Alexandria opened her eyes.

The gray sky above her. A stabbing soil below.

She sat up in haste and gazed in every direction, desperate to feel her father's soothing pats on her tousled hair; but the infinite trees held only absolute darkness.

The urgency to return to him hit Alexandria, but her fragile hope battled to keep its flames against her father's last words.

"Don't come back. I'm going to be fine," she heard in echoes. "Whatever happens, run."

She hid the endless tears in her arms as she curled up. The drops moistened the trail's dry dirt beneath, which she had made by her hard landing.

'Dad… Only if you told me before…' she thought.

Her head snapped towards a nearby bush. She was certain it had moved.

Standing up with a jump, she yelled with a broken voice, "W-Who's there!?"

Alexandria scanned the unfamiliar area with a paranoid vigilance. She heard another snap not long after, immediately spinning around to try and locate the source.

"Please, don't hurt me! I didn't know! I just want to—" she cried out.

Something emerged from the dark. Alexandria stared at the figure, speechless. Memories rushed through her head as she fell to the ground, overcome with weakness. She just couldn't take it anymore.

Even when she heard soft footsteps approach her, her body refused to move.

"Are you okay?" the feminine voice inquired.

Alexandria's lifeless eyes stared at the cold, hard ground. The falling tears spoke for her.

"Girl, I can't help you if you don't talk to me," the woman said, worried. "You can trust me. I won't—"

"I have to run…" Alexandria said, emotionless.

"What? Why—"

"He told me to…"

Alexandria lifted her head, a deep sense of familiarity striking her. When her eyes landed on the woman, her pupils contracted, and her tears froze.

"Wait, you…"

"Y-You're the one… you broke… your l-leg, and dad…" Alexandria said, stuttering through sobs.

"What happened? Why are you here?"

"I… They were… Dad… He's still there…"

The shock of the last two days blocked Alexandria's mind.

"Don't worry, I'll take you back with him—"

"No!"

The chaotic scenery showed, for the first time, a semblance of unity as it fell into silence.

"I can't go back. He said he's going to be fine… He launched me into the sky…" Alexandria said, looking at the ground.

It was clear that the woman wouldn't understand; she didn't need to.

"Launched you?"

"To protect me from them…"

"Them? Who? Were they evil? We can call the police—"

"Zeev. Fuon. Asil…"

Those words stabbed the woman's ears. She inspected the place, agitated.

"I have to run…"

A sneak peek of the 1st chapter of Xenon's re-release! I'm sorry if you already wanted the full chapter, but I promise I'm working hard!

Now, I'll tell you about some things about it.

As you could see, the structure changed a lot, and I believe for good. The first thing you may have noticed is the shift from 1st person to 3rd person, which I think is a huge change on his own.

It may be weird for me to say this, but I think my writing improved quite a bit, so I hope it's easier for you to read, because oh my, my old writing was a thing. There are other structural deeper-changes, but you will notice them.

You may also be wondering why did I delete the previous chapters. That's because even if the story changed a lot, there'll be things that stay the same or correlate. Leaving the old story up to read could be a major spoiler.

And that's everything! I appreciate you read this and— Oh, right.

Xenon: The Thunderstorm will release on a new story page on this July 29th! With a schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12:00 PM UTC!

Check my Twitter that day to find the link for the new page!

Also, a huge shoutout to The Webnovel Writer's Chatgroup, who have been supporting a lot for the last weeks. You should check out that novel, it contains a lot of authors point-of-views about writing and their daily lives. It's really entertaining! (I don't feel right with sharing a link to the other site, so it'll be on my Twitter as well!)

P.S: I really feel sad to leave this novel, but I want to reset everything.