Kaida groaned as she walked out the front door of her pale yellow house. She didn't want to go to work, but if she were going to be able to go to college at the end of the year, she was going to need to save up money, and the only way to get money was through working. So it was off to work with her. She ignored the rusted bike that rested against the side of the house, knowing that walking would be faster than riding the old bike that hadn't been used in years. She passed by her mother's flower garden, and smiled as she knelt down to smell it, just like she did everyday. She reached down to pick one, only to pause as her fingers brushed against the stem. She stood up, walked back to the front door, and poked her head inside.

"Hey, Mom?" she yelled into the house. "Can I pick one of your flowers to put in my hair?"

"No", came the familiar reply. "If you want to put flowers in your hair, you'll have to get those flower clips."

Kaida sighed, and closed the door. She glanced sadly at the pristine flower bed, but continued on, her long blonde hair flowing freely in the wind. She could smell the faint smells of chocolate chip cookies as coming from down the street once she passed the old red van that sat in the driveway. She smiled widely, and skipped down the street to the vibrant red house on the corner, and hopped up onto the porch. She knocked on the front door, and a few moments later, a white haired lady opened the door. Kaida smiled at the familiar wrinkled face.

"Mrs. Ainsley!" Kaida exclaimed. "You look as beautiful as ever!"

The old lady chuckled, and moved to let Kaida come in, but the younger woman shook her head. "Sorry, Mrs. Ainsley. I can't come in today. I need to get to work. I just figured I'd come say hello before heading off."

The curly haired woman nodded once, and shifted so the warm air wouldn't mix with the colder air inside. "I'm glad you came to say hi, Kaida. Not many people do nowadays."

Kaida frowned. "That's too bad. You're one of my favorite people to talk to!"

Mrs. Ainsley smiled. "I'm glad you think so, Kaida. Unfortunately, this old woman is slowly dying, and no one wants to be near a old dying woman."

Kaida shook her head. "That's a stupid notion. That's the time of everyone's life that people need to visit the most. I think it would be horrible to be lonely when you know you're dying."

Mrs. Ainsley smiled. "I'm glad you think so, Kaida. Now, I do believe you had somewhere to be."

Kaida's face-palmed as she groaned. "Shoot. I gotta run, Mrs. Ainsley, or else I'm going to be late for work. I'll come visit you as soon as I'm off, I promise!"

With that, the young girl turned and bolted off the porch, and hurried into town, towards the bookstore she loved to go as a kid, and now worked at. It was quaint little store, with few customers. While the pay wasn't the greatest, due to there being few customers, Kaida loved working there. Even if it wouldn't get her through college, she knew that she would have regretted not working there. She got to meet all kinds of people at the bookstore, and she wouldn't want it any other way.

~ ~ ~

Kaida sighed, checking the time once more to see if she'd be able to leave the bookstore yet. She grumbled to herself as Kaida realized she still had about five minutes left. Hearing a little bell ring by the door, she noticed a customer had come in.

'Finally!' Kaida thought. 'A customer! I thought that working in a bookstore would be interesting, but no one ever comes here anymore...'

She watched the customer stroll through the aisles, looking at different books. As he looked, Kaida studied him discreetly, not wanting to freak him out. He had black hair, and was surprisingly short. Possibly shorter than Kaida. His clothes were clean, and very tidy. Finally, he came over to the counter with a book titled Bluestar's Prophecy by Erin Hunter. Kaida straightened her brown shirt as she smiled at the man.

"Hello! Did you find everything okay?" she asked, her voice happy. The man nodded.

"I did. I've been looking for the perfect gift for my daughter, and she loves cats so I figured I'd get her a book about cats."

Kaida smiled at him. "Well, I can tell you that this is the perfect book. It's all about cats."

The man chuckled. "My daughter's been begging me to get this book for a while now, and so I think she'll be ecstatic to see this."

Kaida grinned, before scanning the price tag. "That'll be $12.34."

The man handed her three five dollar bills, and Kaida put it into the cash register, taking out the change while asking if he wanted his receipt.

"Yes, please", he said. She handed him the receipt with the change, but he only took the receipt. "Keep the change." Kaida blinked before a large smile grew on her face as she handed him the book as well.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed. The man chuckled.

"No. Thank you," he said, emphasizing the 'you'. Kaida smiled gratefully as he walked out. When she checked the clock, it was time for her to close up the store. Smiling softly, she walked over to the window next to the door, turning off the open sign. Kaida then went through each aisle to make sure that the books were in the correct order. However, she stopped halfway through one aisle, a book having caught her attention. She pulled it out, and read the title aloud.

"Constellations: A Field Guide to the Night Sky,'' she spoke softly. No sooner had she spoke the title aloud, a bright light filled the room. Kaida had to close her eyes due to the brightness. When it finally died down, and Kaida opened her eyes, she noticed that she was not in the bookstore anymore. In fact, she was in a forest.

"Wha-" she whispered. "What happened? Where am I? I was just in the bookstore... how did I get out into the forest?" As she continued to look around the forest, she wondered if she had fallen asleep at work, and started sleep-walking home and instead ended up in the forest.

There was no response to her words except for the wind rustling through the green leaves of the trees and bushes. Looking around, she noticed that she was in a clearing. It was almost a perfect circle, with nearly no ferns spreading into the clearing. She noted that this was strange for a forest, as clearings are almost never symmetrical. As she continued to look around, she also noticed a mountain peaking up above the trees. While she had grown up camping, and hiking in forests, the mountain was unfamiliar, and intimidating to her. But, she knew that the mountain would give her a better vantage point, and she might be able to see some sort of civilization in the distance. Making a split second decision, she headed towards the mountain. Walking through the forest, there were many times when she had to tug her hair or clothes free of branches that would get caught in her hair.

Kaida growled once again at the familiar tugging of her long tawny locks. She turned and glared at the tree that had once again caught her hair. She untangled her hair from the branch and continued to walk forward, only stopping when she caught sight of something small, about the size of a pomsky. Kaida smiled at the thought of the adorable pomeranian husky mix, but returned her attention to small, hairy creature, studying it carefully as it shifted in the bushes, almost as if it was preparing to pounce. It was a dark purple with white speckles that almost looked like stars. Its fur was shining, especially around the white specks. It briefly crossed Kaida's thoughts that that was odd, but she brushed it off when the creature darted out in front of her and started chewing at the tip of her shoe. She jumped, and got a closer look at it, realizing it was a bear cub. It was kinda cute, she admitted to herself.

"Hey, there little buddy,'' she said, moving her hand to try and gently move it away from biting her shoe. "Where's your mama?" When she was a few centimeters from touching it, a low rumbling growl was heard to Kaida's left. She looked, and her eyes widened. Standing there was a large bear, twice her size, and similar in looks to the one Kaida had just tried to pet. Kaida gave a nervous smile as she moved away from the baby bear slowly. It followed her to continue biting on her shoe.

"Um... hi?" Kaida said shyly, her voice barely above a whisper. The bear only replied in a growl, and Kaida took a step back, fear radiating off her body, and running its course through her veins. "Nice, bear." She murmured, holding her hands out in front of her as she continued to step back. The bear again only growled, taking a few lumbering steps forward. Kaida took a few more steps back, moving faster and faster but not turning around. She didn't know if the bear would give chase, and didn't want to risk angering it further. She just kept trying to stay away from the baby bear, but it kept following her to bite her shoe. Kaida had never felt so scared before in her life, and she feared that it would be the last time she would feel that scared. She heard a loud roar come from behind her. It sounded like nothing she had ever heard, and she broke eye contact with the bear long enough to look back. She saw a long slender creature glaring at the odd colored bear. It rose up in a serpentine manner, stretching high above the quadruped before it. Large leather wings extended from it's back, making it appear bigger than it actually was. The creature was shiny black and there small divets on it, giving off the impression that it was covered with scales. Clawed feet kept its body from touching the ground while a long tail lashed back and forth, creating a small breeze with lifted up some fallen leaves on the ground. Kaida couldn't help but gaze in awe, her mouth slightly ajar. It reminded her of the dragons that adorned several of the Chinese folklore books at the bookstore. She didn't think she wanted to face either of the creatures, so she hid behind a tree and watched as the encounter took place

The dragon was growling at the bear. The bear only growled back in response. This kept going for a while, which allowed Kaida to realize that they sounded as if they were having a conversation, albeit an angry one. Eventually, the bear left in the direction it had come from and the dragon twisted its body in a way that allowed it to turn around without touching any of the trees, the light coming through the canopy giving the scales a purple hue. Kaida placed a hand on the tree in front of her, only to stumble forward when the tree suddenly moved. She gaped at the tree, but was distracted by a low rumbling chuckle coming from the dragon.

"You're new here, aren't you?" the dragon asked. "You act as if you've never seen a tree nymph before."

Kaida took a few steps back. "Tree nymph?"

The dragon chuckled again. "Yes, tree nymph. This entire forest is of tree nymphs. Or mostly of tree nymphs."

"O-okay", Kaida stuttered. "Wait, you can talk?!"

The dragon chuckled once more, and nodded his large head. "You must be a bit confused about all this,'' the dragon spoke. "Come, I will take you to a place you can rest."

Kaida's eyes widen and she shook her head. "I don't even know who you are."

The dragon huffed. "Right, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Draco. Draco the Dragon."

Kaida's eyes widen recognizing the name. "You... you mean like the constellation?"

Draco full on laughed. "Yes! Yes, I am a constellation. Anything you come across that have the colors of the night sky on them is a constellation."

"So then... who were the bears?" I murmur.

"The mother bear was Ursa Major, and the baby bear was Ursa Minor. Ursa Major is very protective of Minor. I'd stay away from them if I were you."

"Noted", Kaida muttered. "So... where exactly am I? And how do I get home to my family? To my parents, and my brother?"

"I will explain that later, young one. For now, we must get to a place of rest where we will have more privacy for that kind of talk" Draco murmured. "And you never introduced yourself."

"Oh! I'm sorry. My name is Kaida. Kaida Khuzami."

Draco's large violent eyes widen. "Oh... then that means..." he stopped before he could finish, leaving Kaida wondering at the strange comment. What did he know that she didn't? "Come! I will take you to the place you can rest!"

Kaida smiled softly. "Thank you."

"It's no problem,'' Draco said. "Hop on."

Kaida's smile disappeared. "To you?"

"Yes! It's the fastest way to get to where we're going."

Kaida hesitantly climbed onto his back in front of his wings, grabbing onto the spine in front of her. Draco took off, and flew off towards the mountain.

~ ~ ~

"So.... it begins..." a female voice murmured, looking at a crystal orb that sat before her on a small obelisk. Her long purple cloak swished around her knees. If one where to see her, they might have thought she was a gypsy. Wrinkles covered her skin, and her lilac eyes drooped with lack of sleep, though they were also filled with a deep wisdom. "She is here..."

"Ha! It's not like she'll ever be able to defeat me! I'm too strong for her to take on!" A beautiful woman sat upon her throne, a gold crown set upon her deep purple hair. There were a few spots of white in the hair, giving off the idea that the woman was aging.

"My queen, you know what the prophecy says,'' the older woman spoke quietly, as to not alert any servants that may be nearby that their Queen might finally be taken down. "She will take you down before she leaves."

The queen scoffed as she stood up, her regal white dress flowing around her ankles. "As if. No one has been able to remove me from my throne! Not even the gods!"

At the gypsy's unsure gaze, the Queen sighed in annoyance. "But if you're so sure..." she grumbled as she rolled her almost black eyes. "Send for the greatest hunter in the night sky!"