FW Chapter 1: Twilight Falls

The track stretched out far before her. In the distance the heat waves rose off the rubberish red track into the sun bleached sky. She leaned forward in her stance, balling her hands into fists and tensing up like an arrow about to be released. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the track, their emerald green color sparkling with anticipation. This was her time. Her moment to shine. The shotgun was being raised into the air on the other end of the stretch. The trigger was being pulled.

"Adri!"

The slam of a ruler brought her back to reality. Adri snapped out of her revere to find the face of her history teacher glaring down at her. Around her she could see her classmates staring at her, some with snide smiles and others with looks of sympathy. At the other end of the room her friend Grace caught her eye, then shook her head and buried her head back in her book. Without any help, Adri faced the teacher alone. She smiled sheepishly and sighed, "Sorry Ms. Fletcher. Didn't get enough sleep last night."

Fletcher narrowed her eyes, then walked away continuing the lecture on the Civil War. Adri sank deep into her seat with a loud sigh of relief. She ran her hand through her hair thinking, Cut it close that time. Not wanting any more close calls she looked down at her book. It was pretty basic U.S. History, but for obvious reasons it bored Adri to death. The drawling of her teacher was the same lecture she had heard almost every single year since first grade. By now she could probably recite the whole events of the Civil War by heart. Still, the class was a school requirement and she couldn't go against the education system. Plus the Blakeston High system was not something one wanted to mess with.

Well, at least this is my last class. Then I've got a whole weekend to relax.

No sooner had the thought passed her mind did the bell ring. Adri grinned and shoved her textbook into her backpack, then exited the room with the rest of her classmates. They all had a three-day weekend to look forward too, so there was a lot of bustling and shoving to get out. She managed to survive the stampede though and met up with Grace. The oriental girl smiled, her eyes shining behind her glasses, and shook her head for the second time that day.

"When are you going to stop daydreaming and start paying attention to the lesson?"

"When it gets interesting," laughed Adri. They were now outside the school, beginning to take the route they always did for home. "Besides, I was imagining my next victory at next week's meet."

Grace rolled her eyes laughing, "Think you're going to break the school record this time?"

"Hopefully."

"Oh yeah, you're still coming to my party on Sunday right?"

"Course!"

"Good. I'll see you on Sunday then."

They had reach the crossroads before the park. Grace took the right road waving good-bye as she did. Adri waved back, then started down the street to the left towards the park. As she walked though her thoughts began to wander, thoughts about the small town she lived in. It felt so compact and in the middle of nowhere. Sure San Diego was a couple hours away, but that didn't take away from how boring things could get in the town. Blakeston was right at the foot of the mountains and was bordered by a desert plus, for some odd reason, a small wooded area. It could've spelled excitement, right? Wrong.

Adri sighed, looking up at the clear, blue sky. If only there was some way I could get away from here. Just for some excitement and adventure. Still, even if she knew her wish would probably not come true, for some strange reason there was this feeling in the air. As if the world was holding its breath for something to happen.

"I'm home!" Adri called.

Of course there was no answer. Even if her brothers, Jim and Danny, had gotten home before her they weren't going to answer. She smiled as she heard the familiar sounds of a video game coming from the living room, Kingdom Hearts by the music. Despite the temptation Adri didn't pay attention to them. Right now she had finish her work. And I don't mean homework. She headed up the stairs to her room away from the noise. There was a triumphant shout as Danny beat some boss which was quickly shut off by the slamming of her bedroom door. Adri threw her backpack onto her bed, then looked in the mirror.

A young woman of sixteen gazed back at her. Her skin was tanned dark, not too dark as to look like a burn and not too light as to seem unattractive. She wasn't tall, skinny enough to be lithe and fast. Unlike most girl's though her hair was extremely short, so short that sometimes she was mistaken for a boy. It was raven-black, the bangs being a bit long. Her hair stuck up a bit in the back because of how wild it was and one strand of hair was always in her eyes. Though Adri's most striking feature was her eyes. They were a fierce emerald green, some people saying they were almost savage in some lights. Still, she loved them and their feral light.

She ran a hand through her hair, then sat down at her desk. On it was an unfinished picture of Grace's cat, Chubbs. Adri had been working on it for a few days for Grace's birthday, now all that was needed was a bit of color. Adri reached for the tin of color pencils and markers at the top of the desk choosing all of the warm colors. With the pencils in hand she started coloring in the picture. Drawing was the best of her talents next to her endurance. She could draw anything if she put her mind to it, that is, make a good attempt. This was the picture she had promised her friend, and she wasn't going to screw it up. Her tongue stuck out of her mouth as she focused on the shading.

Just a little bit more orange...

As she reached for an orange marker, a bark broke her concentration. Adri jumped in surprise dropping the marker in the process. Lucky for her it had been sealed otherwise the picture could have been ruined. This aside, Adri wasn't too happy. "What now?" she grumbled as she looked out the window. In the yard their golden retriever, Auron, was barking at the gate like crazy. (Her brothers were Final Fantasy fanatics.) She let out a sigh and opened the window. The sun was starting to set and already the cool night breeze was blowing. Adri looked out at the yard, at her barking dog, past the park, and to the woods. There was no doubt that whatever had spooked Auron was somewhere in there.

Adri sighed and shook her head. "Better go see what's wrong with that dog."

She got up and walked out her door. As she headed down the stairs the sounds of the video game reached her ears. Adri poked her head in the living room to see her brothers still playing with the Playstation. She rolled her eyes calling, "Hey, I'm gonna check on Auron, okay? I'll be back."

"Fine," her older brother Tim replied. Judging by the tone of his voice he could care less.

Ignoring the response Adri walked out the back door. As soon as she stepped outside Auron bounded up to her. He was whining and wagging his tail feverishly. Adri ran a hand through his fur speaking in a gentle voice, "Easy boy. Woah. Let's see what's wrong, okay."

She walked over to the gate, for reason unknown to her pausing before she opened. She shook it off and opened the gate. Without warning Auron took off bounding across the park into the distant trees. Adri let out a shout and raced after the dog. It didn't take long to reach the cool shade of the trees. She kept running, ducking under branches and instinctively dodging trees following Auron's barks. She'd practically grown up in these woods so she knew every twig and leaf by heart. Still she couldn't catch him. His barks gradually began to fade until she couldn't hear him at all.

Adri came to a stop, her endurance reaching its limit. She leaned against a tree to catch her breath, looking around for any sign of her dog. Nothing. She looked up at the treetops and saw the orange colors of dusk spreading across the sky. Adri loved this time of day, but she couldn't think about it at the moment. What she really needed to be concerned with was finding Auron.

Standing up straight Adri yelled, "Auron! Here boy!"

For a second there was no response. A distant bark then sounded up ahead. Adri grinned and started running towards the sound. It didn't take long for the barks to get louder and closer, encouraging her to pick up her speed a bit. Trees whipped past her vision as she ran and the orange sky whirled around her. Keep that up boy! Just a little oof!"

Adri fell forward onto her stomach. Groaning, she pushed herself up seeing that she'd been tripped by a root. She rubbed her chin looking up in front of her. She gasped. The trees had thinned and opened into a wide clearing. Within the clearing was a spring, one that Adri did not recognize at all. It bubbled forth from the earth in a high rock shelf cascading down into a wide basin area. Boulders rose from the shelf having been dropped there years ago by some natural process. The trees created a sort of arch above the spring, allowing the sky to be seen easily from there. Here the orange sky looked even brighter.

Adri stared in awe at the spring before her. She'd explored every nook and cranny in these woods, but never before had she come across this spring. Suddenly she forgot all about Auron and stepped into the water shoes and all. It was pleasantly cool and barely ankle deep. With every step her feet made small clouds of sand that quickly settled back onto the water bed. She laughed as she watch small minnows dart under the water's surface as she walked farther into the spring, barely noticing the water was getting deeper. Yes, there was an air of piece around her.

Then something changed. The air suddenly grew colder and the sky was getting darker. Adri shivered a bit dismissing the feeling as a reaction to the cold. Something was wrong though. It was like there was a dark presence in the air, getting nearer and nearer. Suddenly there was the snap of twigs and a rustling from the bushes. Adri slowly turned around to face the trees as whatever it was emerged. The thing was like something out of a nightmare. It was covered in smooth, ink black skin that had purple tattoo like patterns running across its body. It was hunched over and walked on stumpy legs with its freakishly long arms set in gorilla style. At the ends of its fingers were huge scythe like claws. As for its face, it was reptilian in shape with a long snout and no eyes. Still it seemed to be able to tell what it was doing since it was sniffing around.

Adri couldn't move. She just watched as the thing knuckled to the edge of the water, a long tongue zipping out as it tasted the air. It let out a low growl as if frustrated. Adri held her breath looking around for any way of escape. That thing catches me I'm dead! Come on, how can I get around it? She made a move to walk, but the movement caused a tiny splash. The monster snapped its head in her direction, sniffed once, then grinned revealing teeth long as knives. Not wanting to give it a chance Adri bolted not caring how much noise she made. She didn't have a ghost of a chance. The monster moved surprisingly fast on its stumpy legs, charging and swung out one long arm, tripping her. She fell on her stomach, and the thing was on her. Adri screamed and flipped on her back trying to escape, but the monster's weight kept her down. It let out an earsplitting roar then slashed at Adri's face. She tried to block it with her arms, but that resulted in the skin being slashed open clear to the bone. Adri screamed and tried to get out from under the monster, but wasn't fast enough. It wrapped its fingers around her throat and threw her across the spring.

The back of her head made contact with a rock. Lights blazed in her eyes as she sank into the water. Here it was deeper. Adri sank into the water, her vision swimming from pain and lose of blood. Once the initial shock had passed, she gradually came to her senses. Adri kicked for the surface, but when she broke it her relief didn't last. The monster stood above her, roaring again. It reached for her, but not before a golden blur pounced on it. Still Adri could not comprehend what was going on since she was being to loose consciousness. She could hear roars and howls in her mind as she blacked out, slipping into the dark waters.

"Get her out of there, now!"

"Her arm! This wound-"

"We'll bandage it up here quickly, then we must head for the village. She needs medical attention now!"