily a hundred feet. Likely more. Once I looked out on the horizon, however, I saw a town. Something was familiar about it, but I couldn't quite tell, mostly because of the distance. It looked to be a couple miles away.
I scanned to the right, and noticed that the landscape was mostly empty pastures to what I now discovered was West, judging by the sun. However, in the center of a large orchard, located adjacent to the pastures was what looked to be a farm. Without hesitation, I turned to the right, and trekked down through the forest. The insects, and noises from the forest seemed to be similar to what you'd expect in South America, so I knew I was nowhere near home.
After an hour or so of walking through dense forest and thick undergrowth, I saw a light ahead. Walking further, I discovered that it was the edge of the forest. Without hesitating, I sprinted forward, desperate to get out of this place. The vines, and thickets hung low, and continued to grab at me, and whack me in the face. After a little while of this, I started running headlong, not even looking ahead of me, tired of being struck with vines and branches.
I ran into something- soft? Whatever it was, it was enough to trip me, and send me sprawling to the ground. It hit me at about waist level, so whatever it was, it was at least smaller than me. I reeled back to face the thing I ran into. It too, had been sent to the ground, and was recovering from the fall. Before I could get a look at it, a bright purple light shone from it, and blinded me.
It had a female voice, one that was so familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.
"I don't know who you are but you better explain yourse-" she was cut off.
"Where am I?" I said, not able to find any more appropriate response.
"You- you can talk?" she replied, obviously in astonishment.
"Of course I can talk."
The bright light dimmed, until only a small glow was irradiating from its- horn!? I jumped back, and tripped over a log that was behind me, letting out a pathetic yelp.
"Are you ok?" she called after me.
I formed the courage to peer over the log to get another good look at her. She was purple, and stood on all fours, and had a horn adorning the front of her head, which was casting a gentle light on me.
"Good evening," she began clearing her throat. "I'm-"
"Twilight Sparkle," I said, cutting her off.
She looked at me with apprehension. "How did you know that?"