It was a dark night. The kind that she had always heard about in children's
stories, but never really thought existed. Until she got caught up in one,
that is. Tonight was a special night, though. Tonight was Anne's sixteenth
birthday. Tonight, magic was supposed to reveal itself, and so it was, in
this night, even if it was black as the sky ahead.

Anne was walking home from her friend Maggie's house. Maggie had insisted
she come over for a special surprise. The surprise had turned out to be a
burnt birthday cake and a poorly wrapped gift that turned out to be
something Anne already had. Maggie was very soft-hearted, though, so Anne
was forced to scarf down three helpings of the cake and then pretend she
didn't have the gift already so that her friend would be happy, and now she
was stuck walking home on probably the creepiest night of her life, with the
feeling that she was being closely watched. That feeling only came natural
with a night like this, though, she told herself, but in fact, she was being
watched very closely. She had been watched all week. Anne didn't know that,
though.

Joshua watched the girl yet again. Tonight would be the last night he'd have
to, though, for now he was sure. This was the girl he had been searching
for.

"Well?" asked Mikan, his unicorn mount. "Is it her?"

She very well knew the answer to that, as Mikan had the gift of reading
thoughts.

"What do you think?" he asked her. "Of course it's her. She's the one who'll
bring us out of such dark times."

"She looks rather plain to me," said Mikan thoughtfully. "But if you say
that it's her, then it must be her. So when shall we give her the news that
she gets to fight off evil, risk her life, and save a world that she doesn't
even know exists?" she asked, rather cheerfully. Mikan often found pleasure
in the strangest things. Joshua kept a straight face when he answered her,
though.

"Tomorrow," he said. "She will be going to that mortal school. We'll catch
her on the way and bring her back then."

"Very well, can we go home now?" Mikan asked, shaking her big beautiful
head. "I've an itch under my saddle and I'd like you to get it quickly."

Joshua smiled. "Alright, let's go home," he said, and with that, Mikan
touched her horn to the ground and opened up the portal to their world.