Author's Note: Well, this is definitely something new for me. It may not seem like a romance story now, but it will be one eventually. (I'm not even sure how many chapters will be in here). I was feeling a bit incompetent while I typed this (I usually write my stories out before typing them, but not this time), so please feel free to point out any mistakes/inaccuracies that I made. And I hate my title, but I needed something. Please leave some kind of comment at the end if you end up reading the whole chapter. I really need any input on this story so I can make it better. Thanks.

When the Rain Falls

Chapter 1:

"If we can't move back to the U.S., then can we at least get a real house here? Once school starts, I can't even invite friends over to this…primitive dump."

The girl's father shook his head firmly. "This 'primitive dump' is an experiment that you agreed to take part in before we even left Michigan. Besides, it's different in Ireland. Kids hang out in town; they won't even be exposed to this place. Problem solved."

"Whatever," she scoffed, slipping her jacket on.

"And where are you going?" Dad asked accusingly.

"Out. In town, where people hang out, right?" Elyse replied mockingly.

He sighed. "Just make sure—"

"—I have my cell phone," she finished curtly. "It's on."

Her father glanced about the room, seemingly out of ideas. "Oh, and be sure to come home before seven for dinner," he answered feebly, causing Elyse to raise her hand behind her, the slightest acknowledgement of her departure as she exited the hut.

She crossed the creaky planks of the boardwalk, fuming that she had ever been so stupid as to participate in her dad's experiment.

Michael Summers: archaeologist, outdoor enthusiast, and hopeless dreamer was determined to spend one year in a replica of an Iron Age crannog and live as the Irish Celts did. It was part of a grant received by his academic group to experience the ancient world firsthand. Elyse's dad was practically obsessed with the Primary Historical Initiative, or PHI, which documented the historical trials and exploits of prominent figures in academia.

This was Elyse's first "experiment" as her dad labeled each endeavor.

What the hell did I agree to anyway? she asked herself furiously. One full year without air conditioning, a real bed, or TV…what was I thinking?

But she knew perfectly well why she accompanied her father in Ireland. Ever since her parents' divorce, her dad began suffering from depression and severe anxiety attacks that left him reeling. She recognized her position in the family and what her duty must be. She just hadn't fully thought out what life would be like without modern conveniences and was now taking her internal anger out on the father. Somehow Elyse couldn't reconcile her love for her father with her own selfish wishes.

Angrily she stuffed her hands in her pockets as she stalked through the grass. Is a mattress so hard to ask for?

Lost within the narrow limits of her anger and disappointment, she couldn't see what appeared to be a half-buried stone protruding from the grass. The impact it made with her toes sent her sprawling flat on her stomach. She blinked several times before realizing she had suddenly fallen. Elyse stood up wearily, brushing debris from her clothes, examining the ground for the cause of her tumble.

There in a cowlick of grass, bulged a strange-looking stone from the soil. She bent down trying to get a better look of its unnaturally smooth contours.

Maybe Dad would be interested in this, she thought, mainly joking. Then he could study it like the other ones in his collection. Elyse rolled her eyes. Besides being an expert in prehistoric Irish archaeology, he also specialized in geology and possessed quite an extensive, if nerdy, rock collection.

She began burrowing her fingertips around the base of the rock to pry it out of the firm ground. It refused to budge despite how hard she wrenched. Elyse then tried digging a hole on one side of it to try and glimpse how deeply it was buried. Several inches down, an oddly round cavity emerged.

Suddenly it all clicked in place; this was no stone, but a human skull!

She nearly tripped a second time after leaping back in both shock and revulsion. Shakily repeating the syllable "ew" dozens of times in various shrill pitches, she bolted back to the crannog.

"Dad!"

In his panicked-father mode, he rushed toward the sound of Elyse's horrified squeals without hesitation, consequently hitting the top of the doorframe squarely with his forehead, almost losing balance and well as consciousness. Recovering from the stars, he stumbled onto the planks serving as a bridge over the pond.

"Elyse, are you ok? What happened?" he issued without thought.

She shook with fright, her aqua-colored eyes round and tried putting into words exactly what she wanted to say. Her throat refused to make any sound as her jaw became paralyzed.

Elyse panicked and started to breathe faster. She could no longer hear her father's voice over the roar of blood pounding in her ears, nor could she see anything but black in the next moment.

Elyse woke up to the feeling of something slimy and cold on her forehead. Slowly, she reached up and touched the cold compress on her head. She sighed with the relief of knowing at least it wasn't something gross like the human skull she'd discovered earlier.

Her dad stirred away from the hearth that illuminated the center of the hut. "Elyse? Oh, good, you're awake," he said quietly as his silhouette came into focus.

He rested a hand on her forehead, smoothing back her bangs. "What happened out there? You weren't hurt; you were running pretty fast—"

"I found a skull," she blurted out. Elyse felt mildly stupid for running away from such a lifeless object now that the aftershock had lifted.

Her father studied her face solemnly. "Where?"

Elyse swallowed. "In the field out there, just poking up out of the ground."

Her dad's bespectacled eyes stared into nothing, a sign that he was weighing this option. "Sure," he murmured, "there was extensive flooding in this area last summer. I wouldn't be surprised if something did turn up."

"I can show you where I saw it."

Her dad smiled sheepishly. "Could you? You know how curious I get, but I can wait, too."

She waved her hand. "No, no. Right now's ok. I feel fine."

Might as well, thought Elyse, when he looks as eager as a seven-year-old on Christmas morning.

Suddenly he looked alarmed. "What if it's not old. I mean, if it's fairly recent." Her dad jumped up, taking large strides toward the archaic-looking cedar chest that held their coats and other articles of clothing designed for protection against the elements.

Rising, Elyse now heard the soft rain as it dribbled into the thatched roof. She sighed, thinking of what she could be doing at this exact moment if she had stayed back in Michigan.

It's a Friday night and I'm stuck here in the middle of nowhere, thousands of miles away from home, inside, with my father. What kind of a seventeen-year-old does that?

Well…not that Michigan is so exciting to begin with, but at least I'd have my friends.

Her thoughts wandered to last Saturday, the day before she'd left. There was her best friend, Tracy, driving like a madwoman down the freeway, pissed that her boyfriend had stood them up before their night out had even begun. The cold night seeped in from the driver's side window, blowing about Tracy's impossibly long mahogany hair and adding an eerie, otherworldly element to her aura of rage. Above the rumble of the mini-van's engine, the heavy pounding of industrial techno siphoned out their anger…

"Elyse?"

She blinked, shaking off that memory.

"You ready to go?"

"Um…yeah," she finished, buttoning up her raincoat.

Elyse led the way outside, trying to recall her earlier path through the meadow. It surprised her how different the landscape looked under a wet haze. She scanned the long grass for some marker that would magically pull her towards her destination.

Why does it look so weird now? I don't even recognize anything.

Nonetheless, she continued in the direction she hoped would lead to the skull. She peered across the field trying to judge how much further she would have to walk.

The grey clouds brushed the hills far into the distance. This scene made her feel both insignificant yet secure at once. She had the sudden idea that everything was not as it seemed. The land felt different under her soles, younger, perhaps. The simple act of breathing the damp air gave Elyse more stamina than several energy drinks could allow.

Suddenly…she was no longer uneasy of that finding that certain skull.

On the contrary, the prospect of seeing it again intrigued her.

"What's the hurry?" her dad asked, beginning to lag behind. Elyse could hear him breathing harder.

Maybe I'm just imagining feeling any different than usual, or else wouldn't Dad be affected in the same way?

"Nothing," she responded, slowing her gait just a fraction. She lowered her palms down to the wild grass, letting the blades tickle her hands.

If I were to just close my eyes now, then I'd be somewhere else. I can't explain what's going on here. Something's just different.

A heavy hand on her shoulder broke her concentration. "Slow down, for chrisakes! It can't be that far."

Elyse spun around to face her dad. "I wasn't even walking that fast! What are you talking about?" A puzzled look crossed her face as she placed her hand over her heart, just to confirm if it was really beating as fast it felt.

"Well…that's weird," she stammered. "I don't even remember. I'm sorry. I don't know what just happened."

"Are you sure you're alright? We can go back now—"

"No! Let's just get it now. I'm fine!"

Michael raised a skeptic eyebrow. "I'm just concerned" he whispered. "What happened earlier? Before you fainted, you were trying to talk, at least that's what I think you were trying to do, and now you're having memory lapses."

"Look Dad, I'm sorry. I'll talk about it later. Let's just get the skull then go back." She shivered. "Besides, it's starting to rain harder and I'm really cold."

He studied her for another moment before deciding she was honest. "It has to be somewhere close," he suggested.

They both stared down, expecting the skull to be just waiting for their leisure. Nothing. Elyse rotated her heel to turn to her left and felt solidness where soggy earth should have been. A proverbial "a-ha!" echoed in her head.

She crouched down and pulled it up with ease now that the ground was soft. The skull was slightly warm in her hands surprisingly. She smiled, an unanticipated reaction. "I have a bad habit of stepping all over this." Elyse handed it to her dad with care.

He turned it over and peered at it from all angles, wiping off bits of mud as he went along, committing every feature to memory. "And no signs of injury to it, even from you," he answered. "So far from what I can tell, it looks likely to be an adolescent male, under 25." He pointed out the size of the eye sockets and the thin fissures at the top of the head to Elyse as he went along. "I have no way of telling how old the skull itself is without sending it to the university. I know definitely that it is real though."

He grinned, ruffling Elyse's hair. "Well, what do you know!" he exclaimed, "Following in your father's footsteps."

She stuck out her tongue. "Hardly."

"We'll have to take it to the university tomorrow morning; it's getting kind of dark already."

Elyse's fingers itched. "Can I hold that? I mean, I did find it, after all."

"I can see it doesn't bother you much anymore," he admitted, holding it out to her.

"That's weird. It's all weathered, but it's not crumbling apart or anything. And it just came out of the ground with no resistance," Elyse observed in awe.

"It has to be at least a couple hundred years old. It truly is a miracle that it's still intact."

They walked together in silence for several minutes. Elyse never took her eyes off her find.

Michael sighed contently. "Whoever said an old skull couldn't bring about some father-daughter bonding?"

"Da-ad! That's embarrassing!" she shrilled.

Thunder rumbled far off, bringing a blanket of twilight with it.