Note: 07/09/20
Hello, hello, this story might seem all too familiar to my older readers and yes, it is meant to be that one story you remember —- it has been awhile, hasn't it? I'm completely revising this story from the bottom up and that means starting from scratch, hence this new creation. The plot will remain the same and while I'll be adding new scenes and twists, I'll remain true to my 2008 creation/edition.
For any new readers...
This story is not written for the pleasure of seeing an OC having a blast with the characters and having fun in their world. This is is not a parody of a silly fic. This story is about survival in a completely different reality with all its highly negative aspects as well as those positive ones. I'll be using the realistic route - as realistic as I can without killing off the OC at the very beginning, which, honestly, would been the most realistic outcome if you think about it. I'll be giving you the reader a not-so-pleasant look into the lives of those unfortunate enough to have been taken from our world and placed into another. Canon characters will remain canon but with a touch of realism added to their characters and so on. I will also like to point out this story will contain mature and dark themes as the story progresses to better fit the realistic approach.
{ epigraph }
"One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity,
guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness,
benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?'
The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'"
- Two Wolves
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Awaken
{First Cycle}
Life is like a game of cards.
The hand that is dealt to you represents determinism;
the way you play it is free will.
-Jawaharlal Nehru
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Nothing disturbed my sleep, fact was, I was not much of a light sleeper to begin with.
Unless a night was noticeably cold to perturb me from my slumber, I would not bothered searching for the blanket that either slipped off from my bed or that I unconsciously kicked off to the end of it. I knew for a fact I could very well sleep through noises and movements that someone could make around me. Because of my past experiences and probably because I also had siblings, I could safely assume that I was a heavy sleeper. Of course, there was an exception to the rule. If any form of light were to hit my face, be it natural or from an electrical source, that would instantly — well, not that instantly — rouse me up from my sleep.
That's exactly was just happened.
Other than the noticeable brightness that disturbed my slumber, the second thing that I slowly noticed was that something was pressed against the side of my face soon followed by the curious whereabouts of my pillow. While not completely in control of my senses just yet, I slowly became aware of a couple of things. One of them being that I caught myself sleeping in my least favorite position — on my stomach. This explained the weird sensation of awkwardly laying on the side of my face. As my brain was slowly taking hold of my body, I felt a crushing pressure against my chest. It was at this very moment when I realized I laid on a unyielding surface that was not the soft comfort of my bed. By then I felt the prickly sting of what I sensationally recognized as grass, but what woke up me up from my zombie-like state were my fingers clutching said grass.
Which brings me to this very moment — kneeling on the very same spot I had awoken from just seconds ago.
I could sense within the depth of my chest the beating of my heart as fear was slowly dawning on me. I ignored the kink on my neck from the awkward position I had awaken from as I took in my surrounding for what must be the tenth time. "What the hell..." I muttered as I brushed off the dirt from my cheek with a swipe from the back of hand.
This was different, beyond different...
This was unnerving me.
I slowly took in a deep breath and exhaled. Okay. There was no need to freak out just yet. I needed to mentally jot down what was happening here and perhaps come to a conclusion on how I came to be here. It was more than apparent that I was no longer in the comfort of my bedroom and much less in my apartment or any building for that matter. There were no familiar paved black street or vehicles in sight. There was literally nothing that I could recognize as home. The only things that I could were the many trees, the ever-so vibrant green grass that lay beneath me and the occasional shrubs that dotted amongst the tree trunks.
Nature literally surrounded me.
'We're no longer in Kansas, Toto', was such a fitting and popular expression that crossed my mind. Never thought I would use the term to, literally, express my situation. Ha. It was more than apparent that I was no longer standing in the middle of my city. In fact, I had never been in a location where nature was in such abundance; while I was sure that if this was a normal circumstance, I would had actually admired my surrounding. Unfortunately, this was not one of those cases — instead of excitement at the thought of an adventure, apprehension was slowly growing from within.
A sudden gust of wind came rushing from behind me, forcing my dark shoulder length hair to whip wildly around my head. I brushed back the strands of hair away from my face as I looked up towards the sky. With my hands framing my face to keep my hair from continuously whipping around, I noticed the sight of ominous dark gray looking clouds. Huh. Just as before, where this to had been a normal circumstance, I would had not been bothered by the sight of those ominous clouds — in fact, I would had looked forward to what their presence meant. I continued to stared up at the threatening sky, noticing the slow movements of the clouds as they moved across the vast space above me.
It was a definite sign that was rain was coming.
Then it dawned on me as I dropped my arms to my sides.
"This is a prank," I muttered to myself with a light scoff.
It had to be or how the heck did I end up in the middle of nowhere?! This explained everything!
I woke up in a strange location with nothing other than the very clothes on my back, which luckily for me happened to had been pajamas. While I had visited parks before, I had never been to one where nature was this abundant. Other than these two apparent things that I had noticed, there was nothing to contradict my belief that it was not a prank. Nothing really.
Which honestly was good enough to believe in since this was the only rational explanation for being out here.
Surely this prank could not had been pulled off by a single person — unless the person in question was a hero of some kind. This only led me to believe that someone must had masterminded this and rounded up a group of people to pull this 'har har' moment. While I was in no way popular and only had a small group of friends, I found it unlikely they would had been behind it. Let's just say that they could with the help of other people but why would they even do it? My birthday was over two weeks ago and while it would been a good reason to celebrate it by playing a very amusing prank to mark this milestone in my life, it was a bit late to pull off now.
Unless... this was a senior prank of some kind but wouldn't that be the other way around? Play it on the school and not on the students? These last few years in my life and in the world around us had been unexpected with new changes, I wouldn't be surprised if my school peers wanted to try something new and have it go viral. Grab a couple of sleeping students and spread them around in a park, huh? It was likely by chance that I got chosen to have this happen to me. In any case, whoever masterminded this must of had it all worked out and likely had my parents involved in some way to allow it to happen. All I had to do was be asleep for the plan to take hold; bonus for them considering I was a heavy sleeper to boot. Were I not on the receiving end, I would had found this whole thing both clever and amusing.
"All righty then," I said aloud as I turned on my knees. "Was it by chance I got picked or was I voted into this prank? Would make for a fun story to leave Ariadna alone and watch her pathetically stumble across unknown territory, huh?!" My reply came in the form of rustling tree branches around me as the wind was starting to pick up.
I wasn't going to lie but this was becoming irritating. Granted, I was never good with pranks but I supposed no one was when they were on the receiving end. I mean, yes — it would make for a fun story once I got over it. But at this moment I could not 'har har' with the rest of the prankster and go on our merry way.
I sighed deeply.
"Okay, what am I supposed to do? Try and attempt to find the other poor souls and band together? How long are you people going to even stay hidden, huh? Also, I hope you guys were smart enough and checked the weather before you pulled me out here!" I called out, as I positioned myself to sit on my folded legs and relieve the pressure from my knees. "Looks like rain is coming, so I find no purpose to wander around and get myself sick because that would definitely suck as a joke on me, seriously!" A strong gust of wind met me face-on and unlike last time, I felt the cold chill around me.
I was still wearing the same clothes I had gone to bed with, which despite the temperature, was a relief as I could had awoken wearing something ridiculous considering the sense of humor my fellow peers had.
I suppose that's what I deserved for being such a heavy sleeper, huh
It was quite obvious the clothes I wore were not the perfect choice for the weather that I was in, then again, I never really planned on waking up in the middle of the night and venture out into the wilderness with what I slept in. I was admittedly incredibly unsuited for the situation as I was wearing a form fitting white tank and black, lightweight fleece short shorts. It was August and Southern California was experiencing its yearly warm months, so of course I would opt to be as cool as possible even when my parents kept the AC on during the night. Furthering adding to my lack of appropriate apparel for the setting, I had no shoes.
It might not been a big deal for someone who happened to awaken in a location they did not recognized, but shoes were a necessity in my life. Was it even safe to walk around barefooted in this part of the world, especially if people ventured out here? As humans, there was that percentage who weren't environmentally conscious and just dropped their trash anywhere without even bothering to look for a proper location to dispose of it. When I was twelve, I badly cut my foot with broken glass that was shadowed by the large stalks of grass in a park I was visiting. As a reward for the carelessness of another, I received seven stitches because of them. I did not want to revisit that experience again, so I was being overly cautious but for good reason. With no other choice left for me, I stood up which relieved the pressure from my legs.
Even when I stood up to my full height, it did not give me much of an advantage. The sights looked just the same but perhaps I noticed a bit more distance than I did when I was on the ground. Trees still towered over me, the clouds still loomed over my head and oh hey, I was taller than those bushes between those two trees over there. At only 5'2" I was bound to surpass some things around me, including out here in the wilderness.
Another gust of wind rushed past me and instinctively rubbed my naked upper arms to keep the goose bumps away. I did a 360 and looked around me once more.
Nada.
Nothing at all.
"Wouldn't had hurt if you guys left me a sweater or even a blanket for me," I said loud enough in case they were actually around. I was starting to get uncomfortable with the idea that, perhaps, they weren't around like I originally thought they would be.
What time was it anyhow? Morning? Midday? My only source that I relied on for time was my phone but considering I was pretty much empty handed here, there was no way I could tell. Perhaps where the sun visible, I could had probably taken a guess depending on the sun's location in the sky but with the dark clouds hovering above me, there was no telling. It was definitely still day considering natural light source still filtered through the clouds. There was no use for me to contemplate on time since there were more important matters at hand. I would deal with night once it came.
In the meantime, I had to do something.
If these people were eager to continue with the prank even with the ominous sky, they would definitely not step in and save me now.
I wasn't in danger just yet.
Haha.
I had high hopes they would step in once the time came to do so. For now, I'm guessing, they rather watch me squirm and become a nervous wreck.
Well, I'm definitely not going to deliver that to them at all.
AN: Thanks for reading :)
