Ch. 2 Under a New Sky

Chapter 2 Under a New Sky
When I opened my eyes, I saw stars in the night sky above, but it looked strange. They weren’t the same stars I knew, they were different. There were so many more, different sizes and different colors. I quickly sat up, alarmed at what I was seeing.
“So you’re awake?” said a voice to my left. I looked over to see a woman sitting across from me near a small fire. There was a small hut behind her in the distance.
I felt the supple ground beneath my hands and smelled the crisp, fresh air. No, this wasn’t my polluted city anymore.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who are you?”
She stood up and smiled warmly at me as she offered her hand to help me up. “My name is Minka and I’m a messenger.”
I looked at her quizzically and she seemed so calm. Too calm. Serial killer calm. Immediately, I was nervous. I didn’t like strangers, especially ones that were talking crazy and brought me out to open fields with no one around. Bad scenario. My initial response in these situations was ‘leave casually and hope they don’t follow’. I took a casual step back and said, “Oh, yeah? That’s nice. I’ll be seeing ya!” Please, don’t follow me, I thought as I turned to walk away quickly. I didn’t know where I was, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t possibly be that far from the city at this point, I’d get back somehow.
“You won’t be able to get back that way,” she giggled as she followed after me.
I stopped as I looked at the large field before sitting at the foot of a mountain. I really wasn’t in the best “casual escape” position. I turned around quickly and analyzed the woman standing before me. She didn’t exactly strike me as normal as her arms were covered in tribal looking tattoos. Her hair was pulled up in a sage colored silk wrap and she wore a beaded dress of the same material that came to her knees. She didn’t appear to have any weapons on her. Good.
“How does one get back then?” I asked coyly.
She just smiled. “One doesn’t go back once they are home.”
That was a serial killer answer. I felt my breath catch in the back of my throat and I instinctively stepped back a few steps, unsure of how things were about to progress. I decided to ask a few more questions and find out what her motive was. If it got ugly, I was going to make a run for the mountain.
“Yeah, what does that mean?” I asked.
“It means you are home now.”
I laughed nervously as I felt a chill rush through my body. Was that her motive? Did she kidnap me to make me be her daughter or something? “Um, actually, my home is in the city. Don’t get me wrong, this is a real nice set up you got here, but I should really be getting back. I got city stuff to attend to.”
She had to of known I thought she was crazy, but even so, her tranquil demeanor stayed the same. “You’re city doesn’t exist in this world.”
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. She was starting to freak me out. “What do you mean by that?” I asked slowly, worried about the response I would receive. I felt my back pocket and found that I still had me stun gun. Maybe it would work better on her than it did Chaz, still I would wait until I was sure.
“This is not the world you’ve been living in for the past twenty years, but it is the world you were born in.” I just looked at her bewildered and she smiled knowingly. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Honestly, no I don’t,” I said blankly.
She gestured to the land around us. “Take a look around you, I’m sure you will notice some things are different.” I did as she said and saw nothing different. I was in a field with grass waving gently in the breeze and mountains towering in the distance. My gaze followed the length of the mountains to the sky and that’s when I felt a wave of anxiety rush through me. “Why are there two moons up there?” I exclaimed as I stared wide eyed at the moons sitting together in the sky, almost overlapping. That wasn’t normal. My body started to shake as I realized nothing good ever happens when strange things appear in the sky.
“Like I said, this isn’t the world you think it is,” Minka said sagely. I blinked a few times, wondering if I was dreaming or dead
“This is too crazy. I must have snapped finally and lost my mind,” I muttered to myself.
Her brow furrowed and her expression fell. “I don’t think you understand,” she said, “This is all very real and not in your head. You are now in a world that has been completely unbeknownst to you. A world you never even knew existed.” She pointed up into the sky at a star, slightly larger than the others. It looked like a shining blue orb. “That is the world you came from.” She said.
I stared at it for a little while, feeling uneasy. That was Earth? Then what was this place and how did I get here?
I looked back at Minka in shock. “If that is Earth than why am I not there right now? How did I get here?” I exclaimed loudly.
She smiled now, realizing I was starting to understand. “I brought you here, to the planet Aurela.”
My eyes were still opened wide with shock. “For what reason?” I again exclaimed not understanding why a complete stranger would bring me to a foreign world. I was still having trouble grasping the fact that I was in a foreign world, but how does one argue with seeing their home planet floating up in the sky?
“A long time ago you were sent away for you own protection, but now the time has come where you are needed.”
I paced back and forth, gasping for air, trying to collect myself. This was crazy. What could I possibly do in this world that would be needed? After a couple more deep breaths, I turned back to Minka. I crossed my arms and cocked my head. “Why would I be needed here and why would I have been sent away? There’s nothing special about me. You can’t actually think I’m capable of helping anything.”
She smiled warmly. “That is where you are wrong,” she began as she motioned for me to follow her to the hut. “You are the last in a long, ancient race, known as the Celestians. As the last Celestian, you are the only one who can stop the evil that is threatening our land.” She stopped in the doorway, and turned to me with a serious expression. “You must find your inner power and stop the evil before…” Suddenly, a sharp blade protruded from her chest and has she fell to the ground in front of me, I saw the holder of the blade. It was a woman with short black hair, pale skin, and shockingly red eyes. She was dark, beautiful, and her presence alone sent a chill through me. She looked at me with an icy hatred in her eyes. “Well” she said finally taking a step towards me “Wasn’t that just a conversation to die for?”