Email: simbenfold@yahoo.com

Story:
"Ready," said Cho.
Cho anxiously watched the professor pull down the lever on the console next to the warp pod. There was a blinding light as a surge of electricity from the top of the pod raced to the ground. Cho's feet slowly left the floor and in another blinding flash of light she was gone.
Cho was floating in a very awkward postion, the limbs bent behind her back as she travelled at what seemed like light speed through a blurred tunnel. The feathers on her wings all pointed behind her in a somewhat beautiful way, almost motionless as the immeasurable speed prevented them from beating. She squinted, trying to make sense of the ever-changing swirling colours around her. There was a loud, constant whistling sound in her ear, and the pressure in her head was becoming very painful. She was rather helpless as her arms refused to move, and she dreaded to think what would happen at the end of this journey. She just hoped that she would slow down enough so as not to collide with anything on the other side of this vast, mysterious void of time, assuming that she would make it to the other side.
Helpless, confused, and aching all over, Cho Haruki landed on a cold metal floor with a soft thud. As though awakened from a strange dream, the time void had disappeared and Cho was brought back into reality. She pulled herself from the ground with the aid of her beating wings. As she looked up she could see the familiar light, the orange/white sky of Ganymeade. The sky certainly did look like her home town. But everything else did not.
There were buildings, like before, but these were all made out of metal. A smooth, metallic blue, titanium sort of metal that looked very impressive but somehow cold and unwelcoming. In the distance were buildings with what looked vaguely like glass, however some of the buildings had some strange windows, like a forcefield, with the slow drifting animation like that of water, and emitting a small aura of coloured light. Turning around, she could see what looked like a public transport station, with a bright glass-like tube above it. There were several faint figures walking into the tube, and it looked like some sort of elaborate corridor until the people were suddenly swept away down the tube out of Cho's sight. This whole place seemed so unreal. The technology seemed to have advanced greatly over five hundred years. It was time for a look around, she thought.
"I hope they have machines for going back in time too," Cho muttered to herself as she turned and followed the signs with a slow walk into the direction of the city centre, a cool breeze passing slowly through her hair from the gently flapping wings behind her.

Comments: Phew, finally done! This is my first and last pic I'll be making without using layers. It's much less bother learning Paint Shop Pro than spending ages working around the edges. That aside, I'm quite happy with how the picture turned out. It's my first proper CG, done in NeoPaint from a scanned sketch. I like how Cho came out, and also the perspective. The window reflections were a pain to do and I think they came out pretty awful, and also choosing the colours was quite hard. You can see a higher quality version (264k) here:
http://www.benfold.com/sim/ahead-time_hi.jpg