So this story actually takes place in the BayVerse with a few changes. For instance some characters who weren't in those movies show up in this story.
I've actually been working on this story for a while, I just couldn't decide between Sideswipe/Sunstreaker or Prowl as being the love interest(s) of the main character. But since there are so few stories featuring Prowl and an OC, I figured I would go with him. (Also because I am a huge Prowl fan. Like seriously the guy does not get enough love.)
Anyways, read and review!
*Disclaimer: I don't own transformers*
The trees were tall, but I was taller, sitting with my legs dangling high above them on a steep hill slope in northern Nevada. Dawn was just starting to show over the mountains; appearing all of a sudden beneath the dark bank of clouds in the east, coming up over the tips of the mountains in a halo of smouldering brightness.
The grey roofs of the ranch house and the barn, way below me, began to glisten red instead of just dark; and the tin roof of the small lean-to my grandfather built for me glinted and twinkled.
I had been sitting here for about ten minutes. Sometimes I stayed longer if the night was clear enough. It was always the first thing I did when I got up in the morning—saddled up Astraea and took her out for a pre-dawn ride up the hill slope to watch the rising of the sun. For as long as I could remember it had been a habit of mine; in previous times I had ridden up with my grandfather, now I did so alone. At this thought I paused, my mind bent on thoughts of Peony—the buckskin pony I been taught to ride on as a seven-year-old child and consequently fell in love with.
There was no warmth yet in the rays of the sun, and the dawn wind was cold on the hill side, so that I presently began to shiver in my knitted yellow wool sweater. I turned to face the wind, breathing in something of freshness and wildness that went to my head and made me feel a part of the wilderness I was surrounded by.
As usual I was hatless—I never rode with one—, and the wind made a tousled mop of my straight blonde hair, whipping strands onto my cheeks that were heavily dotted with freckles. I imagined for a moment how strange I must look with my pale skin and smear of freckles.
I glanced at my phone for the time.
5:36 AM.
I must get on Astraea again.
The moment this thought passed through my mind, Astraea seemed to sense it because, with her mouth still chewing, she lifted her head to look at me.
Pushing myself up, I dusted off my paint-splattered jeans, before gathering up the bridle laying on the ground at my feet and stepping over to where the pretty, black mare still stood a little ways off, watching me. Reaching her head, I stroked her nose, and said softly—
"Well, girl, whatta you say? Are you ready to go?"
As if in answer of my question, Astraea blinked and then stood like a statue. I gently slipped the rubber bit into her mouth and completed the latches on the rest of her bridle. Then moving to her left side, I took hold of her withers and back, and jumped, swinging my leg over; and slowly, as had been taught to me, settled onto her back, legs hanging straight down.
Beneath me Astraea shifted, conveying her eagerness, but otherwise was still. I drew up my reins, squeezed my calves a little, and she moved off.
One of the things I loved most about riding out at this time was how, if you looked up, all the clouds in the sky had caught the colours of the sunrise, and there was a mingling of pink and red and gold and stretching over the other half, a piercing blue—
Astraea wanted her head.
I smiled.
She must have been excited by the colour and the electric quality of the air and the movement in the swaying of the grass and the trees because she kept asking for a free rein. When I gave it to her, she stretched out her nose and went up to the steepest part of the slope at a gallop.
It was hard to keep track of the time. The sound of Astraea's hooves drumming across the ground drowned out everything but the feeling of the wind as it whipped at my hair. I felt as if we were alone in the world.
We topped the hill and stood staring. From here I looked west over hundreds of miles of fog and grass, and beyond that across distant forests and interminable rough terrain, mysterious with hidden valleys and gorges and rocky headlands. Behind us the ranch stood wrapped in spring and early summer.
I threw my head back and sucked in the smell of the cleanness and the greenness and the windiness—all so sharp and pleasant.
It was moments like these that I depended on. I lived for these sunrise rides when it was just Astraea and I alone with the trees and the wind and the crisp smell of the air—
An uncomfortable feeling gripped me. It was the sort of feeling that came without words to explain it, and I found myself looking around for something, anything—out of the ordinary.
Then I saw it.
In the midst of the fog there was a solid lump half buried, half resting in the earth. It was shaped like a cube, but I couldn't make out any more details aside from that it was dark and the cube was huge.
I wanted to venture closer to it, to investigate whatever it was further—except when I touched heels to Astraea sides to get her to start forward again, she refused to move. Perhaps she was aware of something I wasn't, because her head was up and her ears pricked, listening, and there was a tautness and tension in her whole body.
I stopped, and instead sat listening.
Ahead of us, far down below the hill, looming uncannily in the fog, were four black shapes moving towards the cube. A car engine or two drifted up, and the sound of heavy thudding, muffled by the fog.
The vehicles, it seemed, jumped on their wheels and then—I kid you not— split apart into a fury of flying pieces, reforming into some sort of bi-pedal robot things. A hot sweat bathed me from head to foot, and I began to shake, half breathing—
The wind roared down and swept up the fog. Way below, I could see I number of figures walking around the cube. In a moment one of the robot's arms extended, reaching for it, and then there was just a burst of heat and light—a concocted blur of moving shapes, voices, images—throughout my entire body.
It was all almost over before I could draw in a breath. The flash of light snaking across the sky disappeared, simultaneously, it seemed, along with the searing pain and heat I experienced in my body; vaguely I could sense Astraea rearing up, her delicate forefeet beating the air, except that, although I could sense it happening, see it happening, I couldn't move exactly, and my body fell limply towards the ground.
I remembered thinking, "Oh, shit," before I hit the ground and my vision went dark.
I woke up to the sight of Astraea's four black legs standing a few feet away as she quietly feasted. I wasn't sure how long I had been sprawled there unconscious but it must have been for a while; the sun was high now and flashed on my hair. Slowly I pushed myself up: wincing, with a catch of my breath, as my whole body, not just my head, began to ache aggressively. Stupidly I rolled over onto my stomach and closed my eyes, willing the pain away, the sun warming my—probably dirty—hair pooled around me.
When I opened my eyes several minutes later, I saw that I was lying next to my phone. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I fell. Hopefully Astraea hadn't stepped on it. I reached over and picked it off the ground and wiped the screen with my sleeve, then turned it on and looked at the time.
12:30 AM.
Well, shoot. I guess I had been laying here for a long time.
Talk about one heck of a knock out. I couldn't even remember what had happened. Had I hit my head during the fall? Had Astraea accidentally kicked my brains in? Had she stepped on me while I was unconscious?
Regardless of how much pain I was in at the moment, I had to admit that the last thought was actually kind of funny.
Glancing again at my phone, I was suddenly hit with the memory of what had happened leading up to my fall.
Robots who turned into cars.
There were actual alien robots.
And a giant cube thingy.
Ignoring the throbbing in my head, I scrambled to my feet and turned to face the direction where the cube had been. It was gone—nothing but an empty crater sat in its place, along with a few tire tracks here and there, and—were those some kind of footprints?
Proof that I'm not crazy, I thought to myself. Not that I planned on telling anyone.
The ride home was a slow one, my eyes scanning both the ground and the horizon, terrified at every sound, while also in wonder again and again at what I had seen. Shaken as I was, I couldn't help but feel amazed to have glimpsed what I had. As foolish as it was, I felt almost honoured. Now if only the burning pain emanating from my head would dissipate. I closed by eyes, trusting Astraea enough to know she would get us back to the ranch.
When we arrived back my house, I gave Astraea her measure of oats after her rubdown, and then released her into the pasture, before I unlocked my front door, went inside, relocked the door, climbed the stairs to my bedroom, and then crawled into bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.