It wasn't long before Celia's eyelids were beginning to droop. She could have almost fallen asleep on the hilltop, but common sense urged her to at least get to her tent before conking out. Just a few more minutes of peace in the cool air, then she would return to the camp. With a quiet, contented sigh, she watched the stars twinkle, tracing constellations with her eyes. You didn't get clear skies like this in the cities. Out here, there was scarcely a hint of light pollution--it was a stargazer's dream.<br/><br/>That was about when the tranquility of the night was abruptly shattered.<br/><br/>Suddenly, she was bathed in harsh fluorescence, and the young woman cried out as her eyes stung painfully in the unexpected light. She tried to sit up, but a pulsating jolt shot through her body, causing her limbs to seize up. The sensation was akin to the prickling buzz that one felt when their leg "fell asleep", but spread across her entirety. Now equal parts confused and panicking, she fought to move some part of her body, any part, but it was as if her muscles weren't obeying her brain. Celia tried to open her mouth to shout for help, to scream, to make any sort of noise. All that she could manage was a hoarse croak. The girl strained and struggled even as she felt the air around her take on a strange quality, an almost-electrified sensation that set the fine hairs on her arms raising. Then she was being lifted by an unseen force, pulled up towards the bright light. A pulsating hum filled the air, growing in volume until it was almost deafening. She went rigid, eyes wide with terror, as some massive, dark form hovering above her briefly flickered into being. Metallic plating glinted and slid to the side, she was carried up through a hole in the night sky that hadn't been there before.<br/><br/>Neither the harsh light nor the feeling of paralysis abated as she found herself within a strange chamber. Though she couldn't turn her head, the girl's eyes were going wild, flicking rapidly back and forth across the room. Pale metal plates seemed to cover everything, the chamber itself was small and bare of any real furnishing. Below her, the portal she had been taken through slid shut once more, reducing the loud whirr outside to a muffled hum. What was going on? She must have fallen asleep on the hill and was now having an extremely vivid dream, that was the only logical explanation.<br/><br/>The problem with that theory was that this felt<i>far </i>too real.