The Earth Empire Returns

Book 1: Friendship

Chapter 2: A New Life Part 2

A young woman worked tirelessly, as she picked up things from the floor. She was cleaning her vibrant colored room, and was humming while she did so. She put all the dirty clothes in a pile, when they had been gathered she picked them up to put into the clothes basket in the corner of her room.

"Ok, those are there," she said flipping her long brown hair out of her face. She scanned her room with her chocolate eyes to spot another mess. It was in the corner of her room, and it was a bunch of folders filled with the trading cards she collected. "Oh right, forgot about those."

As the woman was about to pick up the folders, a bright yellow and green light flashed in her room. The very light that her neighbors would be talking about, since her disappearance.

It felt like she was free falling. She couldn't tell if she herself was screaming, or if was the weird creatures she saw passing her. At one point, she could have sworn she just saw whale swimming in the air. The colors were vibrant, and she thought she must have taken some form of drug, but as she just got used to falling; she hit the sand hard.

She couldn't remember there being this much sand in her town of Lubbock, Texas. Sure the town's outskirts were barren, if they weren't dotted with cotton and oil farms, but it wasn't an outright land of sand. Dirt maybe, but never sand. That was when the girl opened her eyes to the glaring sun.

"Ok Bridget," she said to herself, "That eggnog you had must have been bad, and instead of gettin' the squirts, I'm trippin'." She rubbed her eyes, as they began to feel funny and suddenly everything blurred, like when she would wear her father's glasses. "What the hell," Bridget cursed, as she rubbed her eyes.

Eventually all the rubbing left her eyes sore, and caused her contacts to fall out. "Well, that's just great," she said, as she looked at the contacts on her hand. She looked up expecting everything to be just as blurry, but instead it had become clear, as if she were still wearing her contacts. "Well then, I revise my statement. That is just great!" Bridget smiled and danced around in her excitement.

"I don't know what that light did, but it fixed my eye sight! I wonder if it'll cure my dental problems too?" Bridget wondered to herself. She shrugged and dusted off her t-shirt and jeans. "Well, now that I don't have to worry about blindness, I need to figure out how to get out of this desert alive."

Using the teachings she had learned from participating in her brother's cub scout things, she managed to fill out a survival plan. She stuck to traveling at night, and using the dew collected from the ripped ends of her jeans, she used as rags to find water, she managed to find an oasis town.

"Water!" Bridget exclaimed as she ran up to the fountain. She began to drink greedily. As she drank, she didn't realize two large men had walked up behind her. In fact the entire town seemed to be deserted.

"Hey!" one the men yelled at her. "Don't you know you have to pay the toll to drink our water?" He brandished the sword he was carrying in front of her. Bridget went pale and attempted to utter a response, but her voice got caught in her throat.

"What's the matter cat-skunk got your tongue?" the other man sneered at her, cracking his knuckles.

Bridget had thought of many things to say, but at the man's comment she couldn't help but to blurt out, "What the hell is a cat-skunk?"

"What are you stupid?" the first man said pushing Bridget into the fountain, causing both men to laugh. Bridget just managed to remove her wet hair from her face when the second man lifted her up by her shirt.

"So where's our money?" he growled out.

Bridget patted her pockets in a frenzy to give them something. She managed to fish out a quarter. "This is all I got. Twenty-five cents, you can buy yourself a pack of gum with it. Maybe it will freshen up your breath." She hadn't meant to say that last comment. Her brain seemed to forget that she was currently in danger right now. Her body however did not, and she shrank, when the man punched her.

"I can't buy shit with this!" the man yelled at her. The first man came up and pointed his sword at her. Bridget in her panic threw her hands up, but in the process sandbended the sand against the men.

"What the hell was that?" Bridget said freaking out. She didn't get to stay freaked out for long, before the men recovered.

"If you can't pay, you gotta work!" he then picked her up and took her to a nearby barn. "You can work the rest of your life cleaning out the animals shit, since it's worth more than you."

Bridget didn't say anything, as she nursed her now forming bruise on her jaw. They had hit it just right to cause her wisdom teeth to start hurting again. The men handed her supplies to begin cleaning the animals and their pens, when Bridget caught sight of the ostrich-horse.

The men had turned their back, and she saw her chance. The animal was already saddled up, and it probably belonged to one of the men, but she would use it now. As quietly as she could, she untied the reins and climbed on the animals back. The men didn't know what happened, when she dropped a bucket on to the second man's head and rode off.

"Thanks for the ride!" she yelled, as she took the road leading out of the city. She had only ridden horses a couple of times and never at a pace faster than a trot. It was not surprising, when she settled down by a small creek that night, that she was incredibly saddle sore.

"I think I'll take it easy on the running," she said to the ostrich-horse who was now tied to a dead log by the creek. "You need a name. Hmmm let me think. How about Arrow?" The animal didn't seem to mind, and Bridget tentatively approached the animal now that her adrenaline had run dry.

"I've never seen an animal like you," she commented, "You're a beautiful creature though. I guess you're supposed to be crossed with some kind of bird. I guess an ostrich? I think people can ride on those. So are you called a horse-ostrich? Ostrich-horse. Yeah, that sounds better. An ostrich-horse."

The animal ignored Bridget's rambling, but seemed to enjoy the woman petting him. "Well, Arrow it looks like we're leaving the desert. That's good. I don't do good in deserts. I mean I may be from the south plains in Texas but that doesn't make me desert material. It makes me south plains material."

Bridget lied down on a soft patch of grass and fell asleep. She would have to find a good place to settle soon, and attempt to figure out how to get home. She would also have to figure out how to use those powers again. They could come in handy.

The next few days Bridget rode Arrow to what seemed to be the outskirts of a town. She managed to find a meadow a few miles out. She dragged a log and tied Arrow's reins to it.

"Okay, I need to build a shelter. I can do that. There is mud and trees around, or I can go Native American style and build a house with the mud and grass. That sounds better."

For the next few days, Bridget worked on building her grass hut. It cleared away some of the unnecessary grass and dirt and allowed a nice humble living space. "Yeah I know, I should probably try to live in town, but I've always wanted to have a ranch," she said to Arrow.

It was a few days later after she started building pens for animals and particularly for Arrow that she realized, she could move more than just sand. She didn't know how to tap into this power, so it usually proved more irritating than any actual good.

After a few weeks, she had her two pens made. She led Arrow into one that was built to keep him from being able to jump over it. She had also been hunting, fishing, and gathering.

She had a few baskets from the leftover grass and put the stuff she was going to sell into one of them. She saddled up Arrow and held onto the basket with one hand. Bridget directed him to the town.

Mrs. Ling was just putting the open sign on her door, when she saw Bridget riding up on her ostrich-horse. She had never seen such an oddly dressed woman before. The woman watched as Bridget dismounted and tied her animal to the post.

"Excuse me ma'am," Bridget said putting her basket on the desk. "I would like to sell these." Bridget looked worse for wear. She was covered in dirt, and if Mrs. Ling was honest smelt like she needed a bath, but she was a polite woman, and she smiled at the young woman.

"Okay dear," she replied as she looked at the goods. The fish and harvested wild mushrooms would pay a decent amount, but the pelts looked like she had tried to skin them with a rock, but looking back at her disheveled appearance that idea couldn't be far off.

"I'll give you one hundred and fifty yuans for the fish and mushrooms," Mrs. Ling replied, "and twenty yuans for the pelts." The woman smiled happily.

"Okay!"

Mrs. Ling looked at the girl with a worried look. The young woman looked like she had just won the lottery. She was going to ask the young woman, if she knew how to count money, but thought better of it. Her worry increased, however, when she gave Bridget the money, and she looked like she had never seen a yuan in her life.

After that day, Mrs. Ling saw Bridget more and more, as she brought in more fish, pelts, and mushrooms. Finally the older woman asked the girl her name.

Bridget paused and tried to think of something. Every person she had met seemed to have had an Asian name, and Bridget saw Mrs. Ling looking at her clothes weirdly.

"It's okay you don't have to answer," Mrs. Ling said kindly, "Where do you live?"

"In the meadow," Bridget replied glad for the change in subject, "I'm hoping to save up for some sheep."

Mrs. Ling looked at Bridget oddly, "You mean a koala-sheep?"

Bridget seemed surprised, but quickly responded, "Yeah koala-sheep. That's what I meant, because there is no such thing as a plain sheep right?" She laughed awkwardly, and Mrs. Ling smiled.

"I happen to have one koala-sheep. No one will take her because she is old, but I'm willing to sell her to you for one hundred yuans," the elderly woman offered.

"Great!" Bridget answered, "I'll take her!" She grabbed her bag that was filled with all the yuans that Bridget had collected by selling her goods. She slowly began to count all the yuans, and Mrs. Ling's thoughts were true. Bridget had no idea how to count money.

"Here, let me help," she offered. She pointed out the different yuans and helped Bridget to count the correct amount.

Bridget blushed, "Thanks."

"It is no problem at all," Mrs. Ling responded. She showed Bridget to the pens outside where one lone koala-sheep stood munching some of the grass. Mrs. Ling gave Bridget the rope that acted as a leash, and the young woman waved her thanks before walking towards her ostrich-horse.

Another woman accidentally bumped into Bridget. "Oh I'm sorry! I should really watch where I am going," Bridget said apologizing to the woman.

"It's okay," replied Kuvira before heading into the general store.