Aausic: <b>Chapter One</b>

Aausic opened her eyes and frowned. The seaside grass was blowing around her, a feeling she enjoyed. A slight breeze was carrying the smell of saltwater, a smell very familiar to Aausic.
She stood up, letting that friendly breeze blow through her tangles of red-brown hair. Her eyes, now a deep blue like the depths of the ocean on a stormy day, looked up to the sky. Indeed, there were grey storm clouds rolling around in the distance, and Aausic looked over the edge of the cliffs.
The waves were crashing against the rock angrily; she had not noticed their monotonous sound as it was as familiar to her as the back of her hand.
Aausic shivered as the wind began to get stronger; these storms could come up in minutes, and she had seen it before. Aausic turned away from the cliff, and, her hair blew around her.
The rain was falling now, pelting her like small stones. She ran, tearing through the seaside grass that now felt like a trap to the girl.
She looked around, the wind howling. The path to her home was barely visible in the sheet of grey rain. Aausic ran toward it, then she was running down the path.
There would be no need to warn her family now; they were probably already inside, drying off and sitting by the fire. She could imagine her mother fretting over her, and father patting the woman and saying, “Shush, dear. Aausic will be here any minute. My little one is too smart not to come home to this welcoming fire.”
A clap of thunder sounded, and Aausic threw herself to the ground. Her hair clung to her face, and she felt chilled to the bone. A warm fire would be nice now.
The lightning bolt hit the rock beside her; Aausic launched up and began sprinting to the small house where her mother, father, and baby sister would be waiting.
She saw the house, and a smile lit up on her face. She was almost there: almost to the warm hugs of her family, the warm fire, and perhaps even some hot tea.
Aausic flung the door open. Her mother jerked her head over to the door, staring at the girl who was soaking wet. Her father did the same, dropping the pipe he was about to light on the ground before him.
“Mother, I-” Aausic began. But her mother had swept her up into a hug, not caring whether her crimson dress was getting soaked.
The thunder crashed again.
“What- Aausic! Fire from the sky!” she yelled, dropping the girl.
Aausic flung her head around. Large pieces of some kind of debris were falling to the ground, and they were on fire. She gasped, horror-stricken.
Aausic screamed, and the thunder crashed, louder. She felt a tingle in her spine, and the bolt of lightning hit her.
It all went dark. Then her vision returned, and Aausic was being lifted into the sky. Her parents watched in horror; she cried and reached out to them. But she went higher, and higher, and then out toward the sea.
Aausic screamed, terrified of what was happening, of what would happen. She did not want this to be happening, but it was inevitable.
Aausic felt herself being lowered to the sea, and saw a strange boat drifting in the water.
Her feet hit the bottom of the boat. The clouds went away, the sun shone as bright as ever, and Aausic was sitting in the boat, wishing this was a horrible dream she was having.
But it was anything but a dream.

Aausic sat in the boat, never moving, only thinking of how horrible her situation was. For all she knew she would die of starvation on a small raft in the middle of a sea. How she got there was even more peculiar; it couldn’t be possibly to be moved by a lighting bolt, could it?
She shook her head, and stood up. The boat was about the size of a lifeboat, though perhaps a bit bigger. She noticed a small box by her side, and opened it cautiously. Inside was a few loaves of bread.
Aausic calculated that, if by eating three slice a day, and there were 21 slices in the loaves beside her, and there were ten loaves, she had enough for- seven weeks. She didn’t know how long she would be drifting, but with no oars and no steering device, there was a not a good chance that she would be there for less than seven weeks.
Aausic then realized the boat wasn’t drifting; something was pulling it in and exceptionally straight line! She walked along the side of the boat and, at the head of it was a metal ring with a rope knotted on very tightly.
Hope, then fear, rose in her. She was being taken somewhere , but by who?