I don't own anything from this book blah die blah...

This is my first ficcie so be nice, I don't mind criticism just as long as it's constructive.

Hope you enjoy loadsa luv sj xx

Trip of a lifetime

Chapter 1

Riding in the woods

The rain was not abating in fact it was getting worse, the wind was howling and the little shelter they had was barely standing up to it. The horses were restless and the girls weren't too happy either.

" I cant believe this, we finally get to do this and the weather is like this" Mia said in a strained voice, in truth she had been looking forward to this trip for some months now ever since it was suggested. "What do you think SJ? Do you think it will last?" She asked a little redhead sitting by the fire.

" I think it will blow over by morning, storms like this usually do" replied the little red-head, the others always asked her these things, she never understood why but they all seemed to trust her judgement for some reason, grant she's the most practical out of the rest, but she always hated the attention it gave her.

There were nine of them in total, they were on a spiritual cleansing trip, basically it was a trip, which involved no modern day appliances or equipment, almost a medieval feeling to it. Strangely enough none of the girls minded it really. Well for the first few days they didn't, but today they were a little testy they were soaked through and cold.

This was a trip organised by Claire, she thought it might be good for the girls to spend some quality time together, Claire was always the mother of the group, the one that they all seek when they needed advice or just someone to talk to, that's Claire's best attribute, her advice. Mia's the leader she doesn't mean to be but she just always takes control, born to it, looks after all. Kelsey, well Kelse is the heart and soul of any party, you can't help but love Kelse. Gemma's the strong silent type, someone you know you can count on. Michelle is basically a big kid, the practical joker, always finds cunning ways to get into mischief. Debbie's a natural born flirt with a very unpredictable side, never can tell with her. Sophia is a geek, she's intelligent , but she's very cautious and always takes things very seriously. Sam never shuts up, comes out with some of the most stupid things you've ever heard sometime, some might say she's a little ditsy. Sarah-Jane is the practical one, dependable and organised, knows a lot more than she's willing to admit, always in the background.

The first few days of the trip were great they had loads of fun, the sun shone and summer was definitely in the air. The forth day of there little expedition as they called it started out like the others, bright blue sky warm breeze etc, but come afternoon a storm blew in, quite quickly actually not much warning it was coming just sort of appeared. They were finally forced to take shelter in a small niche that Sarah-Jane had found, they were cold and soaked through the meagre fire didn't seem to alter there moods, so they spent most the evening in silence.

Eventually they decided to seek their beds and try to get what little sleep they were going to get in all the noise the storm was making outside their tents.

"Do you really think it's going to blow over by morning" a concerned Sophia asked SJ.

"I think it might, it came quickly so I'm going to guess that it will either blow itself out or blow over soon" SJ replied she didn't however voice her concern that she's never seen a storm behave quite like this one before, it doesn't seem natural, but she cant quite put her finger on it.

" It best do I'm soaked through and I'm not looking forward to a days riding in the rain" Debbie grumbled, she doesn't really enjoy horse riding all that much even in the sunshine let alone when its pouring with rain.

"Why don't we try to get some sleep and see how things look in the morning, there's no point in grumbling, there's nothing we can do bout the weather" Mia interjected.

With that the girls turned in, they strangely found that they were all quite tired and had no problems sleeping. They however missed the break in the storm, the strange lights and a peculiar sound coming from somewhere in the trees, a sound much like pan pipes.

Mia awoke in the morning to a bright sun shinning through her tent, the dawn chorus was loud which told her it wasn't long after dawn. The sound of breakfast being made outside told her that someone was awake, she guessed SJ was the one cooking and went out to see if she could help in any way.

"Good morning Sarah-Jane sleep well? Are any of the others up yet?"

"No you're the first its only a little after dawn, so they wont be long"

Mia looked curiously at the fire, it doesn't matter what the weather her little friend always managed to find wood for a fire. Even after all the rain they had yesterday there was a pile of dry wood next to the cooking fire.

"Where did you find dry wood for that fire?" she asked curiously

"I found some under that grove over there yesterday and put some under my tent to keep the rain off it. I thought we might want a little this morning" the redhead replied.

"You always think of these things don't you?"

"Well one of us has to if I left it to you lot, god knows where we'd be"

"There's no need to be insulting"

"I wasn't, if I wanted to be insulting I would say you're all useless" SJ replied a little irritable

"My aren't we a little testy this morning, what's wrong"

"Something doesn't feel right, I cant put my finger on it, and its annoying me"

"Like what"

"I don't know something in the air is different, I don't know what though, its just a feeling"

At that point a couple of the girls emerged sleepy eyed from their tents and were handed a cup of tea almost immediately. Mia pondered it for a little while, while SJ was busy preparing breakfast.

Mia trusted Sarah-Jane's judgement and what she had just been told put her on edge a little, what could be different about there surroundings that makes SJ nervous. SJ was a country girl and was quite at home in the wilderness, the others weren't quite that comfortable with their surroundings mainly because most of them grew up in a city, so as SJ put it there were useless at this.

Then she heard it, it was a sweet sound, panpipes she thought, they were coming from the woods.

"Wonder who's making that noise, didn't think there were many people round here" a bleary eyed Kelse said as she emerged from her tent

"Not sure" Mia replied

Mia however was looking at SJ at this time the red-head seemed a little tense, which suggested to her that there weren't any people around, a little confused she pushed it to the back of her mind and decided to get on with the trip. They still had a lot of ground to cover so after breakfast the girls packed up and set off. It was about an hour later when SJ rode up and asked Mia to join her, which she was more than grateful for as Sam was about to start rambling on about the time she did this or that, Sam seemed to enjoy the sound of her own voice and insisted on talking constantly.

"I don't mean to alarm you but I don't recognise where we are, I don't know why but I don't think were in Kansas any more Toto" Mia had to smile to herself, her friend hardly spoke but she could always say things like that with a straight almost serious face.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this aint the park, the trees are different, I don't think were even home"

"That doesn't make any sense you know, where else are we supposed to be"

"I don't know, all I know is that we're not where we're supposed to be"

"If you say so"

How far from home they were became apparent when about mid day they crested a hill to find a group of armoured knights approaching them. To say the least the girls were a little nervous. The knight in the lead approached the girls he strangely had a young girl with him, she was a pretty little thing, she had a smug look on her face, almost as if she were proud of herself.

The knight stopped a few yards in front of them and raised his visor, he had a rough face his nose had been broken at some point.

"Greetings neighbour" he said to Mia who had ridden out to meet him "my name is Sparhawk"