A/N: This will be my first story in quite a long time. I hope that you all enjoy this and don't forget to review!

Summary: Serena, an established anthropologist, is sucked into a world of ancient, magical beings during a visit to one of her excavation sites. Will she be able to escape this strange place or will the mysticality of it capture her soul while love simultaneously devours her heart?

Chapter One

Do fantasies really come true

They happen to say they do

But I just wondered into your forest

And entered your fantasy...

Anthropology had begun to consume her life. All she wanted to do was discover the beginning of time, the beginning of humans, and the relics of their past. As of now, she was seating herself aboard a plane to fly to a remote section of Japan, maybe a one hour flight from Tokyo, but it was another two hour drive to an almost inaccessible area. Apparently, her research team found remains of ancient human-like creatures in this area and wanted her to further investigate. This could be a big find!

According to letters from her site workers, these bones closely resembled those of modern homo-sapiens, but their skeletal structures were slightly stronger; they were a little taller and their shoulders were extremely broad. Maybe these human-like figures were walking the Earth around the same time as modern humans? What if they interbred which is what may now cause the excessively tall gene in many humans today? Her thinking dug her into a deep hole of sleep where images of the possibilities presented themselves, tucked safely underneath her eyelids.

The plane touched its feet in Seagaia. To one side of the plane was nothing but ocean and the other side consisted of sand and trees only native to the southern tip of Japan. The private airport was extremely small, seeing as most people flew in to retrieve herbs and spices to sell in the market, then returned to their native cities. Serena gently lifted her eyelids as she felt the small bump of the plane touching the ground. All the while, she kept thinking to herself, 'An hour of sleep never felt so good!' Sooner than later, she was all set to exit the plane; she retrieved her items, and waited for her escort outside the perimeters.

A rugged looking Land Rover awaited her presence and one of her colleagues jumped out the driver's seat to assist her.

"Serena! How was the flight?" The wonderful young woman, Cindy, gave Serena a brief hug and grabbed one of her bags.

"Cindy!" Serena briefly hugged her back as the young woman grabbed the back from her right arm. " I don't really remember the flight…. I of dozed off sometime during it. But apparently, all is well! I'm here." She followed Cindy to the trunk and threw her other luggage inside with her bag.

"Fair enough. Go ahead and get comfortable. We have a long ride ahead of us. You're going to be a very busy woman once we arrive to the crime scene! You've got quite a few admirers who will be hounding you with their finds, trust me." And as Cindy cranked the engine, Serena dozed off yet again.

This time, she awoke to nothing but bumpy, rough grounds and sand and trees. The trees looked a little strange, especially since they were so massive and they grew directly out of sand. They resembled palm trees but the leaves widened at the end and beveled; there were also groups of purple flowers sprouting from every which way in the trees. The sand below was beautiful. It was some of the cleanest sand she'd ever seen; the only thing imperfect about it were the footprints that were indented on its surface. To the far west was a small chain of mountains that drew her in due to their gorgeous waterfalls.

She was able to the see the site up ahead, which expanded for about four miles; each site worker was given about a mile-stretch to dig and study. She was sure each of her colleagues were in their sections discovering amazing things and collecting data. Cindy brought the car to a halt, turned it off, hopped out, and walked over to her designated section of the site. Serena followed suit, although she was more amazed at the strangeness of this area: the white sand, the palm tree hybrids, and the remnants of human-like life. Her bags stayed in the vehicle for their later trip to the lodging site. As she wandered, Cindy's silhouette disappeared into the distance and she was on her own. She slowly made her way closer to the first hut she saw and admired almost everything her eyes laid site on.

"Serena!" She squinted her eyes and covered her brow ridge with her hand to pick out the source of her name. "Serena!" She noticed a tall figure sprinting her way from the direction of the first hut. As the figure grew closer and closer, she recognized it to be Raul. Raul was a research student that transferred in from Brazil and was very passionate about this line of work; he'd make a fine anthropologist one day.

"Serena! Oh my goodness! I'm so glad you're here!" He ran up to her and gave her a strong, sweaty hug. "I've waited this whole week for you to arrive. I've got to show you my finds! Come!" Before Serena could even react to the sweaty hug, she was being pulled rapidly by Raul to his post, where he'd laid out several crania and femoral bones.

"So the first thing I wanted to show you were the crania we found." He picked up one of the skulls with caution and lightly handed it to Serena. "Now, if you notice, the overall size of the skull is slightly larger than humans. Also, the brain cavity is the same size as humans, with respect to their body size. But if you face the anterior part of the skull toward you…" She turned the front of the skull to eye view, "…do you see anything remarkable?"

There were little chippings in the skull due to weathering, erosion, and deterioration. The skull was slightly discolored and tainted with the color of earth, but there was nothing she noticed about the front half. Upon closer inspection, she did see a small indentation on the forehead area. It was barely noticeable, but there was a small symbol, the shape of a sea mammal tail?

"You see it?" She nodded. "This is extremely interesting, considering that it actually resembles the tail of a dolphin. Was this possibly something etched in the skull of this species at birth?"

Serena just stared in awe at the find. She lightly began to run her finger over the dolphin symbol and immediately felt a burning sensation flow from her fingertip into the rest of her body. What was this feeling? She tried to move her finger away from the symbol, but she couldn't move; her body was paralyzed. The burning felt so good but it was growing stronger and stronger until her skin started to tingle and she could no longer contain the moan she was holding in.

"Mmmmm!" Her voice called in delight of the sensation. It felt as though her whole body was being massaged and burned at the same time.

"Serena, what's going on? You alright?" Raul heard the moan escape from Serena's mouth. She was seemingly stuck there with her finger hovering over the symbol of the skull. He only received a mumble of a response because she could not move her mouth.

"Serena, I have no clue what you said… are you alright?" He went on hoping to get an answer from her. Another mumble in response. She still didn't move and he didn't want her to damage the precious cargo in her hands.

"Let's see if we can get you moved somewhere cool and out this heat." He tried to grab the skull out her hands so he could get her moved but the moment he touched it, an electric pulse shocked his body and the force exerted him backwards. He was knocked unconscious at the contact of ground, while Serena began to glow. As soon as the glow began, it diminished, and it too paralyzed Serena… The only things left were the skull Serena was holding and a slightly smaller, more modern human-like skull.

The sun beamed down on the sands of Acardmacia as the natives were going about their daily tasks. The dolphins in the sea were giving them a show of a lifetime by doing flips out the water, playing fetch, and gathering fish in an entertaining way. Fishermen stood right at the place where sea kissed land to collect the fish the dolphins so graciously gathered. Woven nets were thrown out and closed with the tightening of a string to secure the caught fish. The dolphins had been helping these villagers catch fish as far as legend could remember and they continued to. Every night, the fish were slow-cooked over a fire and served to everyone on the island, along with a fresh feast of pineapples, coconut milk, and cocoa beans.

Inland, there were a series of organized homes, structured with bamboo and covered and lined with palm leaves and stripped bamboo. The series of homes led to an extremely large hut with one wall and a roof; on the inside of the one wall was a painted picture of a hybrid dolphin and human-like figure. It was adorned with a crown and appeared to be gliding atop a monster wave. Directly behind this hut was the largest home of them all, which was built using the same materials but was reinforced with bamboo walls and stone. This was the residence of the imperial family.

He stood looking out the back of their residence at the beautiful waterfalls the mountains owned. It captivated him every day, more than the site of the roaring waves. He was so fortunate to have been born into the imperial family because their place of residence stood right in front of the Acarmadic Mountains, which were known for their beautiful and numerous amounts of waterfalls. The macian palm trees swayed from side to side as large droplets from the waterfalls made their way to embrace their purple flowers and birds flew around the falls talking away. It was such a serene scene that not everyone in the village was blessed to see. The symbol on his forehead and the blue in eyes began to glow as he felt a calmness come over him; it was going to be a fantastic evening.

This was the day that legend said she would come into his world. She would enter his life through a world unknown and he was to take her in without a complaint. She was to be the one to capture his heart and bear his children. She was to be the one to capture his mischievous spirit and make love to it over and over again like no other had. The ritual time was coming, and he wanted it to be the right one at the right time, but was legend really as accurate as they say? She wouldn't know why she came and she wouldn't know how fundamental a piece to his puzzle she was until ritual was performed. This girl could be anyone!

He made his way back inside to prepare himself for supper which would be happening as soon as half the sun disappeared behind the mountains. He decided to put on none other than his woven-bamboo skirt that was beaded with tiny clam shells. He then adorned his wrists with some of the most pristine bracelets made for him by the best jewelers in the village. He made his way to the front of his home and headed to the shore for the evening feast.

Whatever just happened to her was extremely terrifying yet exhilarating. The last thing she could recall was holding on to the skull of an ancient hominid and feeling a warmth in her body. The next thing was the closing of her vision into darkness, then she awoke here with no skull in hand. The mountains she was looking at earlier stood before her along with a plethora of waterfalls, beautiful waterfalls. Her hair and clothes were drenched due to the splash of water from the falls, and yet, who knew how long she'd been here and out of it. The day here was almost over because the sun was making its way down the mountain and into the next land's day. She turned her vision to the side opposite the mountain, and noticed a large, beautiful home standing clear as day. It was beautifully built with bamboo and stone walls. The roof was layered with palm leaves tied together with smaller strips of leaves; it was extremely exotic, like something she would imagine to be in the Hawaiian Islands.

With her heart pounding at the uncertainty of her placement, she slowly made her way to the first place she saw, which was the large home. She dripped water onto every beautiful flower she passed until she made her way into the back area of the extensively large place. There were no doors, which was strange, so she peered right inside. What she saw was gorgeous dark granite flooring and beautifully carved and woven furniture. She looked ahead and saw the front entrance which lead out to a series of smaller homes. 'I wonder where those lead. I shouldn't head out too far'. Up ahead to her left were a set of stairs, also made of the same granite that led to another quadrant of this extensive "hut". Where was she? If she was in the same place as earlier, these homes were nowhere to be found before. Strange.

She wasn't going to roam around someone's personal home but this home felt so comfortable. She found her legs heading toward the woven couch without a signal from her brain. This place almost felt familiar. She set down on it's surface without even wringing the water from her wet clothes and hair. The strange feeling that had overcome her upon entrance to this home lulled her into a deep slumber. As her eyes slowly began to close, her mind was able to take her to dreamland yet again.

The feast was excellent and it was time for him to make his way back to his home. The serving of fish had him ready to have a good rest! The people of the land were exciting and vibrant as usual, making music and dancing ecstatically to the rhythm. They were especially entertaining once they'd had a few serving of the village's Maci-tree juice. The walk home was short and he'd made it to the entrance. He was just about to turn to the right and head up the stairs, but he noticed a glimpse of gold. Gold? He diverted his gaze from right up the stairs to straight ahead into his living area. On his couch was a beautiful blond headed woman. Upon closer inspection of her features, he noticed that she'd not been marked with the symbol of Delphinidae. She was dressed in strange attire, fully layered in garments from shoulders to toes. Who was this foreigner?

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I apologize if it got too scientific, but anthropology is my line of work. Please review and the next chapter will be out soon!