The Found One

Chapter 1

The sun was high and bright overhead, the sound of birds, forest animals, and insects filling the air. Looking up at the crystal clear blue sky, no clouds in sight, Izzy wiped the small bead of perspiration from her brow and grinned. It was the perfect day, hot but not humid, a soft breeze just cool enough to mean she could keep going without becoming uncomfortable. She loved the summer. The scorching heat, the feel of the blazing sun against her skin, the clear days, and abundance of nature and life, it was so bright and bountiful. Re-adjusting her backpack she set off again, letting her feet find their own path. At ease and comfortable amongst the towering trees and rocky trails, she knew these woods like the back of her hand. They were her happy place, her escape, where she could run from the reality of her life, where she could dream and breathe without all the baggage she usually carried around. Where she could just be Izzy. Free and alone.

Not that she would ever complain about her life. She knew and was very aware that there were tons of people in the world who had it far worse than her. Who didn't even have the few things she did. She did her best to always remember that, to be conscience and remember to be grateful for the life that she did have, no matter how much she might have hated it.

That was part of why she wanted to go into law. She wanted to make a difference, to be able to help those like her, and all those worse off. She wanted to stand up and give a voice to all those in the world who were too weak, and too quiet to be heard. Who were so easily forgotten and ignored, and were too insignificant to be helped.

Huffing, she slowly made her way up a particularly steep and rocky incline as her mind wondered to her family. In reality, she lived a pretty normal life, in a pretty normal family. Normally perfect, in just how messed up, dysfunctional, and absolutely abnormal it actually was. In her eighteen long years of wisdom and experience, the one thing Izzy had come to believe with absolute conviction; was that there was no such thing as perfection. No perfect ideal or 'normal' existence. Life was messy, and no matter how shiny and pretty the packaging outside might be, beneath all those stiff smiles, hooded eyes, and pleasant demeanors was a muddled untidy reality.

Shaking her head, she glanced at her watch, she had already been out on the trails for over three hours. She wanted to keep going, work off more of her anxiety and energy, but she didn't really want to still be out when darkness fell. With a final longing look out at the wilderness and beauty around her, Izzy reluctantly turned around.

And then froze.

Her head swung around wildly. Searching. Searching for anything that looked familiar, anything that she recognized. She had been following the trail - the trail she had hiked so many times she knew every tree and rock along its curving path. Looking around frantically, Izzy realized she didn't recognize where she was, she couldn't even distinguish a single landmark she used as a marker.

Trying to calm her panic, and reassure herself she straightened her shoulders, taking a few deep breaths, she pointed herself in the direction she thought she had come from, and set off. Hoping that eventually she would run into the trail she had so absently wandered from.

5 hours later, Izzy was exhausted, and slowly becoming more terrified and panicked with every passing minute. Dusk had been quickly setting in and she still had not found the trail. Wondering for hours meant she was now completely lost, and with the sun setting and clouds moving rapidly in to cover the night sky, she had no way to even orient herself.

She was lost. Completely horribly lost, and no one knew she was out here.

She was starving, the meager snacks she had packed were not nearly enough. Hunger gnawed at her gut, as she berated herself for being so foolish as to leave her house without proper supplies, no food, no compass, no radio, nothing. She had been so stupid. As the sky darkened panic and rising terror replaced any concern over food. She tried to pick up her pace, letting her fear push her as dusk dissolved and she was plunged into the darkness of true night. The wind was picking up. Trees and branches creaking and snapping around her from the howling winds, pausing Izzy lifted her eyes to the sky above where heavy thick clouds completely obscured the night sky. She shivered, feeling on the air the storm that was blowing in from the North.