Flaris opened her eyes slowly. The last thing she remembered was locking the lavatory door to save herself before everything had turned dark. She had then dreamed up trees around her.. Slowly, se moved her head and looked around. To her horror, she was still surrounded by trees.. Had the airplane really crashed and she had been thrown out of it during the accident? Would she find the remains of metal and bodies if she moved her head? No.. if something like that had happened then she would have been hurt too. But as she took her body's inventory, she knew that this would no be the case.. because she was not hurt. And secondly, there should be some kind of a fire around from the crash right?
Finally, after overthinking a bit, Flaris raised her head slowly..and started to investigate her surroundings. She seemed to be in some sort of a valley and the trees that she thought were a part of the forest were actually further away. To her left was a cottage that looked like one of those ginger bread type of houses.. complete with the colored jelly and candy! Since it looked so realistic, she wondered for a moment if they were edible.
To her right was a pond with clear water as the moonlight reflected off it even showcasing it smooth rocks at the bottom of the pond. Was this a dream? Flaris felt dazed and confused.
As she looked around, her eyes fell on something that made them widen.. Or rather they rose up to something.. There were two moons in the sky! Did she have concussion? Did that mean all the trees she was seeing were also only half in reality..
Slowly she sat up and winced. Even though there were no injuries, her muscles seemed to have turned stiff and protested movement of any sort.
Straightening her arm, she pulled one and then the other as she looked around.
What was this place? The air here was so fresh while the water clear. Had she entered some dream world? Or was this really heaven? No.. it couldn't be heaven. After all, the matrons had all told them that they would have to swim through an icy river to reach heaven.
But there was such a clean and beautiful place in their country? Untouched by human filth and greed?
Just then her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she had not eaten anything since this morning. In her excitement to go meet her teacher and have the chance to gain into the biggest culinary school of the country with a scholarship, she had even chosen to skip breakfast..
She looked towards the sweet looking house but did not make a move towards that. She had no intention of approaching anyone until she knew what sort of danger she was in. For all she knew there was a mad scientist living in that house or a crazy witch.
Instead, she walked towards the cover of trees to look for some fruits or vegetation that she could eat. As she walked through the place, there was another curious thing that she realized.. There was no animal sound. It was as if the world was quiet. This phenomenon was even more rare. She pressed her lips together and looked up once again. The two moons were still there..
Finally, she found a big patch of vegetables on the ground.. Sweet Potatoes! Yummy and healthy! She recalled the nutritional value of the veggie.. it was good enough with lots of protein, potassium and vitamin C. Bending down, she picked a few and once again marveled at the quality of the vegetables. Whoever was tending this place was really good with their hands. Now all she needed was a rabbit that she could roast and heat. Collecting a few twigs, she piled them to form a small fire and hung the sweet potatoes over it to roast. Setting up a fire was not a problem to her. She clicked her fingers and a small spark flew out of them, lighting up the small set up..
Unknown to her, a pair of startling blue eyes were staring at her from further away, ever since she had fallen into this place. The fine hair on the wolf arose when he noticed the unknown female use fire so easily.. His ears flattened and a rumble rose in his chest.. The wolf slowly made his way towards the female who had dared to intrude his territory.
As the wolf slinked closer, his senses were assaulted by the fragrance of the sweet potato being cooked and he stopped and sniffed the air. The smoke which he usually hated was somehow enticing him.
Flaris picked off the smoking sweet potatoes off the stick and quickly peeled off the skin before eating half of it in a single bite. The next moment, she moaned with pleasure. This was the tastiest sweet potatoes she had ever eaten.. Soon she had made short work of the five sweet potatoes.. while the Wolf continued to stare at her.
Rubbing her stomach with satisfaction, she thought," Now I can look for more clues to find where I am. Too bad, I did not keep my cell phone with me and placed it in the bag! Now I dont even have a way of contacting anyone..
Just then, a crunch sound echoed through the forest making Flaris jump. She looked around for the source and then her eyes widened in astonishment as she saw the figure stand in front of her. Knowing her mouth had fallen open, but she was helpless to stop it as she took in the sight before her.
It was a man that stood before her... but she wasn't sure that it was a human man.. He was tall. Really tall! Atleast six foot eight with silvery hair that went past his shoulders.. Intense dark blue eyes studied her, making her throat dry.. And then he smiled at her.. Which was enough to make her feel dizzy.
But then he said the words that made her want to faint," You are a human."