Allamenea

 “Mom, are you okay?” I shout.
 There is no answer. I try to find the path, to get to her. She could be hurt! But the path is gone, too. I swear it was there a second ago. Maybe Dad has come home from work and Mom has...very quickly gone to say hello.
 “Dad, are you there?” 
 There is still no reply.  I start walking to where I am quite sure the path had been at, and at last I come to a clearing in the trees. Now everything is okay. Mom will be waitingg with Dad and Starry, and my little scare will  be something to laugh about later. But there is no more salty air, no more beach.  I am surrounded by trees.   I am not a fool, so when I look around I immediately notice that these trees aren’t my Anna Maria trees. These are different, different than any kind I have ever seen before.  There is a small area where there are no trees, just some weird kind of dirt. Even the dirt, though, looks different, with thick, black sand and pebbles mixed together in mud.
 I cry out, frustrated, and suddenly a small bird lands nearby.  Was this an Anna Maria bird? It sure didn’t look like it.  The bird’s feathers were some kind of color I’ve never seen, like a mixture of black and bright purple.  The bird had a magnificent beak, also an odd color, like green-yellow and orange mixed into one, and was narrow and long, maybe five inches.
 “Who are you?” a female voice became known.  
 Finally, I was able to see a dainty young woman holding a small, beat-up wooden basket and a reddish blue cloak that looked loose, like it would come apart. She stepped forward.
  “Natalie,” I reply automatically.
 “I am Linnyt,” the woman replies.
 She dips her head in what would have been a small bow, except she sweeps her hand across the back of her neck and off the top her head, extending her arm as far as it would go to me. I wonder if it would be polite to do the same.
Apparently, it is, because Linnyt waits a long while, so eventually I attempt to copy her, dipping my head and sweeping my hand on the back of my neck, extending it out to touch her arm. It feels weird and awkward. She immediately stands upright and smiles at me. The hand she had extended fluently swept back to her basket, as though she were caressing it.  I quickly stand up too, shoving my hand into my pocket.

 “Excuse me, but what type of bird was that?” I ask.

 Linnyt frowns. The expression looks odd on her dainty, childlike face.

 “It was but a standard Wyrid Bird,” she confusedly says.

 She acts as though it is normal, so I just nod.

 “We need to leave,” she abruptly said.

 “Why?” I ask, stunned. “Where am I, anyways? Where is this?”

 Linnyt looks worried; glancing around the trees like something is going to leap out at us.

 “This is Welerly Clearing,” she says, looking at me as though she expects me to run screaming. “We need to leave now.”

 She grabs my arm and rushes me along.

 “Wait,” I object. “Where are we going?”

 “Please, just come,” Linnyt cries.

 I don’t ask another thing as she yanks me along a dirt path-like road, around twists and turns, corners and hills, ups and downs.

 When we stop, I fold over and breathe hard.

 “I swear this is another world,” I uneasily joke.

 “Yes, it does feel like that, doesn’t it?” Linnyt laughs, tilting her head. “Isn’t it odd to think that Allamenea is the only world?”

 I frown.

 “Are you implying that there is another world?” I ask.

 “No,” Says Linnyt slowly. “I just said that.”

 “Then what is Onamemea or whatever?”

 “Allamenea,” Linnyt corrects me. “It is our world. There are no others.”

 “Okay, let me clear this up,” I say. “What world are we in right now?”

 “Allamenea,” Linnyt says impatiently.

 “What town?”

 “Angelica.”

 I pause, thinking about that for a second.  Suddenly, all the life was knocked out of me.  I gasped for air, falling to the ground.  

 “Nalatie? Nalatie are you okay?” Linnyt cries.

 I nod, and close my eyes.  Nothing feels wrong now, except for a sharp, itchy pain in my leg.  I begin to slowly drift away from consciousness.