Coraline Jones

There had been a newly forged path, leading away from civilisation. There had been a grumpy, grizzly boar minding it's own business. There had been a beautiful, smooth Artefact lurking innocently in the jungle. And there had been a teenage girl not minding hers, poking things she shouldn't have poked. That was how it began but not how it ended. At least Coraline hoped that was not how it ended.

She was hungry, she was thirsty. She hadn't died, that much was clear but she was starting to fade not in appearance but in energy. She couldn't touch anything which meant she couldn't eat anything or drink anything either. She was tired, really tired and she just wanted to go home. She didn't care if that made her sound childish because she was afraid, she was scared and she didn't know how much longer she could last like this. She didn't think very much longer.

She licked her lips, sitting on the floor in the corner. Maybe they could fix this, maybe they couldn't. She didn't know. All she knew was...

"Can you- if this doesn't work can you tell everyone that I loved being here?" Coraline asked, feeling more like a child than she had in years. "I just- I don't want them thinking that I didn't."

There were several well trekked paths and one newly forged one, leading away from most of the huts. There was one bunch of flowers, fourteen individual red and yellow flowers picked and left on a rock. There was a boar, grizzly and grumpy, snuffling and grunting and generally minding its own business some distance away. And there was one teenage girl exploring. In other words on Tabula Rasa, it was just another day ending in y for Coraline Jones.

Coraline was an experienced explorer and adventurer. She knew the rules of dealing with aliens or mysterious new people, she knew how to escape from simple knots and how not to get captured, she was very good at sneaking (as Percy Jackson could attest to) and she knew not to touch mysterious objects. Mysterious objects were a dangerous thing in books and on television, they did stuff when discovered but it appeared that this object didn't know that.

It hadn't done anything!

"Ugh, do something. Come on," Coraline said, from her place in front of it. Coraline peaked around the smooth edges, looking at the metal and wondering what on Island it was. It didn't seem to be doing anything and from what she could see no one had been up this way for a while except her. Maybe it was an island thing but she didn't recognise it from home. Leaning forward Coraline touched the smooth metal, holding her breath for a second as she realised that was probably Not A Very Good Idea. It was a mysterious object! They did-

Nothing.

Nothing happened.

"Oh, well that was anti-climatic." Coraline said letting out a long breath as her fingertips slid along the outside and something clicked. Looking at it curiously, Coraline moved away watching pieces of it move and click into place. Taking out her notebook Coraline scribbled a note. "Huh, cool. One mysterious object, item, artefact? Artefact sounds cool. One mysterious artefact doing stuff."

Coraline grinned, grabbing her bag when something made her freeze in place. A low level humming noise that began to build and grow.

"Uh... that doesn't sound good." Coraline said hesitantly as the thing began to hum quite audibly. Things that hummed like that were never usually a good sign. Well, at least it wasn't glowing or anything. If it was humming and glowing then she'd probably be in trouble. The artefact began to glow, pulsating light driving up from the base to the tip of it. "Oh bothe-"

The light hit the top bursting out in a radiating pulse and washing over a wide eyed, startled Coraline who simply disappeared.

They'd always warned her; curiosity killed the cat.