"I don't belong here," Miranda muttered sulkily to Caleb, her loyal border collie that was nestled beside her on the bed in his owner's tiny bedroom.
No, replied her own mind. You don't belong here. You aren't of the world, you're a Christian, and you've been born again, washed in the blood of the lamb- you're of heaven. That's reason enough to rejoice and not be so sulky.
"I've gotta be sad sometimes, Caleb," said Miranda to her dog, as if he was the one putting the thoughts in her head. Even with her bold words, she felt a twang of guilt. The sacrifice Jesus made was more than enough for a person to be happy about, and she knew it, but still she refused to cheer up.
Miranda had just been through a bad day- her best friend in the whole world had gotten mad at her for some stupid thing and the kids at school had teased her about her speech on Living Dinosaurs. Perhaps she was a geek, being the only one in the school who do a speech containing the Loch Ness Monster. But still, what could be more fascinating than Living Dinosaurs?
"I need a vacation or something," the girl said. "I don't want to go to school one more day! I wish I could just…just…ugh! I wish I could just disappear."
She closed her eyes and fell back onto her bed. Surprisingly, her pillow was so hard that it hurt her head. And her bed was also hard; hard and damp.
Miranda's eyes fluttered open, and she found herself staring at a bright blue sky tinged with wispy white clouds. Underneath her was not a soft, spongy bed, but grassy, sweet smelling turf.
After hurriedly getting to her feet, Miranda, a little dazed, studied her surroundings. She was in a glen surrounded by thick, old forest. Even after such a shock, she immediately thought to herself how pretty the glen was. It was covered with flowers of every color, and everything fairly glowed in the afternoon sunlight; but the forest ahed was dark and foreboding.
It didn't take long for Miranda to gather her wits; after all, she loved to read fantasy and was always expecting something like this to happen. She bent down to pick a flower and realized that Caleb was standing beside her.
Though it was a shock to Miranda to be magically transported to another world in the blink of an eye, it was ten times a bigger shock when her dog opened his mouth and said, "I say m'gel! Just where are we and what's happened to us?"
Miranda just stood there for two minutes, staring at Caleb and he staring back at her; but finally she said, "Caleb, you have a British accent."
"No, it's an English accent. Like all Collies, I have English roots, don't'cha know. Now what say we do now?"
His mistress held her chin up and took a step forward. "This is what I asked for and I've gotta make something of it. Let's explore, Caleb."