Sunday, April 17, 2005

   Chapter 2: Falamarana (part 1)
She woke up in a little room with white walls, and no windows. There was only a door, a bed, and a mirror. For a moment, she felt confused and disoriented, closing her eyes to remember what had happened.
The first thing that came to her mind was the Olgers, who had adopted her when she was six. She had an older brother, William, who always bossed her around. Her home in Vermont brought painful memories of her pets, and her beloved violin.
And Summer. They had met in the orphanage. The redhead could have been her sister, except that she was a week older. Summer used to play violin. She wouldn’t be surprised if she were the best violinist in the world. Sound was nothing to her, only music.
The next thing she could remember was Chili, her Western Rosella. He was only a small chick when she got him, found in a box addressed to her. He was a beautiful little parrot, with blue, green, black, and yellow wings, a green-blue tail, a red chest, and a yellow cheek patch. It took her a moment to recall that he was gone—escaped through an open window.
Slowly her memory pieced together what had happened.
She had been asleep when she felt a pair of impossibly big arms pick her up. Startled, lost between dreams and life, she tried to scream, but the kidnapper stuffed her mouth with cloth. She was stuffed into a sack that muffled most sounds, but Fala thought she could hear the voices of men quietly conversing around her. Finally, after dreamy days of rough travel, she felt flames licking at her body. She watched as the fire roasted the bag, screaming out in anger and fear. It took her a few seconds to realize the blazing inferno that closed over her head didn’t seem to hurt her. But when she wanted to move, her body felt strangely different, yet familiar all the same. Her fingers had fused together, and the arms they were attached to were sprouting feather-quills. Her feet were clawed. She was a bird! A bird immune to fire.
She had read about Phoenixes, but that was in fantasy books, and she didn’t believe that stuff. Surely, she had been dreaming… but then how did she get here?
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