Alphabet Allie's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Allie pressed her nose against the frost-covered letter F, watching ice crystals shimmer across its golden surface. The chrono-compass hummed in her palm, its needle spinning wildly between eras. Ten thousand years old, maybe older. She'd never seen readings like this before. She should have been at the pavilion by now. The supporters had traveled for days to see her collection, bringing their own golden letter C as proof of commitment. They wanted to fund her alphabet academy, to help her teach children across the land. But the F kept glowing, pulsing with a rhythm that matched no pattern she'd documented. Allie set down her golden measuring tool shaped like the letter A and pulled out her notebook. The ice formations weren't random. They followed the curves of the letter like veins, like the F itself was alive. Just five more minutes of observation. Just enough to sketch the crystal structure. The supporters would understand. Two hours later, she looked up from her notes. The sun had shifted behind the trees. Her stomach twisted as she remembered the meeting, the golden C waiting to be accepted, the future of her academy hanging in the balance. She grabbed her chrono-compass and ran toward the pavilion, leaving her measuring tool half-buried in pine needles. The empty benches told her everything she needed to know.