Odyssey into 2012 Chapter 1

The glare of the first gate blinds her momentarily; her memories flooded with a luminescence overpowering. She can't remember who she is, or why she's here.

She is oblivious to herself and the world around her; all she knows is the gate and the surrounding darkness. Hesitantly, she steps through, and is blinded again by a bright white glare.

Slowly the glare dies down as her eyes adjust. She can see clearly now; both the gate and her memory. She had traveled a long way to be here, to open this gate. She had travelled across the galaxy in the blink of an eye, she had opened a portal through time and space, and she had climbed through it. A portal in her mind, and it was such a portal that she could grant herself this omnipresence.

Her people were the Skylarks, and they knew her as a Gatekeeper; they recognised her unique abilities as mirroring those of the ancients. She was the remnant of a past long forgotten…

She arrived in a city overrun by smog and giant grey buildings. "Is this Tokyo?" she wondered. Below her feet lay a crumpled piece of paper, covered in the words of a different world. The front cover illuminated a bright emerald green stone. "Zephyr" she read. It dawned on her; she must locate the emerald stone, as it linked to her ancestors.

Ahead of her, she could see – as though her ancestors guided her – a shimmering in the air. It was this, she knew, to be the next gate she must open. She stepped forward into the shimmer, and closed her eyes. She concentrated; listened for those guiding voices.

A sudden bright white light encompassed her mind; the second gate opened. The image of the Zephyr stone burnt into her memory.