A New Life

         Daniel Hawkins was a common boy: tall, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a little distant. Well, that's what other people saw; he was very creative, his imagination was amazing, and he reflected that on his drawings, which were not bad at all. He lived in the city of Olney, state of Maryland, year of 2005. He was a little distant from others because almost all persons that had become his friends disappointed him, not corresponding to the trust he gave them, hurting his feelings, not accepting him how he was. He had a very unusual vision of the world, finding many common things in human life just futile. Many people of his age found him weird, but all he had was an open mind. Was that so wrong? Some things in his behavior were very peculiar, like the fact that he enjoyed more being with animals than with people, though not really despising their company; he had a great notion of things around him, he was always the first to sense some strange smell or noise, and had dreams about things that were going to happen, though very rarely. If you looked really carefully at his eyes, you would notice something different. Something wild, like if there was a freedom-thirsty creature inside, wanting to come out. That was how he was inside. He often complained at how futile and blind humans were, and his dream was to at last be able to take care of himself and do whatever he wanted of his life, helping both people and animals in his way. He loved the film Balto, because he found the character very similar to him; both were not accepted by others because of what they were, they had few to no friends, etc. And he wished he someday could show his worth to people like Balto had.

His parents were divorced since Dan was seven, and actually he found it better to have his parents separate then watching them arguing at every little thing. His mother was a teacher in some elementary schools, and she was very busy most of the time. His father was a doctor, and was even busier, even going days without getting home. Even his parents weren't very understanding about his world vision, so he just got used to keeping his ideas to himself. His father often ignored Dan's opinions and forced him to do things his way, and thought that his drawings were a waste of time. One of the qualities he liked more about himself was his wit. He would talk his way out of many confusions in school. He wasn't very bad in classes either, though they were boring every single day.

Back to the present, Dan was walking back home from school, thinking about his life. Soon his mother would move to another town because of her job, and he would have to choose to go with her, or living with his father. It wouldn't make any difference at all, he didn't care. It would all be the same thing wherever he would go. Dan stopped in front of the building's entrance, got his keys and opened the door. It was a poor building. There was no elevator, and that's what the entrance was, just a door. He walked up the dusty stairs to the second floor and went into his apartment. His mother, Paula, was there serving their lunch. They had lunch on the couch, in front of the TV, because they hadn't a table big enough for both and there was no space for one. They ate their meal quietly, since they didn't have much to talk about in that moment to each other. Dan left his plate in the kitchen's sink and went into his room to get some rest. He got his MP3 player, and laid down on his bed, ready for some daydreaming. He would often think about how it would be to meet Balto and the other characters for real, but he knew it was impossible. He knew the true story about Nome's serum run; That Balto was never a wolf-dog or an outcast, that he never had pups, etc, but it was fun to imagine the stories. Dan had planned to go with his father to a farm later. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was 1:16 pm. He decided to go change clothes before his father arrived.

At 2:45 pm, Mr. Hawkins arrived on his black car in front of the building. Dan rushed downstairs before the traffic got full. He got in the car and greeted, though coldly, his dad, and they left.

After some minutes of travel they arrived at the farm, which was just a little away from the city's limits. Mr. Hawkins' friend, Mr. Wellington, approached, smiling.

-Hey there, buddy, how's it going? – he greeted.

-It's fine, I brought Dan too, are Gabriel and Rafael here? – Daniel (Sr.) answered, friendly, and shaking hands with his friend. 

-Yes, they're playing near the pond with their sitter Rose. – Mr. Wellington said, inviting them in.

Rafael and Gabriel were Wellington's little children. They should be around 4 and 6 years old. Dan liked them. Suddenly, they heard the scream of a little kid.

The lad and the two men rushed to the pond on the other side of the house. There they saw Gabriel trying to calm down his little brother Rafael, who was seem to have tripped and fallen on a rock, hurting his knee. Mr. Wellington got angry.

- I can't believe Rose left them alone again! It's the third time this week! Oh, now she's gonna hear some. – he complained, lifting up his hurt son in his arms.

Wellington, carrying Rafael, and Mr. Hawkins, followed by Gabriel, walked back home leaving Dan alone near the pond.

- Now it's just you and me then. - the boy said to his reflection.

He crouched and just moved his hand in the water, watching the ripples, just to kill time until the others got back. He was getting back to think new ideas of drawings until suddenly he felt something pulling his hand into the water. Startled, he quickly took his hand away from the pond and watched carefully to see what had pulled him. That was a weird pull. It felt like the some force was pulling him... like… the water itself?

What happened then was too fast. The surface of the pond started to swirl and three tentacles apparently made of water stormed out of it and started to try catching Dan.

- You've gotta be kidding me! - he exclaimed, startled, trying to crawl away from the water.

One of the tentacles involved his leg, trying to pull him quickly inside the dark pond. Dan held a tree root near him, but the other two tentacles managed to get his arms, immobilizing them. Dan's last attempt to stay on land was grabbing the ground strongly with his fingers, living a mark on the soil, but he was then dragged into the darkness of the pond. He felt the coldness of the water, and kept being pulled deeper and deeper. He fought uselessly against the tentacles, which were practically invisible inside their own substance. Dan started to panic. There was no way to let go. Then, when he was thinking he was going to die, the tentacles, almost invisible mingled with the water around them, released him. Right after that, the illumination of the pond changed from dark to clear, and Dan felt his body get numb as the water got colder and colder. He got shocked. It was freezing cold! He swam as fast as he could to the surface, but he just hit his head on something hard. What was that? He touched it with his hands. It was ice! There was no time to think about that. He looked for any way through that, and finally saw a whole on the icy barrier, and just went through it, reaching the precious air. The boy took deep breaths, like he had never really breathed air good enough. He grabbed the borders of the ice whole near him, and shook the water from his hair. After he finally caught his breath, he looked at the ground  near the border he was holding. It was… snow? Yes, it was. Impossible, it was summer in Olney when he was there. Unless it wasn't Olney. Dan looked around him, trying to figure out where he was. There were snow dunes around, so he couldn’t have a great view. Surely that wasn’t the farm, and surely couldn’t be Olney. He got out of the water and crawled away from the apparently frozen lake. After he got up, he got dry as he could, shaking himself like a dog, seeing there was nothing else to dry himself. When he saw there was no way to get rid of all the moisture, he gave up and looked around himself.

He saw a very familiar scenery, though he had never been there in his life, just in dreams. A plain, white because of the snow, a small village far from where he was, and closer to his position, a wrecked boat, in the middle of the snow near a beach, with the sea near it almost completely frozen. There were many mounts around the landscape, one of them pretty close. Behind where Dan was, there were pine woods. It was impossible, that couldn't be! He knew that place! He knew the boat! He knew where he was!

- I'm in Nome! – he said to himself, shocked.

Dan was too cold and confused to think clearly about what to do, so he decided to go to the boat, which was closer, to get dry, to get shelter and think better about what to do then. He found it difficult to walk on snow. He noticed he was on bare feet. His shoes probably had