===Disclaimer: I don't own anything that comes from the series. My own characters are my own. If you can't tell what is and is not mine, then why are you reading a story about a series (that isn't mine) that you obviously don't know about? If you know what is and isn't my own creations, then you know what it is that is not mine and that I do not claim to be mine ...You heard me.===

Chapter 1: Appearance

Rain clouds were starting to form in the sky above. Jen was going to her friend's house after school, and she wanted to get there before getting drenched. She picked up her pace and began zipping up her jacket. "Ohh, come on. Not yet. Wait 'til I get there, please," she begged the sky. "Stupid weather forecasts are never right anymore..."

The wind started to pick up. The trees were all beginning to bend in the wind. "Oh great, it's gonna be a big one again, isn't it?" Something felt odd to Jen, though; the surrounding air felt strangely charged with energy. She stopped and looked around for a bit. A low rumbling sound rang in her ears. The sound increased in intensity. Jen turned all over, trying to see what was making the noise. A powerful gust came and then, out of nowhere, a bright flash of yellow light filled the area. Jen covered her eyes to keep from being blinded.

Then everything went quiet. Jen peeked through her arms, then lowered them. The light had vanished. The wind had died down again. The strange feeling was gone. She brushed her hair out of her face and stood up straight again. She looked everywhere around her – everything was fine.

"Well, that was weird..." Jen surveyed the area again, but all was as it should be. Nothing was out of place. She shrugged and continued on to her friend's house. Not too long after, though, she saw something on the ground that caught her attention. A small, green object laying out on the side of the road. She bent down and picked it up to inspect it closer.

"A watch?" She looked it over and determined it had to be exactly that. It had a round face, like a watch. It had a green strap with a black stripe coming out of either side, like a watch would have. It didn't have any hands on the face, though, and it didn't look like a digital watch, either. Instead, it had a green hourglass-shaped symbol on it. "A weird looking one," she commented. She pressed a small button on the side of the face, but nothing happened. "Must be broken. Kind of a waste to just throw it on the road, though. It seems pretty fancy for a watch. Or it's a kid's toy..." She kept staring at it, as if it was much more important than it seemed. A raindrop landing on her hand snapped her out of it. "Oh, great! Guess I'll just hang on to this. It could make for an interesting bracelet or something at least." She put the watch into her jacket pocket and ran off to her destination.

The doorbell rang. "Coming!" Kelly got up and ran over to the door. She opened it to find a dripping girl on the other side. "Hi, Jen! Looks like you got a little wet."

"Yeeeahhh... a little..." Jen replyed.

"Come in," chuckled Kelly, "I'll grab you a towel."

After Jen dried off, the girls went down to the basement to talk about boys and other stuff and then watch their favorite show on television. After the show was over, they started talking again. Jen was telling Kelly about her trip over with the strange event.

"Whoa, crazy. And it just stopped? Nothing else happened?" Kelly asked once Jen finished.

"Nope. Everything was just the way it was before. Nothing out of the ordin-," Jen stopped for a second. "Oh! Wait! I did find something kinda interesting a little after. I'll go grab it. Be right back." She went back upstairs.

Jen returned with the green watch in her hand. "Here, look at this. It looks like some kinda watch, but it doesn't look like it tells time."

Kelly checked the watch out. "Pretty color. It doesn't tell time? Does it do anything else?"

"Not so far. The battery must be dead or something." Jen placed the watch onto her left wrist and fastened the strap. "Well, how's it look? I figure if it can't be fixed, I could just use it as a bracelet or whatever."

"Eh, maybe not for every day. Looks a little too... unique for that."

"Yeah, I guess I could wear it for some Halloween party some time or something like that." She tried to take the watch off her wrist, but she couldn't unfasten the strap. "Ungh. I think it's stuck."

"Stuck? Just undo the strap. You put it on, just do it all backwards," Kelly leaned closer to get a good look.

"Uh, duh, I've tried already. It won't come off." Jen struggled to get the thing off her arm, but it absolutely would not budge. She tried prying and pulling, but nothing she attempted caused it to become any looser. She grabbed the face by its edges and started pulling on that. Her hand came back down onto the face when she stopped pulling for a moment. Then she began to pull again. Her thumb hit one of the buttons on the side and the watch face suddenly lit up. Her hand slammed back down on it and the device suddenly let out a bright flash of green light.

Jen felt strange. She could feel slight movement throughout every part of her body, especially all over her back. The sensation continued for a few seconds, then disappeared until only her back felt strange still. "Ooh... I just felt really weird for a bit there...," she said, her voice seeming a little deeper than usual.

Kelly then let out a loud scream. Jen winced at the shrill sound and looked to see what made her friend do that. She saw Kelly staring at her with a very shocked and slightly frightened look on her face. Kelly pointed a shaky finger at her and said, "Wh-what happened to you?!"

Jen was surprised at hearing this. She reached out her hand to calm her friend down. Then she noticed her skin was a greyish-brown color and she only had three, claw-like fingers and she let out a small scream, too. She stood up and looked at her now mostly bare legs; they were the same color as her hands. She ran over to the full-body mirror on the wall across the room and looked at herself in it. Her entire body had this greyish-brown color. Her hair was longer and colored an orange-red. Her eyes had gotten more narrow and their color had changed from their normal blue to a bright green. Even her clothes were different; instead of her T-shirt and jeans, she was wearing a sleeveless one-piece suit over her entire torso. But most startling of all was the large wings and slender tail she now had on her back, which appeared almost like those seen on a dragon in drawings.

"What am I?!?"

A/N: Well, this is my first attempt at writing. I'd really appreciate it if you would tell me how you like it. And if you have any advice on how I could write better, I'm all ears. Well, eyes, I suppose it would be in this situation... Thanks for reading, and I hope you read on. I'll try to add new chapters as soon as I can, if this gets off to a good start.