Chapter 1: Be Careful What You Wish For…

It was two in the morning and Phyre couldn't sleep. The little fox had tossed and turned for hours, but no matter what she tried, she couldn't doze off. Finally, she sat up and walked to her window. She gazed at the stars in their twinkling beauty. What are the stars hiding? She thought. Surely something so beautiful must have more than one side… So, what's beyond them?

Phyre often thought like this. She wondered and marveled at everything, always curious. Suddenly, she saw a particularly bright star falling. It was the perfect shooting star, making an arc of rainbow hues. It's a wishing star! She thought. Um… I wish I could go off on my own adventure. I wish I could go places and meet people and be great… like the characters in my books! Yeah, that's it. I want to do impossible stuff, and defy all the odds. That's my wish. When she opened her eyes, she studied the star, wondering if her wish would ever come true. Too late, she realized that it was headed straight for her house.

CRASH! The star smashed into her backyard, and for a few moments, everything was dazzlingly bright. Phyre's vision cleared, and she stumbled outside. She sprinted to the huge crater in the ground and looked down.

There, at the center of the impact, lay a girl, a dog. She seemed to be about Phyre's age, but was surrounded by a faint glow. The glow eventually subsided, and the girl was motionless. Is she dead? Where did she come from? And why is she here? Phyre thought. She noticed that there wasn't a scratch on the girl, no burn marks or scrapes of any kind, even though she'd just fallen from the sky. That's weird.

Phyre decided to get a closer look. She crawled down into the crater and walked over to the girl. She had wavy brown hair and average clothes on. The fox bent down over her and stared hard at her face. Phyre tentatively reached out, hand shaking, and poked the strange girl. Her eyes popped open.

"AAAHHH!" Phyre leaped back, screaming. The girl jumped up, also screaming. Her brown eyes were wide, and she stood there pointing at the fox like some sort of lunatic. Great, Phyre thought. She's crazy.

Little did she know that her wish had just come true.