The pale moonlight shown through the tops of the trees and cast a dim light on the soft brown grasses and pine needles littering forest floor. The air had a brisk chill in it, and every now-and-then it would faintly rustle one of the tall trees multicolored leaves, or some of the pines' slender needles.

Everything seemed eerily silent, and then a twig cracked loudly. A horse and its rider came into view a minute later. The horse itself was a small gray mare with white blotches, and the rider atop its back looked to be a girl. She was dressed in blue jeans and boots, with an army-green jacket that had the name, "Natasha S. Wright" boldly embroidered on it. She had short, fiery red hair and blue eyes.

She was simply out for a leisurely ride in the forest at night, with absolutely no idea of what she would suddenly stumble upon, and the rough and tumble adventure it would slam her into. A type of adventure she had always seen in movies that she liked, and one she had wished to be in at times, one she never would dream of actually going through though.

Not that she wasn't a tough person, but it did catch her by surprise, or rather, would. For now things were normal, and she was just taking a stroll on her horse Flash, and humming a theme from one of her favorite movies.

They had just recently reached a clearing in the forest. It was a big clearing, and since the theme from the movie had excited her, she gave her horse a couple of stout kicks and bellowed like an Indian from the old west, or, at least, she thought that's what it sounded like.

They charged through the clearing like a bullet, with Natasha leaning over the horse's neck and her hands clenching the gray mane and the reins tightly.

They ate up the ground underneath them at an alarming rate, and quite soon they left the clearing behind altogether and went rushing back into the serene forest on the opposite side of the clearing. Natasha knew charging into the forest was dangerous, since the horse could lose it's footing easier than on flatter ground, but she was having too much of a good time to stop quite yet.

However, soon her common sense got the best of her (and the fact that she wasn't going to run her horse into the ground) and she reined the somewhat rebellious animal in. The horse snorted at her disdainfully and pranced along at a fast trot. She attempted to slow it to a walk, "Come on Flash. I just let you run quite a bit there, didn't I? Now. Slow. Down!" The horse snorted again and continued to fight against her. Natasha sighed, "Fine! Be stubborn if you want to!"

They continued on through the woods, and if one would have been watching, created a picture worthy of a serene, beautiful painting. Natasha began to hum again and become preoccupied with her thoughts, and Flash, sensing the opportunity, slowed up and stopped for a split second to snag a bite from a still slightly green clump of grass. However, she took her liberties too far when she decided that that particular grass clump was worthy of another bite, and Natasha quickly noticed.

It only required a quick jerk of the hand, and Flash's head was pulled away from the clump she had just about gotten that precious second bite from. A stout kick was administered to the slightly startled and irritated horse's side. "Get moving you little opportunist!" Natasha laughed. The horse swooshed her tail, snorted, and pranced forward with her head held high.

Forward they went, under the branches of tall pines and many other types of trees as well, until they came to one, and Natasha forgot to duck under the slim tip of a low hanging branch. She cringed and lifted her arm quickly to shield her face from the slightly prickly pine needles, but as she brushed by the branch, something dropped out of it.

Her arm immediately went down and her head came up. One quick glance at the branch, and then her eyes fell to the ground. Her eyes passed over the bed of browned pine needles and other debris below. Nothing of interest seemed to be there though, and then her eyes caught a glint. She dismounted quickly and walked over to the spot. She furrowed her brow when she spotted it. A wood framed watched wasn't exactly the norm, after all. Natasha bent down and picked it up, and then she turned it over.The watchband was of soft, brown leather, and there was a small, well-done carving of a bird in flight on the back of it.

She turned it face up again. There was a jagged crack going through the glass face of the watch, but besides that, it wasn't damaged. Natasha suddenly squinted then. It was ticking, although the time was off. She shrugged and stuck it in her pocket with a reassurance to herself that she would look at it again later and see if she could discover the owner, or something else about the watch.

Natasha mounted up again and headed for home, which, in her case, was a small town called Thatcher.

---

Natasha's mother, dark haired Susan Wright, was up when she got home. As soon as she appeared, her mother presented her with her usual pretty smile, "How was your ride?"

"It was good. I actually found an odd watch out there. I'm going to see if it has any initials on it or anything, and if it does, I'll see if I can return to the owner. If not, I guess I'll keep it."

Susan nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

"Are you waiting up for Dad?"

"Yes. There's something I need to talk to him about. But why don't you go on up to bed? You said you were going to go and have breakfast and then visit the zoo with Valerie and Riley tomorrow, didn't you?"

"Yes Mum, I did. Good night, and uh, don't stay up too late," Natasha said with a naughty grin as she kissed the top of her mother's head.

Susan simply smiled.

She hurried upstairs and set the watch on her desk after she had prepared for bed. Natasha allowed herself one last curious glance at it before she flopped down onto her bed and fell asleep.

---

Natasha rose early the next day and was waiting on the porch of her family's medium-sized red-brick house when Riley pulled up in her red, vintage mustang. Her best friend, short, slim, dark-haired Valerie "Valley" Hopkins was seated in the back, reading a book.

She greeted them both and hopped in the car, "So where are we going to eat? Have you two decided yet?"

"We were thinking about, 'Bob's', as Val is claiming that that is the best restaurant in Evansville."

"It is the best restaurant in Evansville!" Valerie replied in a forceful, somewhat teasing manner.

"Sure it is. And according to you, 'Mussolini's' was the best in ConnsVille also. I think we all remember how that went," replied Riley with a smug little grin.

Valerie lifted a finger and was about to begin her defense when Natasha quickly interjected, "Why don't we just go to Kate's like we always do?"

Riley turned back to give a bit of a sideways glance at Valerie, "That's what I said before we even got here."

Valerie sighed, "I'm tired of what we always get there."

"Then get something else. The menu isn't just three dishes Valley," Natasha said with a little bit of a grin.

"Whatever you say."

---

They left Thatcher and reached the fairly large, sprawling city named, "Evansville," an hour later. They were quick to eat breakfast at a small diner named, "Katie's Breakfast House," and then they cruised around for a little while to look at a few pawn shops and whatever else interested them. They visited the zoo at noon, and then afterwards got ice cream and began the drive back to Thatcher.

Riley dropped off Natasha and Valerie at Natasha's house (Valerie had expressed a wish to see the watch) and then went home.

---

They chatted as they climbed the stairs together and then went into Natasha's room. Natasha, of course, quickly brought out the watch and showed it to her best friend.

"It's certainly odd, isn't it?" Val said softly.

"Yes. It is."

"I wonder why it was in a tree in the forest."

"I don't know. Seems like it was put there almost; which is odd, of course."

"Are you going to open it up?"

"I'm going to try to."

She turned over the watch in her hands a few times and examined it carefully, and then she began to pry at the back of it, but to no avail. The next thing she did was carefully examine the front of it, and, nope, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The next thing to do was to examine the five odd knobs around the outside of the watch.

"Well, one of them must be the clock controlling knob."

"Yep. That's this one. What time does it say on my alarm clock, Val?"

"Three o'clock."

Natasha nodded slowly as she set the time using the little knob. She tried the next knob, and was surprised to find that it was actually a button. She pressed it in. Nothing happened, or at least, nothing seemed to happen. The next one was a knob that didn't seem to do anything as she twirled it, and then the other two were both buttons. Natasha pressed them both in quick succession, and then she gasped.

"Look!" she cried, pointing to the window where a hummingbird was flying---or at least, it should have been. It was completely still, seeming to float in mid air with it's wings spread.

Everything became a blur, and then a second later she was standing in the middle of a vast yellow-brown prairie, alone.