Glowing stars. I am 21 years old and I still have glowing stars on my ceiling.

The little plastic stars glow faintly, a remnant from when I had turned my light off 2 hours before.

3 a.m. and I am still awake, thinking, despairing, in wonder. My mind is whirling, always aching.

I turn over onto my side, for the seven thousandth time that night, as all nights, and close my eyes. The thought of waking up in four hours makes me feel numb and a tad bit bitter.

If I could just sneak out, get to the Falls…

My dorm is closed up tight at this time of night, but I am an experienced adventurer, and an adventurer has her ways. What's four hours of sleep anyway?

I throw my blanket back, change into some adventure appropriate clothing (all black athletic clothing, complete with gym shoes and a sports bra. Never know when you'll need to run.), throw my hair up into an angrily messy bun, snatch a flashlight and headlamp, and quietly close my door behind me. I sneak down the stairs, open the alarmed, exit only door, in my own specially devised manner. If you stick something, like a credit card, between the trip of the alarm and where it's attached to the door, it won't go off. Brilliant.

I slip out into the night and get into my old beat up car, whom I have affectionately named Derek. It's a peaceful twenty minute drive into the mountains from my university, one that I have grown to love. It's moments like these that I am so very glad that the Falls are open 24/7. You never know when you'll need a dose of solace from good old Daniel Boone. For me, that seems to be more and more often, nowadays. The forest has been my rock for the past three years. No human seems to be able to fill his place in my life, that vast, old forest.

A lonely and beautiful existence I have.

I forsake my headlamp and hike to my usual thinking spot. A secluded, difficult to reach, and rocky perch on the cliff-face above the Falls. You can see it all, in its ancient roaring splendor, yet hardly anyone would be able to see you. The moon is full, luckily, and it sparkles and dances across the rushing water like silver dust. Finally, what seems like the constant screaming in my head ceases. Not screaming, per se… But, a cacophony of chords, sounds, music. Ever since my eighteenth birthday, the migraines have been a part of my life, and in the solitude of the forest is the only place they can subside.

An hour passes, and the cold water vapor is starting to get to me, to soak my bones. I shift my position on my perch to bring my knees up to my chest, and a loud clank sounds over the roar of the Falls. My flashlight. It's just on the rock below me, and I have climbed up and down this cliff-face many times. Yet, as I look around me, an uneasy feeling settles in my heart. I can feel a disturbance, eyes upon me. The sound must have drawn attention. Perhaps a bear, a coyote. I've dealt with both. They tend not to give me much trouble. In the past, they simply have run away from me the minute I approached them. Not very threatening, in my opinion. People over-react when it comes to nature, I say.

I let myself slide down my perch until I'm dangling over the rock below me, where my flashlight lays. I let go and allow myself to drop onto it, lightly and gently. I pause, still in a crouch, my eyes scanning the cliffs, searching for movement. When I find none, I turn to grab my flashlight.

Eyes. Giant, beady eyes. Staring at me, staring, impossible.

Instinctively, I freeze, my lips drawn back over my teeth slightly. The creature before me is shrouded in the darkness, hidden by the shade of my perch above us. The moonlight cannot touch it.

Should I jump? I am hundreds of feet above the Falls. Not even solid ground. I'd be sucked underwater the minute I landed anyway. There's no where to go, not really. I could climb. But how fast can I climb? How fast is this creature…

Barely a second has passed, but it feels like an eternity.

I need to know what I'm dealing with.

I reach for my flashlight, slowly, carefully. Three feet away, the creature emits a clicking sound. A warning.

Then it is threatened. Not a good sign for me.

My fingers wrap around the flashlight, and I bring it up slowly. I switch it on and immediately regret my decision. A gigantic humanoid creature crouches before me, cowering in the cove. It clicks madly, a deep rumbling sounding from its thorax. My breath catches in my throat, and it's all very well, because suddenly a gas erupts from the creature. I don't have time to contemplate what just happened, because before I know it, I have lurched backward too far. I am tumbling, hundreds of feet. Air whistles past my face, as if it's frantic about my imminent doom. Oddly, before I hit the water, not a single thought enters my mind. Only the feeling of my migraine intensifying.

The air is sucked from my lungs as the freezing water embraces me. I curl into a ball, and let the current thrash me about. I'm immediately at the base of the falls, so I know that there's no hope. Not really. My migraine throbs in time with my frenzied heart.

What will my parents think? Will they find my body? Will they even know where to look?

I suddenly feel a fire light in me, and a blast of light bursts before my eyes, what I assume to be lack of oxygen affecting my sight. I can't let my parents be hurt so deeply and completely, not without even trying to fight for them. What kind of selfish, good for nothing human being doesn't fight for its loved ones?

So I try to orient myself towards the sky, keyword try, and thrash in that general direction. I feel the current move around me, and suddenly my migraine lifts like a gigantic weight off of my poor brain. My mind rushes to understand what's happening, but the water actually propels me out of the river. Before I know it I am soaring, careening through the air and towards the beach, which is at least a half a mile from the base of the Falls. A scream rips out of my throat at last, and echoes through the river valley, between the mountains, and beyond. The sand rises to meet me so fast that all I can do is shield my face from ramming into it. I land roughly, rolling until I finally stop, a heap of legs and arms and loose dark hair. I lay still a moment, just breathing.

What?

Someone clears their throat. I startle so badly that I choke on my own spit, and struggle to stand up. Sand pours off of me like the Falls themselves, and I rub my eyes, trying to focus on the figure in front of me.

"Who's there?" I say, coughing and sputtering, rubbing sand from my eyes.

"A naiadorph? No, they can only keep human form for a few seconds… Can't be human though, not with that little display, uh uh.."

It's a man, that much I can tell through the grains in my eyes. He's tall, and in the moonlight, his features are difficult to make out, but I can see large eyes. Large, bright eyes, looking at me as if I am the most interesting thing to see in the whole world.

"Please, who are you?" I say, exasperated and suddenly very… very tired. I sway, dropping to my knees. The man rushes to me, and gently grabs my shoulders to support me.

"Whoa there, easy. You've expended a lot of energy doing what you just did. Manipulating matter to your will takes a lot out of you, huh?" he says, and now that he's closer I can see him better. Those large eyes, now burning with both interest and concern. His lips are thin, closed tight in a taut line as if he is deep in thought. His hair is going all directions, this way and that, like a young mad scientist. He can't be much older than I am. Though those eyes, they seem to hold too much to be young at all.

"I'm okay," I murmur, and attempt to stand again, "Just… Did you see it?"

He only looks at me, and the last thing I comprehend before I bite it is his arms catching me again.