. . . to the sound of distant thunder crashing.

The sound shook me awake with a start. I sat up and rushed behind a nearby tree to duck for a moment. I took a deep breath, willing my heart to stop beating so fast. I pressed my hand to my chest and found a bracelet there, made of small shiny shells. On my anklet I found a matching anklet and in my hair I found more of the shells interwoven. My clothing seemed to be a piece of cloth drapped over one shoulder and then wrapped around my middle several times to make a loose little dress.

As I looked at my surroundings I knew that I certainly wasn't in the park anymore. The trees were large and beautiful and in such varieties as I had never seen before. The one I had clung to when the thunder had first crashed seemed like a massive Redwood but different somehow. Not far from where I stood I could see a sandy pathway leading out of the trees. The thunder continued to boom, looming closer and closer, so I decided that it might be safer if I saught lower ground further down the pathway. Perhaps there was even some shelter in that direction, I reminded myself.

The sand between my toes, even in the wind of the approaching storm, felt magnificent and I had the oddest notion that this was more than just ordainary sand, more than just an ordainary place altogether.

As I walked it felt like the trees bent to shelter me from the hard rain, letting it simply drip down on me in gentle droplets. I heard the small sounds of movement, but never turned quickly enough to catch more than a glimpse. Surely just an animal... but perhaps a man? Some other creature? I did not know but I was sure I would soon find out.

After some time strolling along the path, the trees began to thin and the storm seemed to lighten. As I came to a fork in the path I could hear the sound of waves crashing against a nearby beach in one direction and in the other the sounds of happy chirping birds. All of this place seemed so wonderful. Ocean, birds singing, or even back among those beautiful trees.