• Chapter 1

    One dark and rainy day outside of a little old church sat a poor lonely girl. The girl was an orphan who went by the name Alex or her given name Alexandrea. Alex was three when her parents disappeared. Because she was so young when they vanished she did not remember much about them. Now at seventeen she sat outside of her only link to her parents. This old abandoned church that she remembered or at least thought she remembered from so long ago.

    She had just runaway from yet another foster home. This had been her twelfth home since she was ten years old. With each new foster home her life grew progressively worse. Finally it would get to the point where she just could not take it anymore. Then she would pack her things, runaway, and come here. She was not quite sure as to why she was compelled to go to this particular church. In some strange way it seemed as if the church called out to her.

    While sitting on the church steps her mind wandered she couldn't help but think of what things would be like when she finally turned eighteen on June fourth. Thoughts of how she would not have to deal with those horrible foster homes anymore. These dreams as it were had kept her going through the hardest of times. She pictured herself free and happy laying in field with the sun shinning all around her. Butterflies slowly passing her face as she watched the clouds moving above her.

    Suddenly she came back to reality when a lightening bolt hit a tree no more than three feet away. The sunshine and laughs gone in a blink of an eye. She realized she would mostly likely have to deal with at least one more foster home. Figuring that someone would be there soon to bring her back to the orphanage. she tried to bring those happy thoughts back but decided that she ought to keep an eye out for any car that might come to bring her back once again. After all it had already been half an hour.

    She sat out there in the pouring rain for what seemed to be an hour more. Then when she felt she could no longer bear the cold, she decided to try the door just once more. Even though in her head she knew it would still be locked. The church was always locked, well at least it had been ever since they shut it down about four months after her parents had disappeared. But still she was cold and wet so therefore an attempt to get in seemed to be a reasonable thing to do, so she turned the knob and pushed. As she did this she heard the old rusted hinges of the door squeak as it opened in front of her. Alex found this to be odd but decided not to question it because this meant shelter from the rain storm.

    Then her mind recalled the many news reports she had looked up a few years ago in an attempt to find her birth parents. She thought about the fact that the only information she could find in her research was that this very church was the last place that anyone had seen her parents go. And yet not they nor their bodies were ever found. After having this flash back she decided to walk into the parlor of the church slowly and cautiously as her wet clothes dripped water onto the rickety old floor that creaked as she walked. Freezing due to her clothes being as wet as they were, she made up her mind to find a warm blanket to put over her in an attempt to warm herself. Then out of the corner of her eye a faint light caught her attention. There was something glowing in the other room. Due to her curiosity she walked toward the glowing room with an air of caution about her.

    The light seemed to grow brighter as she walked towards this strangely alluring room. Once at the doorway she was not completely sure whether she should continue or not. If she continues she finds the cause of the light and maybe a clue as to where her parents are, yet she could be heading into a dangerous situation. After a few minutes of pondering the possible scenarios she finally decided that since this was the last place her parents were seen maybe she could figure out what happened to them so many years ago. So she opened the door a little bit wider and she noticed that the glow she had seen was coming from an old full length mirror. The mirror looked to have at one time belonged to a royal family. The conclusion she came to was due to the rubies, diamonds, and beautiful silver dragons carved into the sides of the mirror. Each dragon with tiny emerald stones for eyes.

    She then felt herself being pulled toward the glowing mirror. The light continued to grow brighter and brighter as she got closer until all of the sudden everything just seemed to vanish right before her eyes. Valeria then closed her eyes tightly in hopes that once she opened them everything would be back to normal and she would be safe in the church. However when she did open her eye she realized she was no where near the church.

    Instead she was in the middle of a huge forest. She looked around in amazement. "How could this have happened? It doesn't even seem possible! And what the hell happened to the church?" she said as she thought out loud.

    Mean while in the distance a man was on his way through a near by town and decided to have a nice walk through the forest. AS he was walking he noticed that all of the animals around him were running deeper into the forest. The man wanted to know what was going on with the animals. He ha a feeling that something might be wrong so he fallowed the animals for a short while. Suddenly he just stopped when he saw that they were trying to lead him to a girl.

    He decided to watch her for a little bit to see if she was dangerous or not. In doing this he noticed that she had beautiful long dark brown hair that went down to her knees and she also had tan skin that was beautifully accented by her hair. He walked a little closer and hid behind a tree to get a better look. He thought she seemed to be a physically fit person. Then he got a look at her yes as she turned they were dark brown with a blue ring around them. He felt that they were so amazing they could make a man melt. Once she turned and he could no longer see mesmerizing eyes he noticed her clothing. She had on a light blue tank top with an interesting symbol on it and long black baggy pants.

    To him they were strange clothes. He had never seen anything like them before in his entire lifetime. The pants were made of a material he had never seen and the symbol on the shirt was like that of an ancient language. Also no females around here ever wore shirts that show so much. It was just an unthinkable thing to wear revealing clothes.

    She also seemed to be soaking wet as if she had been swimming and her expression seemed to show utter confusion. Soon he realized it was safe and started to walk forward, when she fainted due to the shock of what had happened. It started to get dark out so the man picked her up and carried her back to his house. He figured he would take care of her until she was better and then maybe she could get some answers.

    On his way home his neighbor ran up to him to ask if the girl was alright. His neighbor's name was Sana. He didn't know much about her but she seemed to be a nice girl. He explained what had happened to the girl to the best of his knowledge. Afterwards Sana offered to help him out with getting the girl changed and put to bed. He agreed to have her help only because changing her himself would be kind of embarrassing. So he had Sana dress the girl in some of his clothes so she would be dry and warm. Once she was in clean clothes he put her in his bed and tucked her in. Next he thanked Sana for all her help and they said good-bye to each other and Sana went home.

    Then he went to the kitchen to get something for supper. It was now either o'clock and hadn't eaten since noon. So he made himself a nice juicy steak and sat down at the table to eat quickly while the slept. While he was eating he thought of what he would say to her once she was awake. But all he could think of is how gorgeous she appeared to him. Since he couldn't get her out of his he went to go make sure she was still alright.

    When he walked into the room and saw her he realized something he hadn't noticed before. Something so obvious he didn't understand how he could have missed it. She had Elvin ears which meant that she was not from around here, which explains the confused look he saw. He wondered where she came from and how she arrived here. he knew he wouldn't get any answers while she was sleeping and he didn't want to wake so he would just have to wait.

    He then figured he would go read a book for a little while so he walked into his own personal library, grabbed a book, went to the living room, and sat in a chair. Hours had passed when he looked up at the clock and when he did it was already midnight. He went to the room and seen that she had still not awaken. Almost positive that she would not wake tonight, he went back to the living room and lay down on the couch. Shortly after he fell asleep. That night he had a strange dream. In it was the symbol he had seen on the girl's shirt. The dream was some sort of sign that he would soon find out the meaning to.