Autumn was Helena's favorite season. It was a season in flux, always shifting, always changing, preparing to slip from one end of the year to the next. The colors were vibrant, ever altering, presenting her with a different view almost every day as she passed through Maple Grove to and from the house where she had grown up. True, she hadn't been home long, and she had a little sister in Willow Manor with her right now, but that, too, was part of the nature of her favorite season. Coming and going, and for once, she didn't feel as though she was being left behind. She'd gone with Dru to the community college this morning to deliver her right royal little rebel to her new place of education, choosing to walk back, enjoying the fresher scents of autumn. Maple Grove was beautiful at this time of year, offering plenty to distract her as she passed onto the driveway that wound from the main track toward Willow Manor itself, lost in thought.
So lost in thought that she didn't notice the lightning that crackled in the distance, though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. No typical storm was this, but strange things had been happening in Rhy'Din these past few weeks, even stranger than usual.
Not even Maple Grove was immune to such strange occurrences, though it had been quiet here for the last few weeks, other than for the arrival of yet another long lost Granger. Maybe too quiet. Eventually, the odds were bound to even catch up to those living on these quiet, peaceful grounds, and today seemed to be that day. The first hint that something strange was about to happen was that crackling of lightning, not so strange all on its own, until the sound of it seemed to split the sky wide open, the very air vibrating and crackling with energy.
The sudden implosion of sound hit Helena like a tsunami wave, startling her out of her thoughts with a yelp as her ears popped at the change in pressure. Wincing, she stuck her fingers in her ears, trying to ease off the sharp pain of that very sudden auditory sensitivity, looking up at the sky with a frown. So the Nexus was playing games, that wasn't anything unusual. Had it really been necessary to pop her ears, though"
Anyone familiar with the Nexus or who was a native of Rhy'Din would more than likely recognize the sound as a sort of shock wave ripping through the very fabric of time and space, likely to pull whatever was in close vicinity through that tear, like a huge magnet. This tear, however, was doing the exact opposite. Instead of pulling, it was pushing, tearing open a hole, like a window between worlds and dumping whatever was on the other side through to this end, like a giant sinkhole. The first hint of what was about to come through was what sounded like the sound of an engine, violently sputtering as it tried to avoid being sucked into that vibrating vortex.
"Oh, for ..." You didn't really need to be overly familiar with the Nexus to recognise what was happening. Helena rolled her eyes, picking up her pace from a walk to a run along the gravel driveway toward the house. It was something of a vain hope - if she really was intended to be a witness to whatever vehicle was coming through, there was no way in hell she was going to be able to avoid it - but worth a shot anyway.
Unfortunately for her, when the Nexus finally spat out the poor victim that had been sucked through the other side, it was spat out directly in her path and heading straight toward her. What it was that was careening down the gravel driveway out of control was what could only be described as a hippie van, circa 1970's Earth, complete with psychadelic designs painted on the side which included an abundance of peace symbols, happy faces, and flowers.
"Holy crap!" In the split second it took to note the brightly colored van hurtling at speed directly toward her, Helena skidded to change direction, quite literally throwing herself off the driveway and into a section of shrubbery that turned out to be a lot more thorny than she remembered it being.
Assuming someone was behind the wheel of that van and saw the girl who was about to become the new hood ornament, the van suddenly squealed its tires and careened off the gravel and onto the grass, narrowly missing the shrubbery she had thrown herself into and finally coming to a halt when it crashed head first into an evergreen tree.
Of course, she didn't see any of this, too busy curling up in a very uncomfortable nest of thorns, prickles, and dead leaves, and closing her eyes to await impending death. When all that happened was the sound of a heavy impact into a tree, and the deafening clap of the Nexus shutting up shop to restore the world to its former peace, she cracked open first one eye, and then the other. Uncurling brought her painfully into the range of yet more thorns, scraping over her skin through her clothes and snagging in her hair as she pushed herself to sit up, staring in vague astonishment at the wildly decorated van now blocking the driveway to Willow Manor. "What the hell ...?"
The beast's engine was no longer rumbling, and it sat there as silent as a stone, the front end of the thing crumpled from the impact it had made with the tree. It looked rather strange sitting there quietly, out of place, like it belonged somewhere else, but where" Upon closer examination, it looked like a van of some sort - two doors on each side in front and double doors in the back, a row of windows along each side, and what looked like a surfboard strapped to the roof. The license plate on the back of the van was blue and yellow and declared it was from a place called California.
Groaning, Helena got out of her thorny shrub after a couple of tries, getting stuck only once because a particularly stubborn piece of not so greenery had decided to wind itself into her hair. The resulting tantrum over with, she sighed, brushing herself down as she looked over at the van. California ....that was Earth, she'd passed through it a year ago on her way south. She didn't remember the vehicles all looking like that, though. "Hello?" she called, limping awkwardly toward the resting van, leaning one hand against the brightly painted side to steady herself as she approached the driver's window. "Hey, are you okay?"
The driver's side door creaked slowly open, two faded blue-jean clad legs dropping to the ground as the driver climbed out of the van and reached for the girl standing there to catch himself from stumbling onto the ground. "The hell..."
He was tall and slim, with long wavy pale blond hair that momentarily hid his facial features, dressed in a loosely fitting button-down shirt that was almost as colorful as the van he arrived in, a pair of worn-out sandals on his feet, a leather bracelet of some sort wrapped around one wrist.
So lost in thought that she didn't notice the lightning that crackled in the distance, though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. No typical storm was this, but strange things had been happening in Rhy'Din these past few weeks, even stranger than usual.
Not even Maple Grove was immune to such strange occurrences, though it had been quiet here for the last few weeks, other than for the arrival of yet another long lost Granger. Maybe too quiet. Eventually, the odds were bound to even catch up to those living on these quiet, peaceful grounds, and today seemed to be that day. The first hint that something strange was about to happen was that crackling of lightning, not so strange all on its own, until the sound of it seemed to split the sky wide open, the very air vibrating and crackling with energy.
The sudden implosion of sound hit Helena like a tsunami wave, startling her out of her thoughts with a yelp as her ears popped at the change in pressure. Wincing, she stuck her fingers in her ears, trying to ease off the sharp pain of that very sudden auditory sensitivity, looking up at the sky with a frown. So the Nexus was playing games, that wasn't anything unusual. Had it really been necessary to pop her ears, though"
Anyone familiar with the Nexus or who was a native of Rhy'Din would more than likely recognize the sound as a sort of shock wave ripping through the very fabric of time and space, likely to pull whatever was in close vicinity through that tear, like a huge magnet. This tear, however, was doing the exact opposite. Instead of pulling, it was pushing, tearing open a hole, like a window between worlds and dumping whatever was on the other side through to this end, like a giant sinkhole. The first hint of what was about to come through was what sounded like the sound of an engine, violently sputtering as it tried to avoid being sucked into that vibrating vortex.
"Oh, for ..." You didn't really need to be overly familiar with the Nexus to recognise what was happening. Helena rolled her eyes, picking up her pace from a walk to a run along the gravel driveway toward the house. It was something of a vain hope - if she really was intended to be a witness to whatever vehicle was coming through, there was no way in hell she was going to be able to avoid it - but worth a shot anyway.
Unfortunately for her, when the Nexus finally spat out the poor victim that had been sucked through the other side, it was spat out directly in her path and heading straight toward her. What it was that was careening down the gravel driveway out of control was what could only be described as a hippie van, circa 1970's Earth, complete with psychadelic designs painted on the side which included an abundance of peace symbols, happy faces, and flowers.
"Holy crap!" In the split second it took to note the brightly colored van hurtling at speed directly toward her, Helena skidded to change direction, quite literally throwing herself off the driveway and into a section of shrubbery that turned out to be a lot more thorny than she remembered it being.
Assuming someone was behind the wheel of that van and saw the girl who was about to become the new hood ornament, the van suddenly squealed its tires and careened off the gravel and onto the grass, narrowly missing the shrubbery she had thrown herself into and finally coming to a halt when it crashed head first into an evergreen tree.
Of course, she didn't see any of this, too busy curling up in a very uncomfortable nest of thorns, prickles, and dead leaves, and closing her eyes to await impending death. When all that happened was the sound of a heavy impact into a tree, and the deafening clap of the Nexus shutting up shop to restore the world to its former peace, she cracked open first one eye, and then the other. Uncurling brought her painfully into the range of yet more thorns, scraping over her skin through her clothes and snagging in her hair as she pushed herself to sit up, staring in vague astonishment at the wildly decorated van now blocking the driveway to Willow Manor. "What the hell ...?"
The beast's engine was no longer rumbling, and it sat there as silent as a stone, the front end of the thing crumpled from the impact it had made with the tree. It looked rather strange sitting there quietly, out of place, like it belonged somewhere else, but where" Upon closer examination, it looked like a van of some sort - two doors on each side in front and double doors in the back, a row of windows along each side, and what looked like a surfboard strapped to the roof. The license plate on the back of the van was blue and yellow and declared it was from a place called California.
Groaning, Helena got out of her thorny shrub after a couple of tries, getting stuck only once because a particularly stubborn piece of not so greenery had decided to wind itself into her hair. The resulting tantrum over with, she sighed, brushing herself down as she looked over at the van. California ....that was Earth, she'd passed through it a year ago on her way south. She didn't remember the vehicles all looking like that, though. "Hello?" she called, limping awkwardly toward the resting van, leaning one hand against the brightly painted side to steady herself as she approached the driver's window. "Hey, are you okay?"
The driver's side door creaked slowly open, two faded blue-jean clad legs dropping to the ground as the driver climbed out of the van and reached for the girl standing there to catch himself from stumbling onto the ground. "The hell..."
He was tall and slim, with long wavy pale blond hair that momentarily hid his facial features, dressed in a loosely fitting button-down shirt that was almost as colorful as the van he arrived in, a pair of worn-out sandals on his feet, a leather bracelet of some sort wrapped around one wrist.