Part 1 of 4

A muddled feeling overtook Hilda's senses as she slowly regained consciousness.

She blinked once, and then let a yawn escape her mouth. There was so much warmth around her, encasing her in a snugly little nest. It was so comfortable in her bed. The typical soft pillows, the heavy blanket, the perfect laying position. She could even feel the presence of Twig and Alfur nearby looking out for her. They were probably asleep as well, but just their presence was enough to make her feel safe. The winter months had been harsh to all of them, but at least in the house, she could feel the heat that was once present all those summers ago.

In the blink of an eye, billions of thoughts flooded Hilda's mind. The thoughts she heard were small and weak, not a single one she could detect any importance of. It was just mindless drabble that came with the notion of waking up. This realization, of course, is when she began to feel her other senses slowly start to flutter to life. Her eyes opened, but they were heavy. That was to be expected, after all, no one's senses are perfect after a good long sleep. Because of this though, everything was blurry. She couldn't detect much, in fact, all she could see was the end of her bed where her hat was quietly perched.

The tired adventurer perked up hearing a strange noise being produced. This was odd for several reasons. For starters, Alfur and Twig usually didn't wake up until Hilda herself had, so the noise couldn't have been coming from them. Her mother also couldn't have been producing it, the sound came from right next to her, and her mother's room was on the other side of the hallway. She also didn't have an alarm clock, her mental alarm system was enough to help her wake up early in the morning and night. It was pretty effective, so there would be no need for any rude awakening from an electronic clock.

So what was it...?

The noise came from beside her, it was louder this time. Her body was weak, but she still picked herself up and quickly moved her blanket aside.

"Whose there?" Hilda said wearily, rubbing her eyes until the world finally came to view.

Before she knew it, her eyes focused, and in front of her...

Was a shocking scene that caused her to snap right awake.

In front of her was a T.V set, producing the sound Hilda was hearing prior. But Hilda didn't care about that, because a person was sitting in front of her, a girl in fact... staring at her with widened eyes.

"...!"

"...!"

Both Hilda and the girl were silent, staring at each other in surprise. Alarm bells were going off in Hilda's mind. Someone had broken into her home, and was sitting in her room! She should've called someone the moment she saw her. But for some reason this house robber she saw was just sitting there, her legs crossed, looking just as surprised as Hilda. She looked harmless enough, but this girl was a stranger, and somehow she had gotten into Hilda's home, which definitely wasn't accepting any guest during nighttime.

The girl didn't move, and neither did Hilda. The shock of the situation she found herself was too much. She would've said something, or maybe even screamed, but nothing came out. She didn't know what to say.

The girl had the perfect response though.

"HOLY SH-!"

The girl's hands flew to cover her mouth before she could finish the rest, sweating a bit after the fact.

"holy shoot...!" the girl rephrased quietly, confusing Hilda even more.

Now she was talking though, the perfect time to ask some questions.

"W-who are you? What are you doing in my house!" Hilda sternly asked.

The girl lowered her hands, but still kept her eyes within a point-blank radius at Hilda. She looked so confused, even more then Hilda was. Hilda took this time to observe the girl. This proved to confuse her even more though with her appearance. She was wearing comfortable night clothing, complete with a dark tank top and night shorts. She had short wild hair, nothing like Hilda's glowing blue hair. She was way taller than her, maybe a teenager. Hilda couldn't really tell, she had a young-looking face.

She stared back into the girl's eyes, which were slightly teary.

"I-I can't believe it... this is actually..." the girl started, "y-you're actually real..."

What is this girl talking about? Hilda thought.

"I asked you a question, who are you?" Hilda repeated, eyeing the rest of the room, "and how did you get-"

But Hilda didn't get to finish, because to her shock, she found herself somewhere completely different than her own home.

She was in a large bedroom, which mostly was pink and girly looking. Hilda was still standing on her bed, but other than that, everything else was completely unrecognizable to her. There was another bed near the middle of the room fit for a queen, the metal frame curving stylishly into an elegant looking king-sized bed. White strings of lights were set up messily behind the bed, with photos being plastered under each light. A huge fluffy pink carpet lied under it, spreading out to the rest of the room where a glass door rested. Beyond it, she could clearly see a patio bathed in the glowing moonlight.

This room was way to fancy for her. She definitely wasn't at her house, but it thankfully quelled the growing concern as to why Alfur and Twig hadn't woken up yet from her and the girl's questions. She had no idea if this answered satisfied or worried her even more.

Hilda quickly turned back to the girl to see her sweating.

She promised herself she wouldn't freak out from this...

But she couldn't help herself.

"W-WHERE AM I?!" she screamed.

The girl fluttered back a bit as Hilda clumsily fell out of her bed.

*BAM*

There was no pain, but they're certainly was an impact. Right onto the carpet in fact. It was a hard landing despite the apparent soft surface. But even that didn't concern Hilda, she quickly recovered and got up, widely looking around in fear.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?! WHERE AM I!? WHO ARE YOU!? WHAT IS HAPPENING?! WHERE IS-!"

"W-whoa! W-wait... let's calm down now!" the girl said, "I'm just as-"

"DON'T INTERRUPT ME WHEN I'M FREAKING OUT!" Hilda shouted.

The girl's hands grabbed onto Hilda's shoulders and started shaking her roughly.

"STOP PANICKING!" she screamed, "YOU'RE MAKING ME FREAK OUT TO!"

"WELL, WHY ARE YOU FREAKED OUT!?" Hilda screamed back.

"I DON'T KNOW!" the girl shouted, "BECAUSE OF A LOT OF THINGS RIGHT NOW!"

Shaking. Shaking. Shaking. The girl was still shaking her.

"CAN YOU STOP SHAKING ME!" Hilda yelled, her stomach suddenly getting squeamish.

"ONLY IF YOU STOP SCREAMING FIRST!" the girl said.

"ALRIGHT THEN!" Hilda shouted.

"..."

"..."

Slowly, the girl let go of Hilda's shoulders.

"O-Okay then, now that's over..." she said, "y-your good right?"

"Yeah," Hilda responded, "I'm good..."

"..."

"..."

"U-um, I'm really sorry about shaking you..." she said, "this is all just so..."

She had her hands over her mouth for whatever reason. She didn't look like a threat, but she didn't look like much of a friend either. Hilda had no idea what to think of the girl just now. All she could think about was her situation.

"Hey, are you going to be okay?" Hilda asked, "you're shaking..."

The girl took a deep breath and faced Hilda, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Uh... yeah," she admitted, "sorry for that... it's... i'm fine."

She looked down once more, picking at the fabric of the carpet with her fingers. She definitely didn't look okay, but Hilda couldn't really do anything about that now. For now, she had to find out where she was.

"Uh... do you know where we are" Hilda asked.

"Y-yeah... this is my house..." she said, "or actually it's my parents. I don't own the place yet..."

"I see..." Hilda said, "so this must be your bedroom..."

The girl looked up and quickly nodded.

"I'm sorry it's messy," she said, "I w-wasn't expecting anyone to appear... especially you..."

Hilda perked up at the mention of those last few words.

"So you don't know what's going on to me either?"

The girl looked up and nodded.

So some outside force is at play here, Hilda thought, but what could that be? And why exactly here?

Hilda looked at the girl, who was quietly sitting there. She was still a stranger, but if this phenomenon was somehow effecting her to, then she wasn't a threat. She didn't look like one, but Hilda wasn't sure at first. She still wasn't honestly. Thing were moving way to fast for her to process it correctly.

"How about we introduce ourselves before we talk about anything specific?" Hilda asked, "it would relieve some of the... tension taking place right now."

The girl nodded in agreement.

"Okay then, I guess i'll go first," Hilda said.

"Oh, there's no need..." the girl exclaimed, "I already know you. You're Hilda."

Shock struck Hilda like a speeding train. It definitely didn't help relieve the tension she was feeling at that moment.

"You know me?" Hilda repeated.

"U-uh... yeah... I kind of do..." she admitted, "a lot of people do... sorry..."

"Oh no, don't apologize," Hilda quickly said, "i'm just surprised that my name has someone gotten out there beyond Trolberg..."

The girls were silent for a moment, processing the conversation. The fact that so many people knew Hilda's name was somewhat distressing. How was that even possible? She was just some girl who happened to deal with strange events. She might be well known in school, but somehow people from outside Trolberg have heard of her?

This is getting even weirder then I thought, Hilda said.

Hilda turned toward the girl again, who was still just sitting there.

"Is it okay for me to introduce myself?" she asked.

"Of course..." Hilda said, "you don't exactly need permission to-"

Suddenly, just as Hilda said that, the girl extended her hand out to her.

"I-I'm Catherine..." she said, "it's a p-pleasure to... meet you..."

Her hands were cold and a bit larger than Hilda's, but other than that nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary with her. Well, besides her reactions of course. She appeared to be friendly though, which was enough for Hilda to slightly drop her guard.

Only slightly though, Catherine was still weirdly rubbing Hilda's hands.

After breaking away from the handshake, Hilda turned her attention back toward her eyes, which were slightly transfixed on Hilda's hands.

"They even felt real to..." Catherine said, "Is this like... one of those cartoon paradox's people write about?"

Hilda tried her best to not let her growing concern lessen her judgment on her, and instead focus on the aspect of the sentence which intrigued her the most.

"I'm sorry... I don't understand what you're talking about," Hilda said, "what do you mean cartoon paradoxes? Do you know what's going on?"

Catherine looked up, a tinge of worry clearly visible upon her face.

"I-I think... maybe I do..." Catherine said, "but you might not like the answer."

Before Hilda could ask why, Catherine slowly stood up and quickly grabbed some sort of controller. She started pushing buttons that made the T.V in front of them switch in a menu of sorts showing a bunch of certain shows.

"By any chance..." Catherine started, "d-do you know what Netflix's is?"

The name struck no fragment of her memory.

"Is that some kind of person you're referring to?" Hilda asked.

Catherine looked down as she began scrolling through different shows.

"N-no, it's a streaming service where you can watch movies and stuff," she said, "like... it shows you entertainment media that were made by different companies."

"..."

"..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Hilda admitted.

Catherine sighed and turned toward the T.V.

"I'm literally having a mental breakdown right now..." Catherine said quickly.

Finally, Catherine landed on a certain show before covering up with her hand.

"Are you sure you want to know what's going on?" she asked, "it might just crush your very soul thinking about you and your friends existence..."

"Of course," Hilda said, "although that sounds mildly worrying..."

Catherine breathed in deeply.

"Ummmmmmmmmm, actually it's probably worse than that..." she said.

She quickly moved out of the way and pressed play before Hilda could read the title of the show. The screen turned black, and music started to pick up. While slightly concerned at this point, the prospect of knowing the truth pushed Hilda over the edge.

And so she watched.

And to her surprise, a scene unlike anything she's ever witnessed before began to play.

It showed her house. Her old one actually. It was still intact, peacefully sitting in the middle of the valley just like it was before Jorgen stepped on it. It looked just like it as well. The red wood. The chimney. Even the windmill right beside it.

Before Hilda could process what this meant, four woffs suddenly flew right by the screen before appearing in the sky, revealing a text in their wake.

"A Netflix Original Series?" Hilda said aloud, "but, that's my old house. That's the wilderness..."

She looked at Catherine confused, who was standing there nervously.

"I'm really sorry..." she said, "you can stop watching it if-"

But Hilda didn't listen. She quickly turned back toward the T.V as the rest of the opening played.

And right before her eyes, her entire world was shattered.

To Be Continued in Chapter 2: "The Sky House"