Planet in the Sky

by N. Rackley

NOTE: This was a story sketch written during my Freshman year in High School. It may serve as a starting point for a sci-fi/fantasy novel in the future.

The storms were coming again. They never seemed to have a start, or an end. They were here, and then, just as suddenly, they were there.

It was at about this time that the changing began to happen. At first it was subtle, undefined. Later on, however, it was more and more noticeable. The world, the planet as he had known it had changed.

Vast forests and jagged mountains covered once deserts. Icy places turned into dry crags. The moon was not the moon anymore. It seemed (as far as anyone could tell) to be something else. A mirror. A reflection of the once been. People lost and forgot technology. Nations were divided. The world switched from its immense futuristic glory to something different. Something old. This was not all, however. There were driven to change the world to a way it had once been, almost a thousand years ago. There were no need for guns or artillery- it could not damage the attackers. Instead, they had to revert to swords and spears, which could amazingly penetrate the hides of these monsters where bullets can't.

Roads were destroyed, overgrown, and forgotten. People had to use animals, once again, to traverse the land.

But the planet in the sky remained the same - it remained untouched, in its glory heightened beyond anything ever before seen.

Lights could be seen from it at night. Sometimes small flashes came from its surface, but it remained the same - not changing into another mayhem.

The earth, it seemed, had become a fantasyland. It harbored many of the fabled creatures in its forests and it had even more in its seas.

But the planet in teh sky remained unchanged. Untouched. Unscathed.

People built castles - with large stone walls and high towers for protection from the outside dangers.

But to the people, the planet in the sky remained unchanged.

In fact, however, though not visible to the naked eye, the world, the planet in the sky, was changing.

It was not a reflection as the others might have thought, but the same place. Everything was similar except that it wasn't a world of fantasy - it was a world of science; They would find a way, somehow, to meet their mirror. Their planet in the sky.

David was out jogging. It was a late evening, on the western coastline, and the orange sun spread it s rays of red and purple over the silent waves of the quiet sea. The stars were coming out now, and David could start to recognize parts of constellations. He continued to run, his feet slapping hard against the pavement, the pitter-patter that sounded like rain when it hit a window. He passed a group of buildings, ran along the board walk, and then back out, into a section of forest that reached almost to the water.

The breeze gently brushed his hair across his cheek as he ran and he looked up. He saw the one sight that he had seen for more than half his life - it was the other earth. He had been told that it was like a mirror image - a reflection of the past; the climate was different and there were no cities that could be seen from the surface.

David saw a shimmer in the sky - almost like a cloud, except for the fact that it was golden in color.

He felt the breeze pick up in slight gusts, blowing his light jacket against his skin.

David shivered for a moment, and then he looked down from the planet in the sky, and let his eyes settle on a bench, not far down the path.

The golden rays of the sun were diminishing now, almost to the point where their rays could not penetrate the evergreen foliage. David sat down and took a small swig from his water bottle.

The next thing that happened was difficult for anyone to explain.

As if his eyes were being turned by some invisible force, David saw something strange. Some ways down the path was what looked to be a small cloud of light, with its ever sparkling arrays of color, floating above the pavement.

What is that? David asked himself.

The cloud of light was growing. It almost touched the ground, but not quite. It sat, silently, emitting its rays.

David reached out a hand. "It's beautiful," he muttered to himself. As he brushed his hand across the cloud, he could feel something cool, but when he tried to draw his hand back, he found that he couldn't! Panicking, David tried to pull at the cloud enveloped him in its large rays of shimmering glory.

***

David found himself in an open meadow. He couldn't quite remember how he had gotten there. He had simply arrived after that light thing had enveloped him.

He checked his pace - no, nothing was missing. He still had his headlamp, flashlight, and extra batteries (for jogging at night), a small handheld radio, a water bottle, several power bars, and a green sweatshirt. Great! he thought, None of this junk is going to do much good here.

David did, however, keep his pack. He looked around himself. The meadow, with many tall grass turfs, closed in on all sides. A deep deciduous and evergreen forest surrounded him. The sun depicted everything as early morning but David knew that it had to be night. He looked up into the sky to see a familiar but somehow different planet in the sky.