CHAPTER 1.
“I see a garden. Filled with bubbling flowers and sheltered by towering ribbon trees. You are walking about... barefooted it seems. Hmm... You were very short back then were you?”
I opened one eye to peek at my friend Alta. Tall and beautiful, she had dark brown hair that flowed down to her waist. Her pretty blue eyes stared wide at me with that you-got-to-be-kidding-me look.
“That can’t be right, unless you’ve got the wrong time. Concentrate! I’ve got not much of a past for you to look at the wrong one,” said Alta with a frustrated yet excited tone. Alta and I are both 20 this year. Best friends since I could ever remember, we were always side by side doing things together. Today we were sitting in the stable, hiding and reading the past.
My name is Praeteritum, but everyone just calls me Teri. I never knew how my name came about for I was an orphan when I was very young; or so I was told. As far as I know, no one knows about my past as much as I do, which is nothing.
I closed my eyes again, trying harder to look into Altas past. Maybe that’s why I don’t know my past. All I can see are other peoples past. This is another weird thing about me. I can sense the past of anything and everyone around me. I could even tell you when a tree was planted.
“I hear hooves on the ground. I think there’s a horse behind you. It’s following you very closely. Let me get a clearer view of it,” I searched deeper into her past, hoping for a more detailed memory. Then I saw it! I opened my eyes wide, covered my mouth and started backing away from Alta.
“What is it?!” she cried frantically. “What did you see?”
I tried to hide my reaction but failed terribly. I burst into a storm of laughter when I recalled again what I saw in Altas past. I ran from her trying to get away from having to tell her my vision. But alas, my legs were too short to outrun her as she came at me and tackled me to the floor.
“OK! OK! I’ll tell you! But don’t regret it,” I said with giggles in between words. I had to try a few times to get the words to come out right. I cleared my throat and put on a serious face – as much as I could anyway – and told her what I saw.
“Are you kidding me? I- I’m a donkey?! What are you playing at Teri?!”
“I’m sorry! I guess I went back too far! You were a donkey in your past life!!” and my mask was off as I was laughing my head off again with the thought of pretty Alta as a donkey. Alta got off me and sat to the side with a frown on her face. Sitting up, I gave her a pout.
“Oh, I’m sorry. You made me tell you anyway. But no worries! I’m sure you were still very pretty when you were a donkey.” And the respond I got from her is what I truly deserve; a hit on the head.
I could feel the whole floor shaking as she got up and started stomping off, not realising the earth moving. Only when the horses in the stable started becoming uneasy did she stop and turn back to me with a horrified look.
A deafening explosion from outside shook the place and Alta tumbled to the floor. Crawling towards her I screamed to ask if she was ok. More explosions came one after another and the only other thing I could hear was the horses fleeing and the wood creaking.
Holding on to each other, the only thing that kept us safe from the falling ceiling were our hands.
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