Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This chapter kind of drags on for a bit but bare with me as I get to the good stuff!

6.A.M.

As the night went into day, the sun rose, casting glorious colours of magenta, Cyan and yellow all swirling together to create a beautiful breath taking sight one could only wish to see forever. The sky was blanketed with soft, cirrocumulus, white clouds which looked as though they could be made from cotton candy and perhaps taste like it to-

BEEP BEEP BEEP

groaning softly a young girl or rather woman turned over in her bedsheets and rather aggressively slapped the alarm to turn it off. She let out a big puff of air to blow her bed head hair out of her face as she turned to lay on her back; her eyes slowly opened to look at the white ceiling above.

'Another day' she thought to herself as she kicked the covers off of her body, regretting it almost instantly as the cold air hit her delicate soft (s/t) skin. A shiver ran throughout her body as she sat up. She looked to her clock on her dark oak bedside table that had an array of items scattered across it.

6:05.A.M. and (Your date of birth)

It was her birthday.

Usually she wouldn't think anything of this particular date as it was like any other. Get up at 6.A.M. Get dressed. Eat breakfast. Go to the stables and tend to the horses before 7.A.M. Go have a shower. Put clean clothes on and do minimal make up. Then go to school at 8.A.M.

However, today was special. Very special indeed.

Because today was the day (y/n) received her mark. A mark that could change her life forever in a good way or a bad way.

But the thing was...she'd have to wait till 1.P.M. To find out what hers looked like as that was the time of day she came into this world.

A soft knock was heard on the other side of her bedroom heavy oak door. Before it slowly opened revealing her little brother, mother and father all wearing big happy smiles. Still in their Pyjamas before they began to sing, as little Samuel came over carefully carrying a tray with a Collin the caterpillar cake. "Happy birthday to you~ happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear (y/n) happy birthday to you!"
Grinning happily (y/n) blew out the candles and took the tray off her little brother, placing it to the side of her before engulfing Samuel in a bear hug not expecting this surprise at all.

"Thank you guys so much" she said looking to her parents before looking down at her brother who wore the biggest grin she had ever seen.

"Where is it?!" He asked (y/n).

"Where is what?" She laughed as he lifted up her right arm and studied it carefully. "Oh you mean my mark?"
Her brother gasped and nodded rapidly.

"Unfortunately, I won't have it yet until 1pm." (Y/n) said receiving a pout from Samuel.

"Aww, but I wanted to see it." He whined.

"And you will! As soon as I finish Sixth form today you can see it." He giggled happily as she booped him on the nose lightly as her mother came and sat beside her handing her some cards from her family members and a little gift.

"Oh thank you mum. You really didn't have to."

"Well I wanted to. It's not every day that you turn 18 now is it?" She chuckled as (y/n)'s father moved the cake further back on the bed to make room to sit next to (y/n) as he pulled Samuel towards him so he could sit on his lap.

Grinning wildly she unravelled the delicate packaging on the black velvet box. Slowly opening it with a gasp revealing a beautiful silver necklace with a green gem placed in the middle of the raindrop shaped, patterned centre piece.

"I love it! Thank you so much" (y/n) said hugging both her parents.

"It's real silver and that's a real emerald." Her mother said. "We got it from the same place the royal family get their rings from in Wales." Gasping (y/n) looked at them surprised.

"I'll never take it off!" She squealed and put it on. "Well apart from when I get in the shower." She laughed awkwardly and smiled softly looking down at the bright gem.

"Right! Who wants cake for breakfast!" Her dad exclaimed clasping his hands together smiling.

"Me!" Samuel and (y/n) said in unison.

"But I need to go tend to the horses first." (y/n) said getting up off her bed and opening her wardrobe doors.

"No you don't. Today is your day off. We will do it." Her father said proudly. "Like your mother said. It's not everyday you turn 18." He grinned getting up from the bed as Samuel darted out of her bedroom following her mother who had the tray of cake in her hands.

"Wow really?!" (Y/n) asked excitedly.

"Yes of course." He nodded and hugged her. "I love you Skippy." He said using her nickname before letting her go and walking out of the door. Closing it behind him as he looked back at her with a loving fatherly smile.

"Great now I've got time to actually make myself look decent for once!" She smiled to herself leaving her wardrobe door open as she grabbed her (f/c) towel and going out of her bedroom. Walking down the hallway to the bathroom.

The bathroom was decorated with light grey slated stones. The sink was a marble white matching the bath and toilet. The exterior of the bath and sink are navy painted wood with silver handles. It was very modern looking.

(Y/n) turned on the shower and waited for it to warm up as she brushed her teeth and removed her necklace before getting in and washing her hair.

20minutes later

She got out of the shower and dried herself off. She wrapped the towel around her body and put the necklace on straight away before making her way to her bedroom.

Once she was in her room, she quickly put on her bra and pants and wrapped her (c/h) hair in her towel before looking through her clothes. She pouted as she couldn't decide on what to wear for the day. Grabbing her phone, she looked at the weather forecast. It was meant to be sunny with a high of 18 degrees! That's warm for the usual British weather. (Sorry if your birthday is in winter or spring😅) She then went onto Spotify and played her liked playlist. The first song that came on was Willow Smith's - Wait a Minute song. Singing along and sliding across her wooden floor back to her wardrobe and draws to search for the perfect outfit.

Finally after about 10 minutes of searching she finally chose to wear her Topshop Jamie, high waisted, blue jeans and an urban outfitters puff short sleeve bando cream and lilac floral top. It was a cute outfit. Nothing too flashy and nothing too boring.

The time was now 6:45.A.M. giving (y/n) Plenty of time to do her make up! She rapidly and skilfully did the basics of her make up first; moisturiser, primer, foundation concealer, contour, setting powder, blush and a nude lipstick colour. After the basics were done she carefully filled the gaps in her eyebrows making them look like slick, on point, sisters. Not confused hedgehogs. Then she went on to do her eyeshadow using lilac, pink and shimmery shades to create a simple but pretty dewy look before putting on some of her favourite waterproof mascara. Finishing it off with Jeffree Star's Skin Frost platinum ice highlighter palette and choosing the shade ice cold which was a cool yellow shade.

Looking at the time to see that it was now 7:45.A.M. She decided to let her hair dry naturally as she quite liked it that way. And it also saved a lot of time. Quickly, she packed her school bag with her English language work and her sketchbook for her art lessons since the rest of her materials were already at school. She only did two subjects rather than three or four because of how her stress levels use to peak up very high with all the pressure from the lessons and homework deadlines she struggled to reach due to caring for the animals. But now she was down to two subjects, it wasn't all that hard anymore as the artwork came naturally to her, and annotating things didn't take very long in comparison to her English language lessons, that were very full on with all the topics she learnt in the subject.

Sighing contently, she grabbed a pair of white ankle socks and put them on before slipping on her Adidas EQTs she designed for her Christmas present last year that were emerald green, light blue, white and dark blue with reflective tabs on the side and front of the ankle part of the shoe. Happy with her look she looked in the mirror and did a little spin before grabbing her phone and turning the music off, before heading downstairs with her bag slung over her right shoulder. She walked into the kitchen and kissed her little brother on the top of his head before sitting next to him as their father dishes out the chocolate cake to them.

"This is a one off guys." He smiled and pointed his finger at them as they happily began to eat their cake. Once they were done (y/n) put their plates in the dishwasher and checked the time on her phone.

"Shhhhhiiii...I gotta go!" She exclaimed almost letting a bad word slip in front of her little brother. "I love you guys and I hope you all have a great day! Goodbye!" She said rushed as she ran to her parents and kissed them on the cheeks before scruffing her little brothers hair, earning a whine of protest before she left the house and ran to her bus stop just in time.

The bus pulled up a minute later and she hopped on smiling at the grumpy drive as she said. "YoZone Single please to Blossom Street."

"£1.50." The man said lazily and she gave him the money before going up the stairs of the bus and sitting at the front. It was only now that she decided to go through all her messages from her friends and family, thanking them for all the happy birthday messages and embarrassing videos and photos they posted of her, on social media for everyone to see. But she didn't mind.

8:40.A.M.

Hopping off the bus with a spring in her step she made her way to school which was only a 3 minute walk. Once she was on the school grounds she was greeted by her friend (f/n) who squealed with delight upon seeing (y/n) and ran over to her with big balloons of a number one and eight.

"Happy Birthday bitttttchhhh!" She exclaimed and engulfed (y/n) in a death grip hug. "Come on, come on! Let's go!" She said excitably, as she took (y/n) to her locker that was wrapped with unicorn paper and a big bow.

"Aww (f/n) that's cute." (Y/n) said as she opened her locker to see a bunch of presents from (f/n) and others. "Oh my god (f/n) thank you so much!" Upon saying that the rest of her friends popped out around the corner singing happy birthday to her.

Today was definitely the best day of her life! She thought to herself grinning and hugging everyone. But they were all interrupted by the school bell at 9.A.M and dispersed to their lessons. (Y/n) and (f/n) walked into their art lesson as they carried the balloons with them. Which gained them a lot of weird looks from other students, making (y/n) blush but (f/n) didn't seemed too bothered as she skipped over to their non designated/designated seats.

—-time skip to 12:30.p.m—-

Because it was such a lovely day (y/n) and her friends decided to go and sit on the hill facing the tennis courts to eat their lunch under a big oak tree.

"What time is it?" One of her friends asked.

"It's 12:30.p.m" (y/n) responded with a smile.

"And what time were you born?" Another asked excitedly. "I can't wait to see your mark!" They exclaimed earning agreements from the other girls and guys in the group.

"1.p.m was when I was born." (Y/n) answered smiling only just realising she had 30 minutes left till she got her mark and was allowed to leave school since her lesson for English was cancelled that day. They all began guessing what mark (y/n) would get and where it would be as they all had a theme. Some were small, big, faint, prominent, colourful, detailed, simple, linear, on her shoulder, back, leg, arm and so on. But honestly she didn't mind what she got as long as what it was meant something good.

12:58.P.M.

All her friends crowded around her as they counted down the seconds till 1.P.M.

10 seconds left. (Y/n) grew nervous as her friends counted aloud and she closed her eyes tightly waiting for a feeling. Anything. Heat. Coldness. Pain.

Her friends gasped as (y/n) felt a pulsing sensation as though her skin was twitching on her left inner arm just above the bend in her elbow. The feeling grew before it stopped.

"Oh my god!" (F/n) gasped as all her friends stared in wonder as to what it could mean. "Look (y/n) look at your arm!" She exclaimed. (Y/n) slowly and cautiously opened her eyes and looked to her arm to see a black Celtic/Native American styled stag's side profile.

"Woah." Was all she could say as she lightly touched it and began to grin. "But what does it mean?" She said confused as most of her friend's were somewhat obvious or hinted at something.

"Maybe you become a hunter! Or you become one with nature!" (F/n) suggested as she took hold of her friend's arm looking at it closely.

RING RING RING

The bell went off signalling the end of lunch and the start of everybody's next lesson.

"I get to go home now." (Y/n) told (f/n) as the rest of the friendship group said goodbye and went to lessons.

"What why?!" Her friend exclaimed and pouted, "no fair." She whined making (y/n) laugh.

"Teacher is off sick." (Y/n) shrugged. "So I best go if I want to catch my bus." Making her friend nod in agreement.

"Alright. I'll see you later." (F/n) said smiling and waving goodbye as she left (y/n) with the one and eight balloons.

Sighing (y/n) got up off the plush grass and grabbed the balloons before making her way to her bus stop and heading home.

Once she got home she took her things inside and put them on the kitchen island counter.

"Hello?" She called out but no return. "Strange" she thought but shrugged it off assuming her parents went out to run some errands with her little brother.

Grinning to her self she dashed up the stairs and into her room. Quickly changing into her cream jodhpurs and a black polo shirt with the number 21 in yellow on the back before taking her make up off apart from her mascara and eyebrows. She then went downstairs whilst putting her hair in a low ponytail and went into the corridor which led to the stables. She opened the door and smiled seeing the horses in their stalls. To the left of her she picked up her riding ankle boot, chaps and helmet that was hung up next to her horse's tack and put everything on. She Lifted her horse's saddle off of its post and put the bridle over her shoulder along with a halter and rope before picking up the breastplate martingale. She then skipped all the way down to the end of the stable where her horse was stabled.

"Hey girl. Ready for a ride?" (Y/n) asked smiling as she placed the saddle on the gate of the stable and looked at the magnificent dapple grey Dutch Warmblood mare who happily neighed. She opened the gate and slipped the halter onto Viviana's head before connecting the rope to it and tying it to one of the metal loops. She skilfully tacked her up, careful not to buckle anything too tight. Once she was done, she removed the halter she had moved previously to be around Viviana's neck loosely, when doing the bridal and led her out. She grabbed a couple of treats for her and gave her a little sugar cube first before mounting her and adjusting her stirrups and tightening the girth. Once she was ready she set off and instead of going to the arena she decided to go out for a lovely hack in the fields and forest near by.

She started off slow to warm Viviana up before cantering her a few times through the yellow flowery fields. She loved doing this. She felt so free from her routine life... she just wanted to feel free for once.

4.P.M.

She had been out for a while in the fields having fun with Viviana and enjoying the time she had free before she decided to go into the forest and followed the same trail she always did.

7P.M.

The sun was setting behind the branches casting shadows of light, warm hues as the warmth of the day slowly disappeared. "Come on Viviana we should head back." (Y/n) sighed as she tried to turn her around but Viviana was being stubborn. "Come on! Don't you want your tea? I know I do!" (Y/n) laughed speaking to the horse as it snorted in protest and bucked slightly. "Hey!" (Y/n) scolded as she continued to buck slightly. "Fine. Have it your way." She sighed and gave up as she let Viviana go forward into a walk before suddenly she started to canter. "Hey! Woah, woah slow down!" (Y/n) gasped at her horse's strange behaviour, but she managed to stay on as Viviana went into a strong gallop going down a path they'd never been down before...or seen...

"Okay Viviana you can stop now. Slow down girl easy, easy." (Y/n) said in a soothing voice as Viviana listened and slowed down whilst heavily breathing. "What's gotten into you girl?" She asked leaning forward to look at her horse's face as they stopped in front of a tree. (Y/n) looked up and gasped at just how big it was. It looked ancient compared to all the other spindly trees around it. It was weird...

(y/n) got off of Viviana and rubbed her butt in pain as she groaned and held on to Viviana's reins close to her bridal. "Woah." She breathed out as she looked around. The surrounding area of the tree was bright green with blades of grass, and smaller thinner trees were in a circle around it. It looked as though it was from some kind of fairytale. "Ouch! What the hell!" (Y/n) gasped feeling pain in her left arm and looked down at the mark to see it glowing. Her eyes widened and her horse began to rear up slightly. "Steady girl, steady." She said trying to calm her horse as she heard the sound of branches snapping. She looked behind her quickly to see the tree hollowing out to look like an archway. "This is creepy...but cool." She breathes out smiling. "Come on girl." She said getting back on Viviana and going towards the tree as her horse went willingly through it as she closed her eyes. Suddenly, she was met with a gush of warmth making her open her eyes to see that she was in a field of long dried grass with the sun shining down onto her. Squinting to try and see her surrounding a bit better she looked behind herself to see the tree had ceiled itself closed.

"Well shit."

Chapter Text

"Shitttt, fuck! Shit!" (Y/n) cursed aloud as she dismounted from her horse and ran over to the tree, searching with her hands for an opening. Anything. Something. But to no avail, the bark wasn't going to budge anytime soon. "God! My parents are gonna kill me! It's meant to be dark...soon..." she said and turned around stunned, looking at her horse who was happily grazing on the over grown grass, her tail occasionally swishing the odd fly away from her behind. The sun. The sun reflected off her beautiful coat.

But how? It was meant to be night already, it should have pulled it's blanket of darkness over the sky by now. But still the sun shone bright with a fury of heat, she knew for sure did not belong to Britain's sun.

Quickly, she mounted Viviana and took out her phone she was glad she brought it with her and took a picture of the tree and it's surrounding area to make sure she could recognise it for later. She had only just realised that her phone had no signal and her BT sign in the top left had gone.
"What the hell is going on." She said panicked but tried to calm her racing nerves but then her mark began to glow again like a beacon. She knew something was up and whatever it was....wasn't good. She could feel eyes on her. She felt them burning into the back of her head. She looked behind her but saw nothing but the tree that stood their taunting her with it's glorious purpose of taking her home but it refused to do so.

Sighing, (y/n) wiped the sweat carefully from her brows as to not ruin them and pushed Viviana into a soft trot. Heading towards the muddy road. Humming to herself as she tried to figure out what way she should go. She decided on turning right up the road and followed it in a steady trot and sometimes switched into a light canter until coming to a cross section with a sign post. An arrow pointing to Valentine and another to Emerald Ranch. Trusting her gut she turned her steed towards the road on the left going up a slight hill toward Valentine. A man walked past her with a look of bewilderment.

"What in Tarnation?" He said aloud looking at her confused but intrigued.

"Hi, um sir? I am quite lost and I was hoping to find some help..." (y/n) spoke to the man politely, further surprising the man in a cowboy get up, which she found very odd.

"Where were ya heading?" He asked, in a heavy southern accent tilting his hat up to reveal his face to her. Lines ran along his forehead in a hash. Showing lines of past anger and surprise which showed his age a great amount with the added greying long beard.

"Home...in Britain." She spoke nervously. Making the odd man laugh hard.

"You crazy girly! Britain?' You're a long way from home. This is America." He said and shook his head.

(Y/n)'s eyes widened in shock. "P-pardon?! America?" The man nodded with a smile. "What is today's date?"

"Today lady is (your birthday) 1899." He said confidently.

"The Wild West?! But that was like... 120 years ago!" She gasped earning a weird look from the man.

"You alright girly? You need a doctor." He asked becoming a little concerned for her.

"I'm, no, I'm perfectly fine, thank you... I'm just. In the wrong year." She said breathlessly, as her head began to spin. 'How is this possible?!" She thought to herself and dismissed herself from the conversation as she walked her horse on into the town. Again, she earned curious looks from the men and women about on the porches and on horseback as they went by.

All the men wore similar attire. Button shirts, trousers, boots, spurs, g-gun holsters with guns! And cowboy has. Some dressed more nicely than others. nobody's eyes seemed to leave her as they all stared at her on her steed. Making her feel very conscious, she walked Viviana on down the muddy wide rode Before she decided to stop and pulled up next to the stables, dismounting before tethering Viviana up to a post to allow her to rest and drink the water provided in the trough.

"Hey lady in the weird clothes...how much for the horse?" She turned to see an old drunkard stumble over to her, with a wick yellow grin as he held a bottle in one hand and used his other to steady himself on a post nearby.

"Sorry sir. She is not for sale. And even if she was...you couldn't afford her." (Y/n) said trying to put up a front to warn him off, but he didn't seem to notice as he came closer.

"Aw really? I could give you $100 for her." He said getting his money out of his back pocket. "As I said before. She is not for sale. And she costs a lot more than that. Think more like £7,000" she said making the man scoff.

"Yeah right. Nothing is that expensive." He retorted slurring his words unimpressed.

"Well where I come from. A lot of things often are." (Y/n) said back as she turned her back to him. Putting the stirrups up on either side of her horse's saddle. She looked over her mare's shoulder to see that the man was gone and sighed. She pulled out a sugar cube from her pocket and gave it to Viviana earning a pleased whinny from her.

Taking a look at her surroundings she studied the sign posts hung up outside of the old, weathered, wooden cabins. Her eyes landed on the general store, a few strides away making a smile appear on her face, but then it went as soon as she realised she had no money. Or anything for that matter. Well apart from her phone which wasn't very helpful apart from it providing music and a camera.

Kicking the dirt in frustration she let out an exasperated sigh before groaning and face palming. she dragged her hand down her face slowly whilst trying to think of something to do.

First things first. She had to try and blend in the best she could. All these people staring really put her on edge. Tilting her chin up, she unbuckled her helmet strap and took it off, her hair underneath had been flattened however, little strays stuck out messily defying gravity as they floated in the soft breeze. She untied her hair from the hair bobble and shook her head from side to side to allow it to unravel from it's flattened mess before she ran her fingers through her (h/c) roots to try and return the volume it held before wearing the helmet, and to allow her hair to breath. She mentally thanked herself for washing her hair that morning, so her hair didn't look all too bad after the long ride despite some of her hair sticking to her forehead from the glistening sweat. After that there wasn't much else to do to alter her appearance. Pursing her lips she clipped her helmet straps back together around a leather strap on her horse's saddle before she untethered her from the post.

There wasn't anything there for her and so she moved on out of Valentine down a trail heading south.

Little did she know, someone was watching her more closely than the rest of the townspeople in Valentine.

———-

Sorry once again! this isn't anything interesting but I promise you in the next chapter something will happen and it'll be hopefully longer than this chapter as well.