CHAPTER I

Hello :) I am already writing this story in German. And now I am very pleased, that riversidewren translated this Fanfiction into English. So special thanks to her!

I sat in chemistry class, bored out of my mind, my eyes staring at the clock. Time seemed to crawl by, and every minute was agony. My teacher was trying to teach us something about chemical equilibria. To be honest, I was not the most diligent student. I had not really been able to keep up with my schoolwork since the 9th grade.

Now I was in 11th grade, and qualifying exams for university were coming ever closer. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Nevertheless, I continued to go to school, and spent a lot of time studying. I felt as if my days consisted of the same dull routine of school, meals, and sleep.

Somewhere far off, I was conscious of my chemistry teacher droning on. My thoughts, however, were focused on the guy sitting opposite me. God, he was hot! Why had I not gotten up the courage to talk to him?

I glanced up at the clock, and my heart fell when I saw that only five minutes had gone by since I had last looked. I leaned back in my chair, and suddenly became incredibly dizzy. Everything around me became black….

Sometime later, I slowly regained consciousness. The first thing I became aware of was the uncomfortably hard ground that I was lying on. Birds were chirping all around me. I opened my eyes and stared at the canopy of leaves that that fluttered above me. Wait a minute! Leaves…sky…where was I?

I sat up suddenly, then instantly regretted it when I became dizzy again. I looked around, and saw that I was in a forest, surrounded by trees. I slowly got up, and became aware that I was not alone. Someone else was lying on the ground not far away. I scrambled over to the side of the unknown person and knelt beside her….once I got a good look at her, I knew who she was instantly…my sister!

"Leah, can you hear me?" I cried. I shook her shoulder gently. She slowly woke up and looked at me sleepily. "Alexandra?" she asked, her voice unsteady. "What are you doing here?!"

"What are you doing here?!"

My sister glanced around, then looked up at me, appearing both surprised and fearful. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea." I helped her up, and we stood facing each other.

"I don't understand this at all! I was just at school!"

"Me too! I was in math!"

"What do we do now?"

"Maybe we should look around a bit."

With these words, I chose a direction and decided to started walking. Maybe I had just dreamed everything..,maybe none of this was real. No, it couldn't be real! Soon I would wake up, and my chemistry teacher would be glaring at me for having fallen asleep in his class.

It seemed to me as if we had already been here for days. I was starting to feel desperate, and my sister was close to tears.

"Lexi, I want to get out of here! I want to go home! I want to be sitting back in my class at school, bored to death!"

"I get that, but I have no idea where we are!" We hugged each other close, trying to gain some solace from the fact that we were not alone. The sun was slowly setting, and darkness was settling over the forest. I thought back to a TV show I had seen once about how to survive in the wilderness, and desperately tried to remember anything helpful. No such luck.

Finally, we decided to rest for the night, then look for a solution in the morning. The situation was not exactly a good one. I had no idea if there were any dangerous animals in the forest. Neither Leah nor I was capable of building a fire in order to drive away the cold that had crept in to replace the pleasant warmth of the day. We huddled together underneath a tree, then finally fell asleep, exhausted.

When the first rays of sunlight filtered through the leaves, I woke up. I momentarily forgot where I was, then recalled what had happened. With that memory, came the shocking realization that maybe this was not a dream. Leah also woke up, and I could tell that she was thinking the same thing. I also realized that I was incredibly hungry. It was no wonder, because I had not eaten anything before school yesterday. We were helpless, desperate, and lost.

"What now?" asked my sister, her voice small and scared. "Do we go on farther?"

"Well, I can't think of a better idea. Let's go."

We walked farther, and kept going until it was once again evening. I looked at Leah, who appeared to be in despair. Her clothes were filthy, and her hair was a mess. She had dark circles under her eyes due to lack of sleep and the countless tears that she had shed. I doubted that I looked much better. My blond hair was tangled, and I desperately needed a shower. But most importantly, I needed some food.

Suddenly, my sister screamed. "Look over there!" I looked in the direction where she was pointing. Finally, between the trees I saw a path, which led to a house. Actually, it would be more appropriate to say a hut. The roughly constructed building lay dark and silent before us.

We cautiously approached the hut until we found ourselves in front of the wooden door. We looked at each other and nodded, then I slowly opened the door, and we stepped over the threshold. We found ourselves in a room that was lit by candlelight.

The hut was a bit musty inside, and smelled of candlewax. My gaze lingered on the warm, welcoming fire that was burning in the fireplace. A few benches and tables were scattered around the room. Everything seemed very old-fashioned, and this impression was only reinforced by the woman who was standing behind the counter. She was wearing a medieval-style dress, and was busily cleaning a glass. She glanced up at us, but said nothing.

We slowly approached the woman, and I began to speak. "Umm, excuse me—we have somehow gotten lost, and cannot find our way back. Can you tell me exactly where we are? Or do you perhaps have a telephone? We really should call home. Our parents are probably worried to death."

The woman looked at us doubtfully, then finally said. "You are close to Paris."

Paris? How did we get here? Had we been kidnapped?

"Please, do you have a phone we could use?" I asked tentatively.

The woman looked at me as if I was from another planet. "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about."

How was this even possible? This woman had no clue what a telephone was! What kind of a dump had we landed in?

Our hopes faded again, and I saw tears roll down my sister's cheeks. It hurt to see my usually funny, happy thirteen year old sister looking so forlorn. I timidly asked if we could spend the night, and perhaps get something to eat. It felt somewhat rude to be making such a request, but I saw no other alternative.

The woman raised an eyebrow and looked us up and down, then asked, "Can you pay?"

My heart fell. I looked at the ground and sighed. "No."

My sister looked pleadingly at the woman, tears in her eyes, but she clearly didn't care. "No money, no food," she declared firmly.

I was close to tears when I felt suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up, and saw a man with a jaunty hat and the same sort of strangely old, but quite nice-looking, clothes. He wore a blue sash, and had carried quite an assortment of weapons on a belt slung around his waist.

I looked at him closer. My God, did he have a sword? And a musket? What sort of guy was this? Why, out of all the places in the world, did we have to land here? Everything in this place was just completely bizarre, and it would probably be best to get out of here as quickly as possible.

The man gave the barmaid a charming grin, and asked casually, "Madame, what would you think if I offered to pay for these two young ladies?"

Let me know what you think :)