They just appeared one day, flashing across the sky as if they always had been there. They never appear on any radars or machines, they couldn’t be caught on camera or video.

They’re called the Silent Stars; well that’s what they’re called in the UK. There’re are four of them, one red, one blue, one green and one white. Don’t be sceptical of this just because you don’t remember them, only a select number of people in the world do, you can only notice them if they enter your direct line of vision and as soon as they leave it you forget them.

For two months they orbited around the Earth in an unprecedented pattern. But now they’re ready to leave and take some of those select number of people with them.

 

A young girl who looked to be in her early teens sat on a large swing, swinging her legs to make it move back and forth. Her white hair was down to her waist and covered the left side of her face, the eye that was visible was a deep blue colour. She wore a black shirt, a blue jacket with white trimmings, red jeans, and white trainers with red highlights. The girl’s eyes were cast up to the sky, watching the Silent Stars as they entered her eyesight. On the ground beside her was her bag, sewn on the front was her name; Vida.

Another young girl of the same age walked across the park they were in until she reached Vida. This girl had long black hair that was down to her ankles, ruby-red eyes peered from underneath her fringe. She wore a purple t-shirt, a red neckerchief, a blue skirt that went just above the knee, gray tights, and red converse boots.

The black haired girl put her hand on Vida’s shoulder who turned around to face her.

“Hi, Layla.” Vida greeted.

Vida looked down at her watch and saw that she had been sitting on the swing for two hours.

*Only two hours? Could’ve gone on for longer if not for Layla* Vida chose to ignore the voice in her head.

Layla removed her hand from Vida’s shoulder and started to say something in sign language. ‘How long have you been out here?’ Layla signed.

“Two hours.” Vida answered.

Layla rolled her eyes at Vida’s simple response and then motioned for her to make room for her on the swing. When Vida moved over she sat down, she wrapped one arm around Vida’s waist and the other around the swing’s chain, Vida repeated her actions and they gently rocked backwards and forwards on the swing.

“I still wonder what the Silent Stars are.” Vida said, resting her head on Layla’s shoulder. “Perhaps they are to remain a mystery.”

After five minutes of swinging Layla finally got up.

‘Let’s get’s back to the house.’ Layla signed.

“Go ahead, I’ll catch you up.” Vida answered.

Vida picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder, she was just about to leave when…

*Look up! Look up now!* the voice inside Vida’s head shouted.

She looked up to see nothing out of the ordinary, but then the Silent Stars start to fly closer to each other, it’s almost like they’re pulling at each other. The blue and red ones almost clashed together, the Silent Stars get closer and closer till they’re spinning around each other in a random pattern. In a sudden flash of light they separated and began to fall down to Earth.

The red one caught Vida’s attention, most likely because…IT WAS HEADING STRAIGHT FOR HER!

Vida tried to move but found she couldn’t, it was like her body was no longer in her control. Vida saw Layla running towards her out of the corner of her eye, she was too late as the Silent Star hit Vida head on.

It’s strange. Vida felt no pain or discomfort from the impact, only gentleness and the feeling of falling; her eyes grew too heavy for her to keep open, so she closed them as she drift of into the welcoming darkness. Her last thought as she enter dreamland was, *what is in for me now?*

2: The new world

As Vida left the warm embrace of sleep she noticed something different, the air was cleaner and the only noise was that of animals and the wind swaying branches. She struggled to remember what had happened to her.

*You were struck by the red Silent Star, remember?*

the voice in her head told her.

“Oh yeah.” she said.

Vida attempted to get to her feet but she was weak from whatever the Silent Star has done to her, the world span out of control and she fell down again.

“Ow.” she muttered.

For the next ten or so minutes she just lay there, as she regained her strength and tried to make the world stop spinning. Once she was sure she could walk properly she rose to her feet, nothing around her looked familiar at all; it looked like she was in a forest.

“Where’s Layla? Layla!” she panicked, worried about what happed to her sister

*Calm down before you have a panic attack* the voice told her. *Breath girl. It was you who was hit by the Silent Star, Layla’s probably still back home.*

Vida took slow and steady breaths to calm herself. The voice was right, panicking wouldn’t get her anywhere.

“Echo what’s happened?” Vida addressed the voice in her head.

*It appears the Silent Star that hit you transported us to a new place.* Echo replied.

“Any idea where this place is?”

*No. You should look around for people.*

“I better take care of my hair before I meet any people first.”

Vida reached into her bag and took out a mirror, some latex gloves, a spray can and a towel. She set up the mirror on a branch, put on the latex gloves, took off her jacket, wrapped the towel over her shoulders, and started to spray her hair. As she sprayed her hair it turned to a pale blond colour, she finished once she was satisfied all of her once white hair was blond. She the took out a brush and used it to put her hair back into place over her left eye.

“Right, which direction?” Vida said, after putting her stuff back into her bag.

Before she could pick a direction she spotted movement to the left of her, it was the blue Silent Star. Out of reflex she ducked as it sailed overhead and crashed not far from her, there was no sound or cloud of dirt as it hit the earth; Vida supposed it made sense since she didn’t wake up in a crater.

*Are you going to sit here all day or are we going to see who has just landed?* said Echo.

“I’m going, I’m going.” Vida muttered under her breath as she headed towards the crash sight.

 

It took a while for Vida to find the crash sight since there was no indication to where it was but she found it eventually, or should I say him? Lying in a clearing where the blue Silent Star had landed was a boy who looked to be her age, asleep on the grass. He had brown hair that was pulled back into a small ponytail, he wore a black hoodie, faded blue jeans that were frayed at the bottom, and gray trainers.

Vida made her way over to the boy, knelt down beside him and gently shook him awake. The boy moaned and opened his eyes to reveal light-green eyes behind them. The boy then tried to sit up but Vida intervened.

“Don’t try to sit up so fast, you’ll make yourself dizzy.” she advised him.

The boy spun his head around to face Vida.

“What…who…?” the tripped over his words with a Scottish accent.

“My name’s Vida. I found you like this.” she told him.

“My name is Pierce.” the boy said as he waited for the dizziness to wear off.

After a few minutes in silence Pierce could at last stand without any problems.

“So, where are we?” he asked.

“No idea, I’m guessing we’re in the same boat. I saw the blue Silent Star fly overhead and this is where it crashed.”

“Aye, it hit me and now I’ve woke up here. Which colour we’re you?”

“Red. Anyway, I need to find people and find out where the Stars have taken us, you join me if you want.”

“I will, don’t want to be alone in a new place.”

*Best head north.* Echo advised.

Vida reached inside her bag and brought out a compass, she then used it to point out north and started to head in that direction with Pierce following behind.

“We’ll head North until we find a river, we’ll then follow the river until we find a settlement along it.” she said.

Vida and Pierce walked for half and hour and then reached a cliff, they were just about to backtrack and make their way around the cliff when Vida spotted something in the distance.

“Pierce, wait. I see something.” Vida called to Pierce.

“What?” he asked.

“There in the distance, to the left.” she pointed it out to him.

Pierce reached inside his hoodie and took out a small pair of binoculars, he then lifted them too his eyes and focused on the object in the distance.

“It’s the Silent Stars!” he exclaimed.

“What?”

Pierce handed the binoculars to Vida and she lifted them to her eyes. When she focused on the object she could see five coloured lights of red, blue, green, white and purple, revolving around what looked like a golden sphere; the lights were the Silent Stars.

“Wait, why is there a purple Star? There wasn’t one when they were in the sky.” Vida said as she handed back the binoculars.

Pierce shrugged his shoulders. “No idea, nothing’s making sense anyway. We should head for them though, there might be something under or near it.”

*Good idea.* Echo commented.

“Okay, let’s go.” Vida said.

 

An hour passed and the duo came across a river that flowed in the direction of the silent stars, both were tired and decided to rest at the riverside for a bit.

Vida removed her trainers and socks and put her sore feet into the cool water of the river, the sensation relaxed her muscles.

“Shouldn’t take more than two hours to reach the Silent Stars.” Vida estimated. “I just hope we can find someone who can help us.”

“Yeah,” Pierce said from where he lay on the grass. “I’d really love an explanation for that’s going on here.”

After ten or so minutes Vida and Pierce were ready to set off again. Suddenly a loud sound like snapping wood echoed through the forest.

“What was that?” Pierce asked.

“A tree branch snapping?” Vida suggested.

There was the sound of distant shouting getting louder, then accompanied by the sound of someone running. Vida and Pierce could now pinpoint the direction that the shouts were coming from; very violent shouts they were as well.

Suddenly a boy our their bursts into the clearing. He’s wearing what looked like medieval clothing that royals wore.

*Is this guy from the theatre or are we in the middle ages?* Vida thought.

“Come back here!” came a gruff voice from where he had just come.

“Please help me!” cried the boy, running up to Vida and Pierce.

Five men came into the clearing, they were dressed like highwaymen; they each carried swords. No doubt they were robbing the boy.

“I don’t think we can help you, they out number us and have swords.” Pierce told the boy as they all backed away from the robbers with swords.

The leader of the men stepped forward confidently. “Just hand over the prince and no harm will come to you two.” he addressed Vida and Pierce.

“And if we don’t?” Vida challenged.

“Take a guess.” he said threateningly, he and his men raised their swords.

*Teach them a lesson, do it!* Echo said maliciously.

Vida smirked. Then, using her foot, she kicked up a sturdy-looking tree branch into her hand.

“Look, the girl’s feeling tough.” one of the thugs jeered.

Vida raised an eyebrow. “Well, if you think you can beat me, do so.” she said, making a ‘come and get me’ gesture with her free hand.

The thug that had spoken up stepped forward and swung his sword menacingly. “This shouldn’t take long.” he said.

The thug charged at Vida, ready to strike her with the flat of his sword. Vida blocked the sword with the branch, spun around behind the thug, then hit him right of the back of the head. The thug fell to the ground, unconscious.

“He was right, that didn’t take long.” Vida remarked. “Who’s next.” she swung around her branch to show she knew how to use it.

Not being complete idiots the remaining thugs rushed at her all at once. Vida used the branch to vault onto thug #1’s shoulders and then kick off of him, causing him to crash into thug #2. Thug #3 grabbed Vida around her waist, thug #4 stands in front ready to hit her, she kicked out and smashed thug #4 in the face with her foot then kicked back so her foot connected with thug #3’s crotch which caused him to release her, she then spun around and punched him in the face; both thugs were knocked unconscious. Thug #1 had recovered and rushed at Vida again, but Vida stood to the side and stuck her foot out, he tripped over her foot and flew headfirst into a tree, knocking him out. Unfortunately, thug #2 managed to sneak up on Vida and hit her very hard in the back of her head with the end of his sword. Vida fell to the floor disoriented and groaning in pain.

“You’re a good fighter, too bad you have to die now.” the thug said.

Vida looked up at him with dazed eyes then smirked.

“Piece of advice,” she said. “When there’s move than one opponent on the field don’t just focus on the most dangerous.”

The thug didn’t have time to work out what she said as he was his from behind and was knocked out, he fell to the floor to reveal Pierce holding one of the thugs’ swords.

“You ok?” he asked Vida.

Vida groaned in response.

Piece held down his hand and Vida took hold of it, allowing herself to be pulled up. But as soon as she stood up she stumbled.

“Bad idea.” Vida moaned.

Vida leaned on Pierce to keep her self from falling down again.

“I think she has a concussion, is there anywhere safe for her to recover?” Pierce asked the prince.

Pierce and the prince continued talking but Vida no longer listened, her world fading into darkness.

*Hold on Vida!* Echo said gently from inside her head.

“Can’t…” Vida mumbled.

Pierce and the prince heard her mumbling and looked at her to see her eyes closing.

“Vida, stay awake!” Pierce told her.

But it didn’t help. Vida’s world went completely black as she faded into unconsciousness.