"Hurry up, Kim, or you'll miss it!" Jessica called with great excitement, racing to the crest of the tallest hill. "I'm coming!" Kimberly replied, struggling up the steep ground. Jessica gazed up at the night skies, searching hard with her hazel eyes through the stars. "It should start any moment now." she claimed. Kimberly joined her friend, slightly out of breath, but just as aroused. "Will we be able to see it from here?" she inquired. "Hopefully," said Jessica, "We're far enough from the big city and all those pesky lights. Out here, we can see anything in our solar system." The two girls stared into the abyss of space, waiting in the silent breeze that chilled the evening. Starlight bathed the rural woodland that surrounded them in a pallid, silver light, and as the companions stood there, side by side on the hill, they almost looked like misty apparitions. The campfire that blazed just below the hill behind them cloaked their backs in amber. There was silence all around them as they stood motionless, frozen in suspense. Only the distant chirping chorus of the crickets broke the stillness and the quietness of the night. Suddenly, something streaked across the sky, flashing within the girls' vision in a mere second. "There goes one!" Jessica cried out. "Wow!" Kimberly gasped. "And look, there's another one, and another!" Soon, the whole sky was full of streaking lights that whisked through the black void. It almost seemed as if the stars were falling from the heavens. The girls were struck with wonder, apprehension, and curiosity at the same time. "This is the first time I ever saw a meteor shower." said Jessica. "Same here," Kim answered. "I've always wanted to wish on a shooting star." "Good idea!" Jessica grinned. "What would you wish for?" "Well, I wish that you and I could have the power to go and explore anywhere we wanted together -- even fantasy worlds like those of Digimon and Sonic." Jesscia's heart skipped a beat as her friend mentioned Sonic. Her eyes lit up with fascination. "Yeah.....me too! Wouldn't it be great if we could see all those fictional characters? We could meet Sonic...." she sighed deeply. "Oh..he's my hero. I wish we could go into those fictional worlds too. Especially Sonic's world. I'd give anything to meet him." "It would be neat if we could meet Sonic and his friends. And we could also go to Pern, and fly with the dragons. And to the digital world and to the world of Pokemon. If only wishes like that could come true." agreed Kimberly. "Yeah," Jessica muttered. "If only..." The two peered up at the storm of stars above them again, dreamy thoughts filling their youthful imaginations. "What do you think is out there, Kim?" Jessica queried, overwhelmed by the vast expanse of the skies that encircled Earth. "I don't know," said her friend honestly. "could be anything. Could be other planets with life, could be places where time itself stops, could even be other universes out there." Jessica pondered that thought for a second. "Other universes.....Hey, if there really was other universes, do you think that other worlds -- even fictional ones -- could actually exist?" Kimberly looked quite helpless at this question. "Maybe. The universe is just so complicated and hard to understand. Sometimes, I believe that anything can happen out there. Maybe dreams themselves come to life someplace. Who knows?" "Well, I believe that the worlds we say we create are actually real someplace. But wouldn't it be great if the legend of Sonic came alive? Our planet Earth would be so secure with that blue blur here to protect us. No evil could ever threaten the lives of humans and animals alike ever again. That's my one real wish. For that heroic hedgehog to come to life. There's nothing more I would ever wish for." concluded Jessica, glancing at the sky with hope. Just then, a blue comet soared across the horizon, flickering with a brilliant cerulean just as it passed over Jessica and Kimberly's hilltop. Jessica only saw it for a second, but as that star beamed in her eyes, she was filled with the strangest feeling -- a feeling of foreboding, knowing, and excitement all in one. It was as if that star had just passed a message to her. A message that told her to expect something both great and terrible to occur in the future. The fourteen-year-old was perplexed, but ignored the feeling. Right now, drowsiness was closing it on her, and her eyelids drooped as the meteor shower subsided. "Looks like that's it. We'd better get back to our tents. It's late. We'll do more tomorrow. It's our last day before we head back home." The two girls turned back toward their camp, just a little ways down the hill they had witnessed the shower of stars upon. "But it sure is fun camping with you, Kim. We should do it more often. Out here in the middle of no where, toasting marshmellows, eating smores, trekking through the woods, watching meteor showers. Something different from everyday life, where all we do is get up, go to school, come home, watch some TV, and go to bed." "I know," Kim answered, holding her long, dark hair back as a rough breeze kicked up. "It's good to make changes in our daily routine every now and then." "Yep. Tomorrow, we can head down to the river and see if we can find any neat fish, or maybe a shore where we can wade. And then we can go for a trail walk and see ospreys, raccoons, and deer. And then we can climb the observation tower over the river. You know, Lettuce Lake Park has gators in the big river. We can see if we can spot any. And then....." On and on Jessica went on about all the great explorations she and her best friend could embark on toegether, as the two of them treaded happily down to their camp where their parents were waiting for them, unaware of the peculiar high winds that began to sweep over the grasslands of the Florida park. And though it didn't frighten Jessica much, she did notice that as night closed its dreary fingers over the land, the air seemed darker than she had ever seen it -- so dark, that it seemed to swallow light. And high above their camp, a great blue star twinkled incessantly, piercing the darkness, as it watched over the two girls like the eye of a guardian.