Blame the Sun

   It was a perfectly normal summer day. It might have been a little hotter than the week before and the heat sucked the will to live out of everyone and made them want to hide in their cool houses and take a nap. But that was perfectly normal. The sun was still shining, gras still grew - although some of it was already burned brown - and birds... Well, they were probably hiding in the shade of some big tree. The smart thing to do if you ask me. I would do exactly the same if I was a bird. But because I'm not a bird, but a normal nineteen-year old college student I wasn't hiding under a tree. Nope, I was walking through the main street of our little town with my little sister. I suppose I don't need to say I was dehydrated and tired and I wanted to o home. However that little twelve year old girl simply loved the sun and had energy to spear. I sure wouldn't mind some of that energy of hers. Fortunately she pulled me into a nice cool café only moments before I would collapse on the street and immediately searched for the nearest chair and sat down.

 

"Oh, come on! It can't be that bad."

 

I collected what was left of my energy and glared at her. The little devil knew I can't stand the sun and she still forced me to go with her. No, I wasn't alergic or anything, I just couldn't stand the damn sun. Oh, and how does a little girl force a young adult to go with her shopping? Well if you're still dependent on your parents to pay for your studies - which I was - it started with two little words: "Hey, muuuum!" It works every time. Because our mother was always 'too busy' to go with my little sister. So here we were now. Too far away from the parking lot where I left my car for me to escape safely and with no alternate routes. So for now I concentrated on that cool bottle of water in front of me. ...When did the little she-devil even order something to drink? I should pay more attention to her or I'll end up paying for a lot more than we agreed on.

 

"You're not still angry with me, are you?"

 

"Me? Naaah. Where did you get that idea from?"

 

The enormous amount of sarcasm in my voice was unnecessary. She knew me well enough to nearly guess what I'm thinking. And just a hint of sarcasm would do the job. I still liked to make things very obvious at times. Like now.

 

"Don't be like that. Just try to have some fun and do some shopping."

 

"Lyra? Shut up."

 

She started pouting and I pretended not to care, like usual. If I was just another normal nineteen-year old girl I probably wouldn't mind all that. But if you ask me I wasn't anywhere near that normal college student line. I didn't like to go shopping with girls, I hated make-up I never wore dresses or anything similar to that and as strange as it sounds, I never had a boyfriend. And no I wasn't swinging the other way. I just wasn't interested. And neither were the guys, apparently. So no matter how I looked at myself, the word 'normal' just didn't fit anywhere.

 

I slowly sipped the water from the glass. As much as I hate to admit it my teeth are extremely sensible to cold and/or sweet things at times. Not all the time, only when they feel like it. And right now they decided to hurt when they feel something cold hit them. Like the water I was drinking right now.

 

"So, can we please hurry up and finish what we came here for? I kind of want to go home. You know, my nice, cool, dark room."

 

"Fine. Fine."

 

She stood up and I realized she already paid for the drinks when she ordered them. Smart little thing. So I took the plastic water which was still half full and we went out of the café again, back to the hot, cursed, asphalted streets outside. I followed her lead, however I was walking in the shadows, which actually proved a degree or two cooler than the parts under the unobstructed tyranny of the sun’s rays. If Lyra didn't seem to mind the sun, I tried my best to avoid it at any cost. People actually called me a vampire and I can't say I didn't like that.

 

Eventually - after way too much walking done - we finally arrived in front of the clothes shop that was our destination. Fortunately enough the inside of the shop seemed cool enough. But before we could enter a cat ran past us into the narrow street next to the shop. Nothing unusual about that. Except that the cat seemed injured. Oh, and the fact that cat's usually didn't go into the heart of the city. Don't ask me why, I don't know.

 

"Did you just see that?"

 

"No, I did not see that cat that was right in front of us."

 

"Kae, that was a dog. And it was hurt."

 

"If that was a dog I'd know. Trust me. That was a cat, but I agree that it was hurt. This has got nothing to do with us though. And it's probably ran far enough for us not to find it. And even if we did, what can we do for it?"

 

"...That was a dog. And I don't care about you but I'm going after it."

 

And with that she ran into the street. And I ran after her for multiple reasons. The main highlights would be the shade, trying to prove I'm right and not wanting her to trip and cut herself on glass or something. In that order. It didn't take long for me to catch up. Even though I was lazy I was still fast. As long as I didn't need to run more that 200 meters.

 

"Told ya, no sight of the cat."

 

"It was a dog! ...You're right though I don't see it anywhere."

 

"Great, can we get back now? We're wasting our time here."

 

I turned around just to be greeted by solid wall. I thought the sun has gotten to me so I tried if the wall was just an illusion. But it proved to be true, the pain in my fists told me that. Lyra was as confused as I was. Especially after we met the same kind of wall when we turned around again. So we were trapped between four walls with no explanation how that happened and the only way to get out was climbing up and hoping we can get out. But we started to be having a problem. Namely my dear little sister who started to panic. I can't blame her though. It was really a wonder I didn't do the same. But I figured it would happened after my current 'what the hell just happened' attitude to the current situation wore off.

 

"Okay just calm down! It's probably just a prank. Let's just climb out of here and - argh my head."

 

Suddenly I felt that immense pressure in my head and it soon spread through the entire body. Trying to squeeze the brains out of my head didn't help one bit and it seemed my sister was having the same problem as I. At that time it occurred to me how utterly impossible that is and with that came the possible explanation for it. I was just dreaming. I quickly striked that possibility out when the pain, the pressure and added gravity pulled me and Lyra to our knees. Something weird was happening here, something impossible and I wanted to know what the hell that was. But before my brain could come up with any other possible explanations a sudden weird feeling of - my closest call would be it was a feeling of imploding - knocked me out. And when I opened my eyes again I was nowhere near where I was. I looked around and all I could see was a lot of grass, a forest nearby and my sister resting her head on my stomach. She still didn't wake up but that could be changed.

 

"Lyra? Lyra! Wake up."

 

It didn't help though, she just turned her head around causing my stomach more pain that it deserved. So I did what I needed to wake her up. I tickled her. It worked every time and it did now too. She slowly rose into a sitting position and looked around. First to the left, then to the right and then at me.

 

"Nope, I have no idea where we are or how we got here. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with me."

 

"...Dream, right."

 

And she lay down again and tried to fall asleep again. But apparently the hard ground, softened by the grass told her it wasn't a dream. She looked around again and then she leapt to her feet.

 

"Okay what In God's name is going on? And where the hell are we? We were in town in front of the shop, then the alley and the walls and... Kaela? What happened?"

 

"I told you I don't know! And calm down for crying out loud!"

 

"I can tell you what happened."

 

I can tell you something. It was never easy to freak me out. But this new voice coming out of nowhere seriously freaking the hell out of me. Looking around didn't help. We were the only ones in sight and the voice did sound like it came from somewhere dangerously close. And while I tried my best to locate the speaker Lyra hugged my right arm and squeezed it so hard I was afraid it will fall off because the blood circulation stopped. She certainly didn't help one bit.

 

"Oh, sorry. Forgot you can't see me. Just a second. there, all better now, right?"

 

I never believed in ghosts, fairies, God or any crap like that. But what just appeared out of thin air in front of me would be best described as a fairy. You know, small human like form with wings. It just wasn't sparkling or anything. But the voice definitely belonged to it. So after about a minute struggling with my mouth and tongue, trying to persuade them to function properly I finally managed to say something.

 

"O-okay. So... Where are we, what are we doing here and... what the hell are you?"

 

"Well I can tell you you're not in your town anymore."

 

"Yeah well no s**t Einstein. Tell me something I don't know. No, seriously."

 

"What I was trying to say is... You've been transported to an alternate dimension. You are here because you've got special powers. Otherwise you couldn't get here. And I’m a fairy, obviously. But enough for now. I have to bring you to the sage. He'll tell you more about everything, okay? Now come."

 

I had no idea what was going on, what the little thing was trying to tell me, who this sage person was or what powers it was talking about. So I definitely don't know why we followed the fairy thing but we did. We did but I wish we never had.