Empowered

Chapter 3: We Take A Trip

Katrina

SO, I THOUGHT I had passed out. After a flash of light, darkness, and the air getting forced out of my lungs, I was surprised to find myself suddenly in a pine forest. Not to mention I landed on my feet. Hell yeah. Kat always lands on her feet. That is, I was on feet, until someone else tripped into me and I was suddenly chewing on leaves and dirt...

I groaned and the girl stood up, dusting herself off. She had dark hair, pulled back into a slick ponytail, and was a few inches shorter than me. Her eyes were a deep, midnight blue and seemed to see right into your soul. She looked at me apologetically, and seemed to want to say something, but thought better of it and shot me a weak smile instead.

"Hey, it's okay." I pushed myself up and tugged some leaves out my braid. "That thing seemed to have a kick to it." I raised an eyebrow at her. "You wouldn't happen to know what it was, would you?"

She frowned, squinting her eyes and looking back at where we'd just seemingly materialized out of nowhere, "No." She shook her head in disbelief, "How did we get here?"

"I dunno" I said honestly, kind of freaked out myself.

"What about that other guy?"

"...Which other guy?"

She rolled her eyes, "The one with the blue hair. The one you were stalking. The only one that actually seemed to know where he was going."

Ohhh. She means my sexy disaster...

She chuckled. "Yeah. Him."

Wait...what?

"Him who?" I asked.

Did I say the sexy disaster thing out loud....god I hope not.

"Don't worry. You didn't say anything." My eyes widened at this. "Just...the look on your face...nevermind." She laughed half-heartedly to herself and shook her head.

Okay, that wasn't weird at all.

"Uh okay...And no I  don't know where he is..." Suddenly I  realized something, "Wait, you go to my school don't you? You're that kid-"

"Right." She cut me off, clearly annoyed. Eager to change the subject, she glanced around, "Where are we? This can't be oak falls the climate isn't right for..." She trailed off, looking closely at a nearby tree, muttering something that sounded like 'That can't be right' under her breath.

I  raised an eyebrow, "What is it?"

She shook her head, "Just, these trees. I've never seen anything like them before."   

As far as I was concerned, they just looked like normal trees. But then again I wasn't exactly a tree expert. I shrugged. "I wouldn't know. But, either way I sure hope you've had camping experience, 'cause we're kinda stuck in a forest in the middle of...who knows where.." I trailed off.

She looked around, squinting her dark eyes. "No...I don't think we're stuck here. There seems to be some kind of trail over there. And the forest would be denser if we were really stuck in the middle of it. I bet there's some kind of building a mile or so in that direction." She glanced over her shoulder. "I say we might as well go look."

I shrugged. "Beats standing here."

She gave me a side glance, almost like she was appraising me somehow, and after a few seconds of staring at me she stuck out her hand. "I'm Dahlia" she offered.

I extended a hand awkwardly "Uh, I'm Kat."

A flicker of recognition seemed to cross her face. "You're the one who's always getting into trouble." She claimed, letting go of my hand.