The Beginning of Jane

Jane walked along the forest path, enjoying the cool breeze as it brushed against her face while she strolled in and out of the sunlight, turned a light shade of green by the rustling emerald canopy above. 

She looked up and sniffed; there would be a storm soon. She could tell not only by the damp air and the tension that seemed to float in the forest, but also from the sight of it. 

She watched as it rolled in, pushing the sunlight aside as little flickers of lightning erupted from within. 

Then, it gave out an unhappy grumble(she wasn’t sure how she knew that it was unhappy) and turned around. 

Jane felt an overwhelming urge to follow it, something that resounded from deep within her soul. She turned around and ran, knowing that this was the chance of  a lifetime. 

The wind tried to turn her around, telling her that there was no reason to follow this perfectly normal storm, that she should turn around and go back. 

But she knew that the wind was lying. 

So on she ran, even though the leaves flew at her, the wind howled in rage, and branches whipped past, just barely missing her. 

Every part of her being pushed, knowing that if she missed this, it was all over. 

Then she breached a barrier; somehow, she knew that she had gone into another world. 

The wind swept her up, off the ground, going higher, higher, higher. She was spinning around and around and around, trapped inside a vortex as the wind raged on, telling her that she had made a huge mistake. 

Then she reached it; the Eye of the storm. It blinked at her, its irises dazzling with all the colors of the rainbow. She knew that this was no ordinary storm. 

She came to a stop, floating in a single spot, bobbing up and down. 

Then, in a language that no living creature had heard for a thousand years, it spoke. 

“Why did you follow me?” It sounded like a shooting star, like the very creation of the world. 

Something inside Jane told her that as long as she remained polite and told the truth, everything would be okay.  

“Um… well, something inside me told me that this was the chance of a lifetime, and that no matter what, I had to follow you and reach you.” She said honestly. 

“I see…” it rumbled as it trailed off, but its Eye never left her. 

“Well, I am a being known as the Morts. You see, everything began with a storm. Me. And I very well might be what ends this universe as well. I have followers, and you are one of them. I reward my followers by returning them to whatever world they wish in whatever form they wish to be in. They bring magic into that world, for my only rule is that you can’t be a creature that already exists. Many of the mythical creatures that you would find in your fairy tales are my followers. So, I will give you some time to think about what world you wish to be in.” With that, millions of tiny, sparkling diamonds appeared before her each representing a different world. But her soul only wanted one. 

They all disappeared, all except for one. It slowly rose up to her face, shining yellow and blue. She didn’t know where it would take her, though she suspected it would be her own world. 

“Very well. Now, you may choose which form you wish to be in.” Said the Morts. 

Jane thought hard of all the creatures she’d ever heard of; she wondered if she should make one up. 

Then an idea occurred to her.

Why choose one form when she could have all of them? 

She wasn’t sure how, but the Morts seemed to nod its head at her decision.

“Very wise. Now, what will your true form be?”

Jane understood that the Morts meant what her original form would be; she would just have the magic to shift into other creatures. 

She wondered if she should choose a different form. She thought of something that she had longed to be as a child: a pegasus. 

Before she could do anything else, or consider any other options, the Eye opened even wider, and soon she was surrounded by what looked like colored water. She knew that this was the very essence of creation. Her own little storm seemed to happen around her as her form changed; hands and feet became hooves, silver fur sprouted everywhere, wings erupted from her back, ears sprouted out of the top of her head, a tail grew, her red hair changed into a glowing silver mane, and finally, a horn spiraled out of her forehead as her hooves at last touched ground on Earth’s soil. 

She somehow knew that if this hadn’t been her original form, she would be extremely disoriented. 

She looked at her surroundings; she had landed in some sort of jungle. 

A nervous whinny escaped her lips as she saw dark figures moving in the shadows; she felt totally unprotected. 

Something roared behind her; she turned around and to her dread she saw a single set of glowing eyes. 

A growling black blur flew at her, and before she could even think, she was in the air, circling in the air. Her hooves remained just out of the panther’s reach as she slowly circled higher until she was above the glowing green canopy of the forest, shining in the sunlight. 

Her great wings stretched even wider and before she knew it, she was doing something that had always longed to do yet never known it: soaring through the sapphire-blue skies, going higher, higher higher as she left everything behind on the ground. 

Nothing except her seemed to matter in the skies as she flew; no words could possibly describe it. 

The wind felt great on her feathers and against her face as she did lazy circles throughout the sky until a blur of claws flew at her; she just barely managed to avoid it and gasped as she saw what had tried to get her. 

It was part bird, part lion: a griffin. Molten-gold eyes met hers as she watched razor-sharp claws unsheath and a golden beak snapped open as it cawed. It truly was a magnificent creature, but she didn’t have much time to admire it as it was currently trying to kill her. 

So she flew on the wind; it seemed to want her to outrace it, because it went under her wings and lifted her up even higher and let her go faster, but it seemed to be no use; the griffin was faster, more streamlined. 

She knew that she had to shift; panic was pushed aside as her soul went up in glee at the thought of testing out her new power. 

But she had to pick something more powerful than a griffin;  bigger, stronger, fiercer. 

Her mind could only find one thing that she had already heard of, for she had no time to make something up. 

So hooves became claws, scales rippled over her fur, horns erupted out of her head, a tail grew out of her rear, webbing grew between her wings and spikes slid down her spine. 

Her roar was deafening even to her ears as her dragon claws unsheathed and she tried to fly after the griffin but then realized that she was completely disoriented and she plummeted like a giant, silver scaly rock to the ground. 

Her claws scrambled at the trees, their bark peeling off them like paper and it slowed her descent but only a little. The griffin was nowhere in sight. 

Jane looked around at the seemingly empty jungle; nothing wanted to mess with a dragon. She couldn’t help it as her lips slowly spread into a wide, toothy grin.

There was still magic in this world; the griffin was plain evidence.  She decided that, since she apparently had entire lifetimes to live, she would go and explore the world, and nothing could stop her. She would investigate the odd, the unusual, and try to slowly coax the spark that was magic into a flame, and then into a blazing hot fire. 

She had a whole world laid out at her feet, and all she had to do was take it.