Chapter 1 - Last Flight

“Ladies and Gentleman please fasten your seat belts and remain seated please. We are experiencing some heavy turbulence.” the captain said over the intercom.  The plane shook violently as the storm outside raged. In the distance, she could see lightning flash every now and then.

Sarah, her parents, and the majority of her extended family were on a flight heading to the Bahamas.  One of her cousins had the bright idea that our family reunion should be in a tropical place this year.  Don't get her wrong, she liked the idea of going to a nice warm place after the disaster the last family reunion had turned into.

Five years ago, the family reunion was held at a ski resort in Colorado.  An unforeseen blizzard forced them to stay indoors due to the whiteout conditions outside.  The only skiing they had available to them was the man-made snow in a small section of the resort.  It was extremely cold and miserable outside so they spent the majority of the time at the resort bar.

It was a tradition for her family to get together every five years.  To make sure this happened and everyone could participate, her grandmother paid for all travel and resort fees for the entire family.  The only thing that they had to spend money on were items from the gift shops or special events they attended while at the venue.

Her grandmother had set up trust funds for all of the children and grandchildren when her grandfather passed away.  Gran said there was no reason to be sitting on so much money and this way she knew everyone would be taken care of when she passed.  Her grandfather made investments for a living.  He had the good fortune to take a few gambles on companies that made it big and in return made him a very rich man.

The plane shook once again as the rain outside her window became more intense.  The flashing of lightning was starting to increase in frequency.  Down the aisle, she could hear her little niece screaming her lungs out.  Looking around, quite a few people had located the little bags in the seatback pocket and were currently holding on to them.  It would only take one person throwing up to start a chain reaction of others doing the same caused by the smell.

Thinking of other strong smells, she was reminded of how her mother always smelled like hand sanitizer.  She was constantly rubbing it on her hands between each patient she saw at work.  By the time she got home at night, it smelled like she had taken a bath in the stuff.  Her mother was a doctor who specializes in infectious diseases.  Knowing about all of the things out there that can make you sick made her childhood interesting.  Shoes were left by the door and handwashing was a must before every meal.

Her parents were like night and day.  While her mother was a perfectionist clean freak, her father was a happy-go-lucky litterbug.  Don't get her wrong, he never littered in public.  She was pretty sure he left stuff in odd places just to mess with her mother.  He once hid her car keys underneath a pile of his dirty laundry.  She could hear him snickering from the other room as her mom was searching high and low for her keys.  It was his snickering that got him in trouble in the end, she threatened him with chores if he didn't disclose the location of her keys.  He caved right away at that threat.

Her father was a professional programmer.  He was ranked rather high in a well-known gaming company.  As a result of this, he spent long hours in his office in front of his computer to make deadlines.  He may have been at home, but an elephant could be in the living room and he wouldn't notice it when he was in a time crunch.

Outside her window, a bright light nearly blinded her and there was the sound of an explosion.  The plane shook even more violently and the oxygen masks fell from overhead. Hurrying to put her mask on, she fumbled with the straps because her hands were shaking so badly.  Next to her, her dad helped her secure her mask. He was calm when she looked at him.  It looked like he was trying to make a face at her to make her feel better.  She caught him rolling his eyes at mothers antics beside him.  She was almost turned around backward in her seat using sign language to speak to the rest of her family.

Sarah’s uncle was born with congenital deafness.  As a result, everyone in the family knew sign language fluently.  This is what had initially sparked Sarah’s interest in language.  From an early age, she picked up ASL quickly using it to communicate long before she could form the actual words.  Her mother saw this and started exposing her to several different languages while she grew up.  By the time she was six, she was fluent in English, Spanish, and Japanese.

She enjoyed learning new languages and picked them up very quickly.  When she graduated from high school, she had found her second love, archaeology.  Digging into the past to see how people thousands of years ago lived was intriguing to her.  Her grandmother helped to open a few doors for her, and she visited a dig site in Egypt last year.  She was able to use her experience there to apply to several dig companies around the world.

Graduating at the top of her class, she was offered an internship right after graduating last week.  She decided to major in Archaeology and minor in Linguistics with a focus on ancient languages.  Her goal was to eventually be on a research team trying to decipher dead languages found around the world.

When her father had heard about her lofty goals to visit foreign places back when she was in high school, he immediately signed her up for self-defense classes.  He was a little protective of his only child and wanted to make sure she could defend herself when she was so far from home.  After high school, she enrolled herself in Jiu-Jitsu classes.  She enjoyed the full-body workout that the classes provided as well as the confidence to know she could defend herself if she needed to.

“If we don't make it, know that I will be happy that I was with my two most favorite ladies in the world until the end. I love you,” he said.  My mother on the other side of him was looking rather green. She was not doing well with all of this turbulence.

“I love you both,” I said to my parents right as the engine blew up and a side of our plane was destroyed, making further communication impossible. The plane leaned alarmingly forward and to one side.  I could see out my window that the ocean was getting closer.

We splashed into the water and the world went black.  For a long time, it felt like I was floating in the void. As time went by, her surroundings started to lighten and she started to feel things again like warmth.  From time to time she could hear sounds that sounded like someone was talking but the words were muffled and not a language she had ever learned.

She kept fading in and out of consciousness until all of a sudden her surroundings started to contract in on her. It felt like something was trying to squeeze her out of her warm pool of comfort.  As time went by, the squeezing happened more frequently and she felt herself being forced down a narrow path.

It felt like an eternity had passed when I was finally pushed through the narrow path.  The air was suddenly available to me but something was blocking my airways.  I started coughing as something wiped my face off and I was finally able to take in a huge breath.  I screamed with all I had in me.

Someone was talking around me but I could not understand what was being said. I felt myself being wiped off with a soft cloth and then wrapped up in a blanket.  It looked like a giant was holding me.  They were huge!  I tried to move but my muscles were not responding, I couldn't even lift my head. Did I somehow survive the crash and now I was so broken and weak I couldn't move?  I don't feel any pain. This is all so confusing.

A loud commotion broke her out of her confused thoughts and she felt herself being passed off to a new person.  The blanket that was wrapped around her was removed and she was placed naked on a cold table.  The shock of the cold surface on her back caused her to start crying again.  Looking at her tiny hands she was suddenly struck with the realization that she must be a baby.

She felt like a rag doll as cold hands searched her body turning her this way and that looking at every inch of her body.  She didn’t know what they were looking for but she felt violated.  They either found or didn’t find whatever they were looking for because she was being wrapped up in her warm blanket again.  Wait, was she still a girl? Oh goodness, she hoped she was.  She had no interest in becoming male.

Once again she was picked up and this time she was handed off to a tired-looking woman on a bed.  Is this my new mother?  The woman started talking to her but the words made no sense.  It felt nice to be held by this woman and she started to doze off.

A loud sound played and she was quickly awakened by a large blue screened notice taking up the majority of her vision.

[System Initialization Complete]

Level 1

Health

20/20

Strength 1

Constitution 2

Dexterity 1

Intelligence 32

Wisdom 21

[Traits] [Skills] [Magic]

What in the world?