Alleya rose before dawn and quickly showered and dressed. Anxious to start out, she grabbed some toast and headed to the stables to feed the horses. By seven-thirty her chores were finished, and she decided to leave immediately before she ran into anyone. She didn’t want anything to delay her. No one would mind her absence if all her chores were completed before she went out. Mr. and Mrs. Darsea might not even notice, if she wasn’t gone long. She wanted to keep this to herself; at least until she found out what it was. 

She crossed the grazing field to its edge where the grasses were nearly knee high. She lept the rickety old fence and continued to the woodland border. Before going further she pulled a small compass from her pocket. Southwest, she noted and returned it, confident with this she could find her way back if she did happen to get turned around.

Alleya set a quick pace and kept it as she trudged through the tall weeds and undergrowth. She wove her way through trees and carefully pushed past thorn bushes as she made her way toward the center of the forest. The day steadily grew warmer and the autumn leaves fell about her as briars attached themselves to her blue sweatshirt. As she walked she could stop thinking back to last night. 

It had been a full moon. She’d seen it from the barn roof-top where she often hung out when the evenings were warm enough. But despite the bright moonlight or maybe because of it, she had spotted a whitish-blue light glowing in the center of the woods. It flickered but continued to illuminate the sky and trees around it. She hadn’t been able to come up with any explanation for it.

Not a fire, there were no houses nearby, no one could have pulled a spot light out into the middle of the woods. Ally wondered if it could be like a meteorite? But wouldn’t she have seen it fall?

She wasn't paying enough attention to where she was going and caught her tennis shoe on a fallen tree limb. She felt herself starting to fall, tried to regain her balance but it was too late. Her right shin caught another branch then she hit her knee on a baseball sized stone and cried out.

Pain raced through her leg as every nerve began to sting. She gasped and gritted her teeth trying to force back the threatening tears. She pushed her hair back from her eyes as she examined the extent of her injury. Her jeans were torn and bloodied from her scrapes but it wasn't bad. Alleya slowly rose to her feet and brushed away the dirt. More carefully she began to walk again. Deliberately she cleared her mind and watched the terrain. Something as little as a skinned knee was not going to turn her back.

Alleya lost track of time. The pain in her leg only throbbed dully and the air had cooled in the shade of the deep woods. When she looked up from her surveillance of the ground, it was just in time to avoid running into an immense oak. The gnarled old tree blocked her line of sight, but as she headed to one side she saw a glimmer shining just beyond the bark's edge. 

She stepped into full view and shaded her eyes against the brilliance flooding from the clearing. Suspended several feet from the ground and extending toward the sky was a rip in thin air; the light gushed from it. A slight tugging pulled at her chest as though something deep within the light were drawing her in. Unable to stop herself, she approached. She was terrified, yet her feet would not obey her command to stop. Things moved so quickly. First she was standing directly before the streak of light and then her hand was reaching out. Her fingers extended involuntarily through the center but reflex pulled them out after they had literally disappeared. Before her hand had completely been withdrawn, heat had already begun to spread down her arm. She was still being enveloped by the spreading warmth until it filled her entire body and made her light headed.

Staggering and dizzy, she was helpless while the portal began pulling in air. The wind shrieked in her ears as the air was sucked in faster and harder by the second. Alleya was knocked off her feet and dragged through the vortex.

She tried to put her feet down but there was no ground. Then she couldn't feel her feet. Light blinded her and every nerve was on fire. Alleya felt every atom of her being shred apart. She wanted to scream, in pain, in fear-

Suddenly it ceased and she really was falling. She hit the ground and was unconscious.