Music droned out all sound, the metallic blare resonating from the tiny, white ear buds that hung loosely in either ear. She swayed her head to the side, following in beat with the song before crossing the street.

There were of course no cars in sight, no cars but there was a tractor pulling itself out of a ditch and onto the main road, it's bright green hood covered in a thick, crusted layer of mud as black puffs of smoke poured out the top of it when the farmer pushed it harder, accellerating the machine to pull it up. But that was typical. There were never any cars here, not in this rural land. Not in this barren country side where fields of corn and soy beans stretched on for miles, broken up by small stripes of gravel road and narrow sections of forest that had been cut down to make room for the fields.

She tilted her head back to watch the bus bounce itself back in gear and pull away, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. A loud "plunk" noise singled that it was safely lurching away and continuing its way down the long country roads.

Her attention refocused on the road ahead, a half mile stretch of white, gray gravel surrounded by rows of corn. The bus wouldn't take her down to the house, it made her walk down their private drive but it didn't bother her much but when the clouds rolled in from the west, angry looking with fierce thunder heads she didn't appreciate that much. It was very similiar to that now, being that it was the heart of summer here and that's when the rain always came.

"Should have brought an umbrella." Her tone was bleak as she stopped to look up at the mean sky when it finally began to sprinkle. She was probably about a quarter of a way there. By the time she got home she'd be soaked. Her expression went sour and her toughts turned to that of the bus driver. /I don't understand why she couldn't take me down to my house. How much effort would she have to put into the process?/ Her mind worked in mysterious ways, thoughts darting to and fro.

The gravel crunched under her flip-flops, her long straight-leg jeans stuck underneath, filthy. In the ground there were small holes here and there, filled with little water and a lot of mud, that was a nasty gray hue that had strange bubbles erupting on the surface. She tilted her head back, looking up at the sky as the last of the bright white clouds were suddenly engulfed by the dark, threatening clouds. Her mind wandered as she tugged at her hair, it put up in a loose ponytail that was pulled over her left shoulder. Fingers continously twirled the dark brown strands, her brilliant green eyes watching silently. Bangs curled over her forehead, falling over it in a side-swept fashion, her nicely bronzed skin -frown days of working out in the sun- looking even darker as a chilling breeze picked up, pulling at the long strands and whipping them in the wind. A small smile curled across her lips, the upper lip smaller than the bottom lip, both a lovely pink shade. It was a mysterious smile that tugged at the bottom of her nose, pushing up one cheek in a half, sort of Mona Lisa smile. Her face, highly defined with high cheek bones, with little coloring that played out well with her wide and intellegent looking eyes.

That's when these same eyes grew in amazment.

Falling silently from the sky, where the last patch of sunlight still shone was a small book. It was hard bound, black in color and genetly making it's decent from the heavens above.

She watched with drawn back breath, her eyes following it downwards where it finally landed softly on the hard gravel about ten feet away.

It was like nothing she's ever seen, not a miracle, not aliens nothing. There wasn't a word to decribe what had just happened. With a slight jolt she stumbled towards the scared book, tripping over a hole. Reaching for it her arms were shaking, small tremors esclading up and down her arms as she grasped the book, taking it in her hands. That's when the strangest thing happened, it was like a switch was flipped in her, altering everything about the bored youth. A voice spoke, very near it's raspy voice ehcoing in her ears. She spun, pulling in the book tight, not willing to give it up and there he was, standing there calmly with a solmn expression. Raito looked over the girl, she was like an animal protecting her offspring, gripping at the book fiercly. "Hello." He said softly, his powerful voice strengthening as he spoke. "I'm Raito."