Tears filled Abby's eyes. “I can’t be what you want. I want to be…but it’s not possible.”

Mother sat down and stared at the wall. “I don’t want you to be anything but yourself,” she said, her voice flat. It wasn’t true. They all knew it wasn’t true. Mother wanted a perfect little dancer and gymnast and ballerina. The perfect child, to be what she’d never been able to do.

It wasn’t Abby’s fault that all she’d ever wanted was to get married. It wasn’t her fault that try as she might, she still wasn’t a good enough dancer to be professional.

She was eighteen. It was time to figure out what she wanted, not what her mom wanted.

Mother was sleeping in the easy chair when Abby loaded up her jeep that night. It was a quick jaunt, a quick trip to the highway. She didn’t have a lot of things that she actually wanted to take with her—a can of extra gasoline from the garage, her books, her laptop. Really, all she wanted was to get in the car and drive as far as she possibly could.

Time to choose her own way in the world.

She got into the driver’s seat and started off, pedal to the metal, as fast as she could go.

The highway blazed by under her. Arizona was hot and the desert was endless, but she left the top down anyway, drinking several bottles of water as she went. Her phone rang a few times—Mother, probably, looking to find her before she had to go to the trouble of reporting her missing—but she ignored it.

The highway opened up in a swirl of golden light. Abby hit the brakes, hard, but not hard or soon enough. The jeep’s brakes squealed. Someone behind honked.

The swirl of light engulfed her jeep, devouring her whole.

Abby gasped for air, hanging on to the steering wheel with both hands. The road was gone. Now, instead of being in the desert, she was in a forest. A huge, dark forest. Nothing in sight besides tree trunks.

Abby swallowed hard. “Hello?”

This was not how today had been supposed to go.

Her Jeep’s gas still worked, she discovered when she hit it. But with this many trees and no road, that didn’t feel like a very safe course of action. Abby got out of the Jeep and started walking, searching around for any sign of life.

There was nothing.

Finally she saw it: a tiny billow of smoke, out there in the darkness between trees.

Abby walked slowly toward the smoke. It’s coming from a tiny cabin nestled in the woods, made of logs. The shutters are painted bright green, and ivy grew over the walls. The whole place looked cozy and inviting.

Abby raised both fists. That was exactly the kind of place where a kidnapper would live. She’d read Hansel and Gretel. She might not be any good at fighting, but she could turn some flips and do some jumps if she needed to.

The door opened and a creature emerged. 

Abby shrieked and raised both fists. It wasn’t human. It was far smaller, only up to her knee, small enough that she could have picked it up and thrown it.

It screamed, too, a loud scream so shrill it could have shattered glass.

Abby grabbed it before she could stop herself and raised the thing over her head. It was a very small man, with a long white beard. Joke was on them. She’d read Snow White, too.

“Wait!” the thing shrieked. “Wait!”

She paused, but left him raised above her head. “Talk fast, thing,” she growled. “I’m not in the mood to play around.”

“What are you?” the thing asked.

“What am I?” Abby laughed out loud. “What are you?” 

“But it is a valid question! You are so big.”

“You’re so small! I was just driving on the highway and then I got pulled through…a portal or something? I don’t want to be here! I was on my way to Phoenix!”

“To Phoenix?” The thing’s tone brightened. “Set me down! I must fetch my brothers!”

Abby kept her hands raised. “No! Absolutely not. You’re not fetching anyone.”

“Too late,” the thing said, far more cheerful. “I am Loris, should it matter. And you are?”

“I’m not saying.” This thing already had too many ideas.

The door to the house opened. Abby’s jaw dropped as ten more tiny creatures, the same size as the one she held prisoner, swarmed out onto the lawn. Their shrill cries filled the air, and she set Loris down so she could cover her ears.

“It’s her!” Loris shrieked.

“Someone tell me what’s going on!” Abby yelled back.

Loris cleared his throat and raised a hand. The shrieking ended. Thank goodness. Abby rubbed her sore ears.

“Legend has it that a girl will come from another world. She will be on a quest for the great phoenix and be fleeing the way things were to form her own destiny. Does that sound like you?”

Abby swallowed hard. “Yeah, it does.” SHe didn’t want another destiny. She was her own person—she had to be. “Do I have something I’m supposed to do? Is there a…quest to fulfill? I don’t want it, if there is.”

The things exchanged glances. Whispers filled the air. After a moment, Loris shrugged.

“The quest is of your choosing,” he said finally. “All we must do is help you get to the city.”

A quest that she got to choose. In a different world entirely.

Abby smiled.

“Where do we go?” she asked. “Let me get my Jeep.”