She was immediately blinded once she opened her eyes, the warm sun bringing back life into her body. It was that feeling of just waking up after a long nap; dizzy, tiring, and a minutes of feeling too heavy to move. And once she did, a wave of nausea rushed through her, finally getting her to her hands and knees.
God, where am I? Her hands tightened against the floor- was this dirt? Was she outside? Taking a deep breath, sweet air filled her lungs and the wave of nausea was gone as soon as it came. Her legs shook as she stood up, but when she finally was able to her surroundings were stark in contrast to where she used to be. Or, at least where she thought she used to be. Nothing was really making sense at the moment. I mean, her current surroundings was a clearing surrounded by a forest with almost unnaturally thick trunks.
Her eyes wandered until she saw 3 bodies lying faceup along the floor. Oh god. Oh GOD. Where they dead? No, no they couldn't be. She rushed over to one of the bodies and shook the shoulders of one of them, in hopes of waking them up. 2 boys, and another girl.
One of them sputtered, gasping for air and almost jumped to his feet. "Where am I? I was... I was-"
"Oh good you're not dead." She sighed in relief.
His eyes flashed toward her and it was so quick; she was shoved to the ground and pinned by her shoulders. "Who are you? Tell me what's going on!" He was yelling, but he seemed more scared than angry. That was... Somewhat good?
"I'm- I know as much as you do. I woke up on the ground just like you did! I swear!" His eyes narrowed, but he slowly and assuredly got off and lended her a hand to get up.
"Ground." He stared at the floor, then looked back up. "We're somewhere in a forest." The other two that were lying on the floor began to stir and get up. Unfortunately it seemed that the nausea had gotten to one of the poor boys, who quickly went to throw up behind a bush.
"Are you good?" She asked, and he nodded. "Alright so first of all we need to know names. My name's Coraline." She quickly learned Emery, who was the first boy who woke up, and August, the other boy, and Blythe, the girl other than her. "So, I guess night is coming soon and we gotta get some sort of fire set up. Someone has to see the smoke and come get us. Is that a plan?"
"I can go get some moss to burn, I know what to look for. I've gone camping a lot aha." August grinned nervously and headed off by himself into the forest, while the other three searched for logs and dead twigs to start up the fire easier. Returning to their earlier spot, a neat pile of twigs and plant life was made with August striking at some flint already creating some sparks.
Stars already decorated the sky and a moon glowed high in the darkness. "This has gotta be far from where I was." Blythe added her branches to the pile and was staring at the sky, frowning. "I lived in a city, so there was kind of a lot of pollution."
Emery looked confused. "I lived in kind of a rural area. So how did we get here?"
All four of them sat in silence staring at the flickering flames dance across the night. Suddenly, a piercing howl shattered the silence- sounding like a mixture of a roar and thunder.
"Oh god, i don't feel that safe anymore." Blythe stared into the empty darkness, but there was no sign of movement. It was already dark and the only lighting was the circle of light seemed almost like a shield around them. A thin, seemingly ineffective shield nonetheless.
Growling noises began to crop up every so often, and each of them would swear they saw something on the outskirts but none of them dared to make a noise. Sudden white and yellow flashes danced in the darkness. All of their movement had stopped.
It was too dark to see when it attacked, but it was devastating. Whatever it was, its jaws snapped onto Blythe's arm and then it dashed off into the night again. It was still there, as evident by the yellow eyes that stayed right outside of the light of the fire.
"Oh god!" Blythe was kneeling on the floor now, clutching at her arm. The bite wasn't deep, but enough to make her bleed. Emery took his jacket off and wrapped it around the bite. "It bit me!" She was crying now, cradling her wound. But the beast was still there, carefully watching and deciding.
Suddenly the area around them began to brighten; Coraline assumed it was the fire but it couldn't have been. Out of nowhere, a beast of fire appeared, looking like a dragon of the night. With the new light, she could finally see the beast that had bitting Blythe. It looked like a lion, or maybe even a wolf. Decorated with strange blue and black fur along with yellow lining and a star shaped tail, the weirdest part about it were the lightning that danced across its body.
The beast of fire- a dragon like thing orange in color with a long tail flickering with fire at the end of it- roared at the wolf, its cry filling the night with charged power. That's when she noticed the woman on the dragon's back. She climbed off and said some inaudible words towards the wolf, and the dragon threw it's head back and breathed a spiral of fire straight onto it's target. That's when the wolf seemed to shroud itself in bright electricity, releasing a stream of yellow light into the fire. The air seemed to shudder and the flame breath overpowered the lightening, smashing into the wolf with great power.
The woman chucked a ball at the wolf which was now lying on its side, and to Coraline's amazement and certainly to the others, the wolf seemed to disappear from the plane entirely. A clicking noise was heard, and the woman kneeled down and picked up the ball she had thrown and placed it in the bag that was strapped around the dragon's neck. That's when she started walking towards Coraline and the others.
"Who are you?" The woman narrowed her eyes at them, and the dragon sauntered slowly behind her, matching her threatening stance.
"Um, I'm August and this is Emery, Coraline, and Blythe. We- See we just kind of appeared here and we don't really know where you are. Could you- Could you call off your dragon thing?" August shakily pointed toward the orange beast. The woman nodded and the beast seemed to let down its guard, leaning back into a more relaxed stance.
"They're not here to fight, Bryce." The woman touched its neck, and looked back towards them. "My name is Maria, and this is my partner Bryce. So you say you don't know where you are?"
"No idea, m'am. We don't even know eachother, just met today. So, so what exactly is Bryce?" Coraline asked, staring at the dragon; still a little nervous.
"Oh, Bryce is a Charizard." Maria said this matter-of-factly.
"Yeah but what is a Charizard?"
"A Charizard is a pokemon." Seeing a dumbfounded look on their faces, Maria went even further. "You don't know what pokemon are?" They all shook their heads. Even Blythe seemed to forget her pain for a while. "Oh jeez, you really aren't from around here. To begin with you're on a mirage island, a place that disappears and reappears every once in awhile. So how about I take you kids back to the mainland? We can get your arm fixed up there." Blythe winced and cradled her arm carefully.
"Let's see, there are four of you." She was wearing a black cloak and pushed it back, revealing a belt with 6 balls lining the face of it. "Here we go." She grabbed one of them and there was a clicking noise when it popped off. She tossed it into the air and a white light streaked toward the floor, covering a small area.
A small yellow creature with almost cat like ears and brown shoulders and chest appeared. It made a small cry and looked towards Maria for directions.
"Abra, teleport us to Small Leaf City please." The small creature offered a hand to Maria and pressed his other hand to the Charizard's leg. "Okay, everyone hold each other's hands please." They did as told, and the area in front of them disappeared in front of their eyes as a new area took place; and finally one with buildings and light.
"I'm gonna be sick again..." August touched his hand to his throat gingerly.
"Ah, you'll be fine. Let's go to my place." Maria motioned for them to follow. Coraline suddenly remembered her parents telling her not to follow strangers, but as they weren't exactly there, she didn't really have any choice. They were led to a large oak house and Maria flicked on the lights, illuminating the inside. "Mi casa, su casa. Hope it's alright but I'm not exactly set up for guests y'know. I'll get a blanket for the two couches and I can put another mattress on the floor. Cora, pillows are in the closet so could you get those? August and Emery, you can get the mattress from upstairs. There's nothing up there really so it should be easy to find. I'm gonna fix up Blythe's arm."
They split up, Maria and Blythe disappearing down the hallway, August and Emery heading upstairs and Coraline opened the closet to grab a couple of pillows. A makeshift double bed was made on the floor and couch beds were hastily created, and when Blythe came out her hand was wrapped in white bandages along with Maria holding a couple blankets in her arms.
"I'll answer any questions you have tomorrow, but I think you're all fairly tired." Maria smiled shyly as they all got settled into their beds. "We'll get everything figured out, I promise." She flicked off the lights and disappeared down the hallway.
The bright moonlight shone through the curtains, and Cora felt the heavy burden of sleep weigh down on her eyes and she quickly fell asleep.