The Elf

Awakening

Dakota woke up with a groan. There was an annoying light beaming in her face. Using her hand as a shade she tried to get a good look at her surroundings. It was noon judging by how high the sun was in the sky. Dakota tried to sit up but stopped abruptly when she felt pain in her abdomen. She looked down and noticed she was wearing a complete change of outfit. Pulling the t-shirt she had on above her belly button, she saw that her wound was bandaged and slightly bloody. She frowned slightly. She highly doubted that anyone in Callista would patch her up, if she was back there. Dakota let go of her shirt and started to look around, focused. This didn't look anything like her normal home. There room she was in was small but homey. There were bright paintings covering half of one wall, the other half full of pictures. The rest of the walls were covered with magazine clippings, posters and anything else one could stick on a wall.

Dakota snorted when she saw a picture of a pale, shirtless blonde boy that weirdly looked like a female. She was definitely not in Callista. With mixed emotions, she laid back down and covered her face. She wasn't sure the portal was going to work. Hell, she wasn't even sure that she was going to live to even try it, but yet there she was, in a strange place with things she was not accustomed to. It was at that moment when Dakota let herself. The Gods know how much she really wanted to leave the place she was forced to call home. She could have a new start now. With a small smile the girl wiped her tears. Her eyebrows scrunch when she realized her face actually really hurt. In that same moment a girl walked in. Her hazel eyes widened when she noticed Dakota's bright green eyes were open and staring right back at her. Reading the pained expression on her face, the stranger rushed over to the bed.

"I'm sorry about your face!", she said with a grimace, "You scared the living crap out of me.".

Dakota looked at her quizzically but just gave her a small, nervous smile.

She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. The one with hazel eyes touched her face.

"Don't try to speak yet, just listen. My name is Ariana.", she paused for a moment,
"Do you remembered what happened to you? How you got hurt?". Dakota nodded.

"Do you remember what happened after that?", Ariana continued. The red-head shook her head.

"You fell from the sky and hit me.". Dakota raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah I know it sounds weird, honestly I was hoping you could enlighten me, but it doesn't seem like you're ready to talk right now so this is all just speculation.".

"Ariana?", a voice called from another room.

"Coming ", Ariana responded," That's my mom, please just stay here and I'll be right back", she said to the girl who just nodded. Ariana left the room and closed the door. As soon as she was gone, the other girl carefully got up and examined her surroundings some more. There was a window she hadn't noticed before, seemingly covered with pictures. She walked toward it and looked outside.

"There isn't much to see". Dakota turned around, she didn't notice Ariana had entered the room.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you?", Ariana asked. Dakota just shook her head.

"Well here, you need to eat something", she said while handing the girl a plate of food. The girl eagerly took the plate and looked at what was given to her. She looked back up at Ariana and raised an eyebrow.

"It's macaroni and cheese", Ariana says. The girl looked back at the food and brought it up to her face, sniffing it. It seemed familiar yet different. Ariana handed her a fork. The girl put it in the plate to scoop up the food and then slowly raised it to her mouth. When it was a centimeter away from her mouth, she looked up at Ariana again. Ariana smiled and nodded, edging her on. The girl put the fork in her mouth, and slowly chewed on it before swallowing.

"Wow" she mouthed, and then she quickly ate the whole thing.

"Umm, it was just macaroni and cheese, but I'm glad you liked it", said Ariana. She took the plate back and smiled.

"Do you feel better yet?", she asked the other girl, who nodded. "Good, I was worried about you. You've been out for three days! But now that you're up you can take a shower and we can talk about what happened", Ariana suggested. The girl just shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. Ariana sighed with relief, "Okay follow me then.". Ariana made her way to the door and they exit her room. They walked along the hallway, Dakota taking everything in as they did so. They stop in front of a door and Ariana opened it, ushering Dakota in. It was a small bathroom. Ariana's mom called out for her.

"Ariana, where are you?" Ariana's mom yelled.

"Umm, in the bathroom?", Ariana replied. The doorknob turned and Ariana pushed the girl into the tub, closing the curtain. Ariana's mom enters the bathroom and looked at Ariana.

"Were you going to take a bath?".

Ariana nodded quickly.

"Oh well I just wanted to tell you that Bella is here", her mom said, while walking towards the shower faucet. She turned it on and then walked out of the bathroom.

Ariana sighed, "That was close.... OH crap! The girl!" Ariana opened the shower curtain and looked at the poor red-head, who was soaked. Ariana looked her up and down and burst out laughing. She started to help the girl out but moved too fast which resulted in Dakota slipping out of the tub. They were both on the floor, with Ariana on top of the girl. They stared at each other, until Ariana spoke.

"Sorry, are you ok?", she asked the red-head.

"You're pretty.", the girl replied.

"Hey, you spoke. Wait, what did you say?", Ariana asked.

"You're pretty", the girl repeated. She grabbed Ariana's face and brought it closer to hers. Their lips were about to meet when someone opened the door.