Virginia looked back up at the stars and moon in the sky. The luminous glow from the campfire flickered above on the leaves and branches of the trees.
She placed her palms on the bed beneath her. Everything is real. I can feel it. This is not a dream.
She looked herself over. Faint sparkles glimmered on her white shirt as it reflected the firelight. On her feet were the hiking boots that her uncle had given her. She stroked the top of them with her fingers.
How did these make it through the portal? Why did they not change?
She looked over at Charles, who was sound asleep in his hammock.
A sorrowful look slowly crossed her face. Rose Cohen. She was right.
She lay back down on her bed, her head resting on her backpack for a pillow.
She was right the whole time. No one had believed her. Not her family. Not even those who had come years after her and had heard her story. Not even me.
She looked up into the heavens above.
"Oh, I wish I knew more about what she went through," she said. "What adventures did she have? What perils and long sufferings did she endure in this mysterious place?"
She rolled over on her side. "Oh, I wish I had a map or something. I honestly don't even know what these so-called 'Southern Woods of Earth Stars' look like on a large scale."
Her eyes shot open as a thought quickly ran through her mind. Instantly, she sat up and pulled her backpack in front of her. She opened its flap and unloosed its drawstring.
Please, be here. Please, be here!
She gasped excitedly. She could not believe her eyes. Lying at the bottom of her backpack was the Diary of Rose Cohen. It was the only item found in her backpack. All her schoolbooks were gone. Not even a pencil was found in her bag; only the diary remained. She reached in, pulled it out, and held it in front of her. This book was no longer the holder of fairy tales or lost out-of-reach fables. It was now her guide to help her understand this new place
"Oh, man," said Virginia, "I hope there's something in here that can help me."
She slowly untied the red ribbon wrapped around the book and opened the diary where she had left off.
Burning Eagle took me to a distant, secluded place in a remote part of the Evergreen Forest. In the center of a small clearing sat an ancient fountain hewn out of a rock that came up from the earth. There, we found a man dressed in a tan tunic and a brown cloak at the fountain. In his hands, he held an iron scepter. When we approached him, Burning Eagle placed me in his arms. He told me that this man was his best friend. The man was known as Elyamin, King of Alaythia. The man had several things about him, but what always remained in my mind was the smile he always seemed to carry, seen through his bushy bearded face. All three of us stayed there for three days. King Elyamin and Burning Eagle fed me and gave me water from the fountain. Then, on the third day, Elyamin and Burning Eagle set off to lead me to what I came to know as the most incredible adventure of my entire life.
A strange cry echoed throughout the forest. Virginia gasped and closed the book. She quickly looked around her, holding her hand over her heart.
She listened carefully but did not hear the cry again.
She chuckled and looked back down at the diary. She stroked her hand across its top cover.
A thought came to her. She opened the book and began flipping through its pages.
"It was somewhere around this part," she whispered to herself. "Somewhere… Somewhere…"
She stopped flipping. Placing her finger under each word, she carefully studied the script written in front of her:
I asked him if he was an angel. "No," he said. "I am not an angel." He told me that he was human, just like me. He said he was part of a unique, select tribe of warriors that had been blessed with the spirit of the one he called Oralmuti.
Virginia looked over her shoulder at Charles, resting in his hammock with his back to her. She began to study him with the same curious eye.
She shook her head. Ridiculous.
She closed the diary, tied the ribbon back around the book, and carefully placed it inside her backpack.
"I shall pick you back up where I left off in the morning," she said reassuringly.
She placed her bag where it was before and laid down to rest her head. Then, looking up into the night sky, she began to imagine all that had taken place: the attempt on her life at school and while running through the woods, somehow miraculously making it across that rather large gorge and traveling through a portal of light and fire into a new world.
She placed her hand on her backpack beneath her head. I can only begin to imagine what Rose's adventures were once like. She smiled. And I get to be her reader.
She slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep in the cool of the evening.