CHAPTER 1: A NEW OUTLOOK ON LIFE
It was another warm and sunny day on campus. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, flowers were blooming everywhere. It was definitely “Spring Fever” time on campus. Everyone was in a great mood. Everyone, that is, except for Serenity. She was a beautiful girl, with bright blue eyes and light brown hair that flowed to the middle of her back. She was short, true, a measly 5’ 3”, but she had spirit. She had a beautiful complexion and a gorgeous body, which could explain why half the girls on campus hated her, and ALL of the guys loved her. She wasn’t the least bit thrilled however, and glared at the sun, muttering, “Stupid sun, why do you have to make your presence known EVERYTIME I’m in a bad mood?” She sighed and crossed the street, heading to her car to go home. As she was walking, she kept thinking about the strange dream she had encountered the previous night. Three women, no, goddesses, were trying to send her a message. They were beautiful beyond belief, but what they were saying didn’t make any sense.
“The time will come when you, the chosen one, will embark on your journey to save a sacred land,” Serenity mumbled to herself, “only then will you be able to fully understand the closed doors of your past.” She shook her head and crossed another street. "What did they mean by that? What journey am I going to go on? Will I know it when I get there? I wish this would make sense to me." Serenity didn’t have any idea about her past. Her biological family was killed in a bad accident, leaving no records of any kind behind; at least that’s what her adopted parents told her. Her dream had shown her other things, too. She was supposed to meet with someone who was known as the Hero of Time, whatever that meant. Also, the goddesses told her of a legend that is directly linked to her and her past. It was called the legend of the Faierikin. She didn’t quite know what that meant, only that the goddesses said that they would reveal more in time.
As she got to her car, she noticed a huge scratch on the side of it, “Damn it, where the hell did this come from?” she spat and unlocked her door, throwing her school books inside. Her first year of college wasn’t going great, and this day was no exception. Already she had slept in late and missed her first class, failed a pop quiz in her second, had no money for lunch, and now this thing with the car door. She heaved a big sigh and uttered, “What ELSE can go wrong for me today? I can’t WAIT to find out!” She then started her car and started driving home.
As she rounded a corner, her car began to smoke. She pulled over to the side of the road, got out and popped the hood. What she thought to be smoke was really steam, “Perfect, my radiator is busted. What another great thing to happen to me today!” She belted at the top of her lungs. She looked around for someone to help her push her car, but oddly enough there was no one in sight. Wrinkling her brow, she started walking. She hadn’t gone far when she came to a small grove of trees by the side of the road.
“That’s funny; I don’t remember those being there before.” She uttered more to her own disbelief than anything, “I’ve gone by this road a hundred times before, strange.” Curiosity got the better of her, so she decided to check it out. At the edge of the “woods” there was a steep ravine. Serenity had climbed these a million times and knew she could handle this one. However, she didn’t see the small patch of mud and slipped on it and fell. “AAHHH!!” She braced herself for what would be a nasty fall, but she found that she kept falling. She then felt a strange tingling through her spine as she passed what seemed like a vortex of some sort. Finally, she hit the ground and had the wind knocked out of her.
