The new begginings.

Aylin: Arrival

My name is Aylin Grew. My little brother and I ran away from our abusive mother almost a year ago. We moved from school to school, town to town, trying to settle down, but nothing was ever safe for a 16-year-old girl and a 8-year-old boy. Everything changed when we made our way to New York and I found this peculiar boy on a bridge.

Calvin and I just arrived in Manhattan after a week of constant travelling. Calvin was barely holding up on his legs. I decided that we needed to rest and later figure some things out. With a credit card stolen from my mum, I bought us a room in a hotel. Somehow, after almost a year, my mum still hasn't blocked her credit card. I found this strange but decided not to think too much of it. After all, this was the only source of money we had.

The room was quite big with two queen size beds, a big tv, a closet, a minibar and a bathroom. I trashed our backpacks on one of the beds, remembering to place the long wrapping underneath them but in a way, I should still be able to get it quickly if I had to, while Calvin crawled onto the other. He fell asleep almost instantly, so I went out to explore the surrounding city. I locked our room, exited the hotel and headed for the Empire State Building. I decided to use that as an orientation point due to it being the most obvious landmark in New York. I started walking in the crowds of grey people without any real direction whatsoever. I lost track of place and time or in other words - I was lost. I pushed through and noticed a giant bridge right in front of me. There I spotted a boy around my age with messy, buttery blond hair and a flashing orange t-shirt standing out of the crowd. He was looking through a grey backpack with a hand-sewn owl embroidery on the front pocket. He stopped, put it on, looked around and started making his way through the busy bridge. I instinctively followed him.

After some time had passed, we both exited the bride and I caught a glimpse of where we were. Brooklyn. But I still had no idea where the boy was heading. And why the boy is going on foot, alone instead of taking a taxi? And why am I even following him?!

Even more time had passed. I was getting really tired and worried about Calvin being alone in the hotel room, but I still stubbornly followed the boy. I wanted to turn around, but something in the back of my head told me to continue. I didn't like the voice at the back of my head, but it did get me and Calvin out of bad situations before, so I did as it said. The boy was still walking calmly, looking around from time to time. He didn't notice me yet. Or so I thought.

We walked into a forest. It was starting to get darker. The boy sped up. I did the same. He put his hand on something attached to his belt. I couldn't make out what it was at the time. He continued speed-walking until we saw a hill with a single pine tree.

'Finally.' The boy said out loud. He started running. I slowed down and examined the tree. I spotted something hanging from its branches. It looked like a covering of a sheep, except it was gleaming golden. Under the pine, some weird dog-looking-thing was sleeping. As the boy approached, the thing woke up, spread its wings and puffed a small cloud of black smoke from its nostrils. The boy petted the small dragon and continued walking until he disappeared on the other side of the hill.

The dragon went around the tree and fell asleep. I made my way up the hill and scanned my surroundings.

I thought that the skyscrapers in the city were awesome, but the valley that stretched below was impressive on a much different level.

The first thing that hit me was the fantastic smell of strawberries coming from the fields down below. I heard the sounds of people fighting in the weird arena. I spotted a lot of small houses arranged around some sort of campfire. There were many more buildings: a large stable, a rocky building with smoke coming out of its chimney, a greek amphitheatre, an archery range, a pavilion with as many benches as the small houses and on top of all that stood a great, at least two-story blue house with a front porch where 3 people were sitting. When I turned my head slightly to the left, I also spotted a giant statue of a woman dressed in battle armour and holding what looked like a spear. There was a lake full of people on canoes too, next to something that looked like an active volcano but with people climbing on it. The whole thing was surrounded by woods which spiled into the valley. The only break was the sandy beach on the furthest end of the area.