The cover for this story was kindly created by MariusWales on DeviantArt. All credit and thanks goes to him for the amazing artwork!


Eric Lyons

It was cold…

That was the first thought that came into my mind as I felt sharp cold wind slash at my face. I couldn't feel anything else but the wind, whipping my hair into all sorts of directions, making my eyes water even though they were closed. I could feel unrelenting pressure crushing my skull in my head, twisting my brain into two mushy pieces.

The pain in my head was horrible, but it wasn't the worst part. I couldn't feel anything under me except the air that flowed past my body. I reached out to attempt to find the wooden frame of my bed or the rough broken walls of my home. There was nothing though, nothing but me and the air.

Was I falling?

Maybe I was, but I was too scared to open my eyes and find out, if anything, the thought made me squeeze them tighter, allowing a river of tears to pour out of them. The single thought of me falling to my untimely death was unthinkable. I must have been dreaming. Wait, no, I must be dreaming. Yes, this is all just a nightmare staged by my mind. That's why my head felt like it was being crushed. This was all just in my head.

But then why does it feel so real? Why can I feel my jacket, which Is slightly blocking the cold air? How can I control my body even though I'm not in a lucid dream? And most importantly, why can't I remember anything?

It was very hard with my head feeling like it was exploding, but try as I did, I couldn't remember a single thing besides small stuff. I could remember how I have a scar on my leg, but I have no clue how I got it. I remember the color of my blanket, but couldn't think of the type of house it was in. I didn't even know if I had somewhere to be, or where I even was.

Speaking of which, I have no idea where I am either. I don't know if I'm in the sky, or maybe in a simulated room or just a dream in general. I know the only way to find out is to open my eyes, my wet, sore, dead afraid eyes.

So, I did, I opened them as wide as I could, hoping to see my bedroom, or my parents, or even my deep red blanket. The cold wind pierced through my eyes, but I kept them open, even if the will to close them was just as strong.

That's when my heart stopped beating. When my lungs no longer took in air. When even my head felt like it was frozen for just a second.

I was indeed, falling in the sky.

A sound tried to escape my raw throat, maybe screaming? I don't know, because all that came out was a choked gasp. So many questions invaded my thoughts that my brain didn't even have time to process them all.

Where was I? How did I get here? Who did this to me? What is happening?

Now that I knew I was falling, I truly felt how weightless I was against gravity. It practically dragged me through the sky toward the ground. My heart was beating faster than I ever thought possible. Even though there was air all around me, I felt as if though there was no oxygen in my lungs.

Horrified, I quickly attempted to pull the parachute cord behind me, but then I remembered that I'm not wearing a parachute backpack. In fact, I'm wearing a regular one that looks brown and almost worn out.

I could feel tears pouring out of my eyes as I quickly fell further toward the Earth. I knew I could look at the ground, but I didn't want to look at it. I didn't want to see the ground where my body would soon be laying. What did it matter anyway? I was going to die either-

BAM! All of a sudden, my body practically slammed into an object. Any air I was holding was sucked out of my lungs. Pain erupted in my face like fire, quickly spreading everywhere. I thought I was dead, I hit the ground and have died. But no black spots were invading my vision, I didn't feel like my body was going numb, in fact, after the impact, my body was more alert as I gripped onto whatever was keeping me from falling to the Earth.

Did I feel something soft, maybe fur? Yes, it was, yellow fur to be exact… and I was… flying?

Confused, I turned around to see that I was still in the sky, but I was no longer falling to my death to the forest below. I was flying instead… on a…

What was this thing? A bird? What kind of bird is so large that-

Suddenly, the thing made a sharp turn to the left and it took all of my strength to hold onto its body. I was sucking in so much breath that I didn't take time to stop and think what I was on anymore. Whatever it was, it saved me, and I was flying far away.

I climbed right back onto the top of the creature and laid down trying to catch my breath. It didn't seem to mind my presence as it continued soaring through the air. Thank goodness it wasn't a man-eating monster or something like that.

I looked at it carefully, becoming more confused as I examined the creature. It was shaped like an orb and was covered in tons of yellow fur. It had floppy ears, and a small tail behind it's… head, I think. I couldn't see it's face, but I didn't need to. It looked harmless enough, so I just took my time trying to control my breathing as I sat there, trying not to think about the odd design this creature had.

However, this just produced more questions.

What in the world was this thing? How is it flying? What's big enough to fly and hold a human?

However, I chose to ignore the questions for now. The adrenaline in my body had since started to fade away, and I slowly realized how weak and tired I was. Besides, I was surrounded by… so much fur… such soft… fluffy… fur…

Before I could stop myself, I began to sleep.


Hilda

This was boring…

Those were the first few thoughts Hilda had while patrolling the neighborhood with Frida and David, casually looking for anybody that needed help. It was part of one of their assignments Raven Leader gave to them last Friday.

"For the next two weeks, you are tasked with going door to door in your neighborhood and asking citizens if they are in need of help. Ask for their signature as payment for the job and try and complete the assignment as long as it's nothing too ambitious. The top five groups with the most signatures will earn their badges!"

It seemed like an easy task at first, and it was. For the first few days, Hilda's group was rocking the most signatures out of all the Sparrow Scouts. It was a big help that Frida was in their group, as it was her idea to start out immediately on the task. They helped dozens of people cut their lawns, get rid of rodents lurking in their house, or just being there for support if they needed something.

However, over the course of the next few days, things kind of became harder. Most of the sparrow scouts have been going to the same houses as other groups have, and it has become generally annoying for most of the neighborhoods around Trolberg to deal with them. Some people were polite enough to decline them, other though…

"GET OFF MY LAWN SPARROW SCOUTS!" Mr. Loden shouted, "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH SIGNING YOUR SIGNATURES!"

Yet they weren't even on his yard.

"Sorry, Mr. Loden!" Frida called out, "Will just be on our way."

"You better be…" Hilda could hear the man grumble.

The group went along the sidewalk as Mr. Loden's door closed loudly behind them.

"It wouldn't kill them to say no thank you?" Hilda said just as they got out of earshot from Mr. Loden house.

"People react to things in different ways," Frida mentions, "It could just be that so many different groups are approaching them asking for work that it's annoying to them now."

"So? It doesn't give them the excuse to yell at children who just want to help," Hilda countered, "Besides? Who doesn't want free work done for them?"

"Yeah," David chimed in, "It does seem weird. I mean, if I had a ton of people working for me, I would…"

David silently pondered the idea of having no work to do at home, wondering what exactly he would do if he had tons of free time.

"Well, I have no idea what I would."

"I do," Hilda said, running ahead and jumping over a huge puddle, "If I had people working for me, I would go exploring the entire city until I had to go back home. Just think of all the fun stuff there is to do out there."

"Well nothing fun is going on right now," Frida countered, "besides, the quicker we get this done, the sooner we can do whatever we want after all of this."

The children said nothing as they continued down the road, passing many houses they knew other groups had already been to. Some adults gave them dirty looks through their windows, while others simply had their curtains drawn tightly and their doors locked.

"You'd think we were criminals with the treatment we get from these adults," Hilda said silently.

Frida, not even noticing Hilda's comment, stopped dead in her tracks and inspected the white house to their left. It was quite a small home, only having one floor. It had a small porch, filled with two rocking chairs and an end table. The curtains to the house were drawn, but it seemed as if no one was home.

"This house hasn't had any visitors, let's go see if they need help." Frida chirped, walking quickly to the porch.

Hilda followed right behind, eyeing the house carefully. She noticed that there were tons of stuff that was destroyed, but she especially noticed the broken birdbath, the destroyed birdhouse that lied on the ground, and even what appeared to be a ripped-up bird parade poster on the porch. It was clear whoever owned this place was not a bird lover.

Somehow, it reminded her of the Raven, and she wondered how he would react seeing all this.

Netherless, Hilda and David quickly followed Frida up the steps to the front door.

"This place gives me the creeps," David said as he shivered.

"It's not that bad David, this person just has not taken proper care of their house, there's no need to worry."

David still eyed around the place carefully and stood very close to Hilda as Frida knocked hard onto the rotten door.

"How much do you think we would have to do if the person does ask us for something Frida?" Hilda asked.

Frida carefully expected the place before coming up with a simple answer.

"Maybe about a few hours," Frida answered, "but you never know, they could give us something easy."

Just as Frida said that the door opened quickly, practically slamming outward and almost hitting Frida in the face. Shocked, the children stepped back to see an old haggled women swinging around the porch with a rotting broom.

"GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE YOU FILTHY RODENTS! YOUR KIND IS NOT WELCOME HERE!"

Hilda could already feel Frida tugging on her jacket. Suggesting that they should leave immediately. She could not agree more.

"Oh! Uh… were very sorry ma'am," Hilda started, "Will just be going now,"

"WAIT JUST A MINUTE!"

Hilda gasped as the old women grabbed tightly onto her jacket, staining it with black coal dust. She could hear David faint and Frida call out behind her, but Hilda didn't pay attention to them, instead eyeing the old woman's face that inspected her carefully.

The women might have been attractive once, but all that existed was a decaying crazy lady. Bits and pieces of brown hair mixed in with her shriveling grey strands. Her bony hands revealed wrinkled skin. Her eyes were the worst part though, one of them being milky white, and the other pale blue, like a vulture.

Hilda stood still as the women inspected her carefully, silently wishing Twig would show up, or her mother, or even the great raven. No one came to her rescue though as the women leaned closer to her, to the point where she could smell her rotting breath.

"What's your name?" the women spoke.

Hilda didn't hesitate to answer.

"My name is Hilda, and I would kindly appreciate if you'd let go of me!"

The old lady didn't let go but loosened her grip a tiny bit for Hilda to start calming down.

"Hilda…," the women said, "I remember you…"

The words caught into Hilda's throat as confusion set in. Remembered her? She had never seen the women in her life.

So, Hilda eyed the old lady carefully, trying to peer into her eyes to see any hint of emotion. She looked deeper and deeper until she could detect something in those old sagging eyes.

Sorrow…

"You were that girl," she started, "in the… in the dream."

Hilda's eyes squinted in confusion.

"What dream, what are you talking about?"

The woman's face softened as she spoke her next few words.

"The bell… it must have been that darned bell."

The women had finally let go of Hilda's jacket, and before Hilda could even move, Frida was grabbing on tightly and pulling Hilda away from the house.

"Terribly sorry miss," Frida called out, "But we have to get going now!"

Hilda was practically dragged away from the house by Frida and David, mostly Frida though because David was already on the other side of the street calling out for them. When they all made it to the sidewalk, they all quickly ran down the street and toward the corner where the women would no longer see them.

But Hilda still heard her voice, and still heard her words.

"BEWARE OF THE FALLING STAR HILDA! IT WILL COME AND BRING YOU MIS-"

Then the voice stopped.

The children all quickly caught their breaths as the sun slowly descended down beyond the wall until none of them could see it anymore. The sky turned orange and red, and soon, they could only see glimpses of the sun

"That was close," David said, "I can't believe we got away."

"It's okay," Frida said, "were all fine, right Hilda?"

Hilda, however, was staring off into the sky, wondering what the old lady was talking about. How crazy and weird she had been but saying something that intrigued Hilda to the point where she forgot everything else she was planning on doing today.

"Hilda?"

Suddenly, she snapped back into reality as Frida and David stared at her.

"Uh, yeah, everything's perfectly fine," she exclaimed.

David sighed in relief, but Frida eyed her carefully. Hilda stared right back at her.

Finally, Frida gave up and fished the clipboard full of the adult's signatures in her backpack.

"Okay, so we might not have gotten all the signatures we needed today, but we still got three more days until the deadline, we can do this."

"We don't have to go back onto this street, right?" David asked.

"Of course not, most of the adults here are rude and cranky. Will just try another street tomorrow."

"Agreed," Hilda said.

But somehow, a part of her still questioned what exactly the women in the white house meant. She could obviously be insane, but there was something she saw in that woman's eyes.

"'BEWARE OF THE FALLING STAR!"

What could she have meant?


Eric Lyons

My eyes popped open as I shot my head up quickly. I was still lying on top of the weird creature I landed on. There was a cool breeze out tonight, and the moon overhead me shined brightly down onto this unknown land I have entered.

How long was I asleep?

I must have been sleeping for at least the entire time the sun was out, which is weird because you would think that after so many hours, this thing I'm on would have just dropped me the moment it made a turn, but I was still on the strange new creature.

Even though I didn't know what was going on, I now knew that for however long I'm in this strange place, my mind will be plagued with questions, so I should just try an answer them one at a time.

The first question I wanted to be answered, was where the heck was I?

Carefully inching my way toward the edge of the creatures orb-like body, I peered out into the night. There wasn't much to look at, just dark woods underneath me, mountains in the distance, big open rivers. I concluded quickly that wherever I was, must have been far inland because I didn't see the ocean anywhere around me.

I knew for a fact that I wasn't anywhere near my home.

I slowly crawled my way back toward the center of the creature and laid down. The wind softly blew onto my face, reminding me of the traumatizing fall I had just a few hours ago. I can still feel the sharp winds slapping against my body.

Why was I falling anyway? Was I skydiving or something and fell off the plane? No that couldn't be it, I didn't even have a parachute with me unless maybe I did and I just lost it on the way down. Maybe someone kidnapped me, took me to a plane and pushed me off hoping I would die? Wait, then why wouldn't they do it at night when no one would have been awake?

Was I even on Earth? I'm pretty sure no creature like the one I was on ever existed on Earth.

Ugh! This is so infuriating. I can't even think with a dumb headache I still have. It wasn't as nearly as bad as before, but it still was annoying with the throbbing pain.

I can't answer any of these questions! I don't know why anyone would want to kidnap me. I might not remember who I was before I fell from the sky, but I know for a fact that I'm not some rich snob from the wealthiest family from town, I'm just an average kid. Besides, why would they send me here when they could have just locked me in a shed and asked for a ransom? No need to wipe my memory and fling me off a plane.

No need to send me to a strange world that I have no knowledge of…

What is going on?


So, um… I'm back!

So, my first attempt at a falling star story was kind of poor. If you guys know me, this isn't my first story exactly. I made another one which I won't talk about because it's too embarrassing and if some of you are people that came from the first story… uh… sorry?

I had a lot of work that had to be done, and I couldn't bother to try and write the other chapters, plus that category was pretty intimidating, so I deleted it. But I was determined not to give up! I watched tons of other movies and shows to see what a falling star story could work with… Then I found it!

First of all, Hilda is amazing. I love this show to death! To the characters, world, and mystery it presents. Everything about the show was top quality work. Even after I finished the show, I couldn't stop thinking about it while at school, home, anywhere else. It invaded my thoughts so much that I just had to write some of my ideas out onto fanfiction.

So here it is. Falling Star – Hilda! I hope you all enjoy!