The Sleeping Girl

Chapter One: Present day

The meadow I was playing in fades from my mind, leaving me with darkness, wishing to be back in the blissful utopia my dream state conjured up for me. I am suddenly aware of the hard, yet soft surface I am on. It smells nice, like lilacs and jasmines. I can feel the presence of the Earth pressing onto me. I've felt it for a while, a long while. So long that tis now a part of me. That I can no longer recall what I felt like without it. But now it's receding. 

For the first time in a very long time, I feel more like myself, a person, than a part of the world surrounding me. I don't know if I like it. The Earth was very comforting, promising.

I am quite comfortable where I lie, but I feel that I can no longer stay here for even a second. Tis that moment when you awaken, and your cot feels so nice, oh so nice, but your body simply cannot stay still a second longer. Where the warmth of the covers is blissful, but your body is eager for the day to begin. Now I am not in a cot, not under covers, but experiencing the same feeling.

I wait a few seconds longer, enjoying the feel of warmth of the sun, the richness of the ground, the cool breeze ruffling my hair. I can almost imagine the world around me, even without looking. But of course my imagined world is not the true world. Perhaps I am too afraid to see how different the world is now. But I console myself by remembering while the entire world may be different, right now it should look relatively similar as when I went to sleep. I am in nature after all. 

I open my eyes.

Three people I have never seen before in my life (well obviously, I suppose) are standing before me. My gaze settles first on a woman whose age I cannot judge. She is dressed in the most bizarre garments I have ever seen. Some sort of weird blue rough looking breeches that extend all down to her ankles, and a sort of scrunched white tunic that only extends to her hips. She has shoulder length dark brown hair, and piercing green eyes.

The next person I see is a girl who is likely around my age, dressed even more strangely than the woman. She has on a mint green midriff baring shirt (scandalous!) and a reddish wine colored skirt, so short that it is inches above her knees. She has long wavy dark brown hair, brown eyes, and olive skin, a skin tone I have never seen before. 

Finally, the third person is a boy who looks similar to the girl. He is probably also around my age. His bizarre black breeches are extremely loose, and barely hit his knees. He is wearing a green shirt, with a disorientating blue design in the middle. Like the girl, he also has brown hair, eyes, and olive skin, but his hair is straight.

Tearing my eyes away from the odd looking people, I peer around at my surroundings. Above my head and around me are many large looking trees. Small beams of sunlight are trickling in. A light breeze rustles the leaves, creating a surprisingly comforting sound. I am laying on a bed of grass, surrounded by a few flowers, in what appears to be a wood. It's calm, tranquil, yet at the same time, pulsing with energy.

Slowly, I sit up as it all comes back to me. I am the Sleeping Girl and I have been asleep for five hundred years. I must have been moved from my original location in which I went to sleep. Perhaps I was moved farther than I reckoned I would be; that would explain the exotic look that these people bear. Although their strange clothing is probably a result of the new age. 

These three people before me must be new members of the society. I feel a pang of sadness, loss, hollowness, when I realize Tegan and my family, and everyone that I knew, must be dead. Long dead. I shall never see my family, or my friends, ever again. I suppose the three people before me, as well as the rest of society, will become my new family, my new friends.

My muscles feel stiff, very stiff. Far stiffer than they have ever felt before. I suppose that is to be expected after going without moving for such a long time. Five centuries is quite a long time to be sedentary. I slowly stretch one arm, then the next, letting feeling fill them for the first time in five hundred years. Letting my senses awaken and be filled with life.