I woke the next morning and took a swim in the pool, I went over to the ledge by the tree and picked a few fruits, eating one there and bringing six back to the tree with me. I put four into my bag. Looking at the floor I was slightly surprised; I owned so many things. I did not want to have to carry them around with me, nor did I want to leave them in the open. Sitting down I tried to figure out what to do with them. I heard a bird call to another in the tree overhead and smiled, I grabbed the clothes and fruit that I did not need to carry with me and soared up through the tree until I was about half way up, where I found a wide branch and stored my things on it against the trunk where it was thickest.

I floated back down, wrapped the long skirt around my waist and then walked through the trees, finding the path from the day before. Walking towards the lake I heard loud voices and shouts, I paused for a moment and then decided to continue. There were a few men and boys in the lake, it was a hot day and they were swimming, there were some young boys that looked to be about seven or eight cycles old and then they went up to men of about thirty cycles.

I did not want them to see me, so walked in the trees around the edge of the lake; I got to the village and let out a sigh of relief for some reason. I caught myself doing it and smiled. Walking to the woman’s house took me a few minutes and I saw her sitting in the doorway similar to the day before, she smiled at me and I walked up to her, “I saw these on my way into the village this morning and thought that you might like them.” I took the four fruits out of my bag and handed them to her. She smiled and took them off me.

“Thank you, I love Red nectries, where did you find them so big?”

“Oh, just past the lake, there were a few in a tree a couple of meters away from it.” I lied carefully, not wanting her to find out where I was staying. “Did you say they were called red nectries?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Just curious.” I know it should not have, but it surprised me how there was such and obvious similarity between nectries and nectarines it was almost as if someone had named one and then found the other to be similar, so named the fruits similarly, as for the red part of the name, well that was just common sense.

I smiled at the woman and we chatted for a few more minutes about the fruits in the area, she described some other fruits that I decided to keep my eyes out for and then I left the way I had come. I was thinking about the woman and forgot about the men that were in the lake, so when I walked past I was slightly surprised to see them there still. I past the older ones first, they just smiled at me and said hello, so I replied, but did not stop walking. Then the little ones were playing by the edge and were so wrapped up in their own games that I do not even think that they saw me pass them.

It was when I passed the older ones that I had trouble, there were a few boys in the group about their fifteenth to sixteenth cycle and a few that were just approaching manhood, and some that were already in manhood, they looked to be about nineteen or twenty cycles old. “Hey sweetie, haven’t seen you round here before.” I said nothing and just walked past them. “Hey slow down, what’s your name?” I said nothing again and just carried on walking, ignoring him. He gave up after a while and I walked back under the cover of the trees and out of sight.

I had not seen many boys my age in the village until then; there only ever seemed to be young children and other girls about my age, but no boys, or men; I was not sure what to actually call them. I was hoping that this place would be different, I hoped that there would not be any malicious boys that picked on people just to show off, but I had not realised until now what a vain hope that was; in every town, village and city there had to be at least one that was the show off, that was the leader.

I walked up through the trees and through the path, carefully making sure that there was no one behind me, following me. I got to the grass area and let go a sigh of relief, no one had followed me at all. I laughed at myself for being so paranoid and then went to look at the trees around the pool to see if they had any of the fruits that the woman had described.

I recognised some of the fruits that she had described and picked one or two from each tree, but there were still some that I could not identify from her words. I decided to pick one of each anyway; I would take them to the village with me tomorrow to show her.

I jumped into the tree and began to eat the fruits I had picked. My favourites were still the red nectries, but the three new ones were still very nice; there was a green one with a crisp skin and a soft inside that was quite sharp, one with a yellow and orange mottled skin that was long, it also had quite a crisp skin, but the inside was harder than the others, but sweet at the same time, the last one was a deep purple, the skin was rough and hard which you were not supposed to eat, but the inside was very soft and almost like some sort of paste, and it was also bright orange.

After I had finished my fruit feast and sucked my fingers clean as I floated down from the tree, I walked down to the water to wash them properly and caught sight of my reflection; I looked older than I remembered, in this crystal clear water I saw myself looking back at the face of a girl in her eighteenth, maybe nineteenth cycle. As I looked and saw how much older my changed face now looked I realised that I still did not feel like my face was old enough. I felt like I should be looking back at someone whose face was closer to twenty five maybe even thirty cycles.

I looked closely at my reflection and saw the warrior in me; the hard girl that had no emotions, or had emotions that were hidden so deep that she could not reach them. I had the warrior hair style, the warrior clothes style, the warrior eye style, but I was not who I wanted to be. I was… wrong.

I looked closely at my reflection, I had changed my clothes slightly, I knew I could not change my eyes, they would always look this way, so all was left was my hair, and I had no idea what to do. In the end I made it grow long, half way down my back, I left the fringe how it was, but something still was not right. Looking closely at my refection, I realised that I still looked too hard, too strong, I carefully thought about my hair and started to turn it gently; creating soft curling waves that hung round my face and softened it up.

I smiled to myself; that was it. I walked over to the bag on the tree and pulled out a leather strap, I gathered my hair at the nape of my neck and tied it back with the strap. While I had been changing my appearance it had grown dark so I sent a small globe of light into the air and then slipped into the pool. Swimming into the middle I floated there and just stared up at the black sky, studying the stars and the moon and wondering what they were.

I swam back over to the grass and lay down under the tree, thinking to myself that I would get up early the following morning and explore closer to the village before everyone else got up.

I woke up the following morning and it was still dark, the sun was just coming up over the horizon and was bringing with it a new day. I got up and dressed, then put the some fruit into my bag; a piece of each fruit I recognised to give to the woman and then a piece of each fruit I did not recognise to show the woman.

I walked trough the trees and down the path by the lake, the sky was just turning pink when I arrived at it and no one was there. Wandering round the edge of the lake I came to the waterfall and saw that the water at the bottom of it was very deep and foaming on the top. I looked up and saw a piece of rock jutting out from the middle of the water; an idea came into my head. I put my bag and robe on the floor, hidden under a couple of bushes and then checked that no one was around, I levitated up and stood on the rock, feeling the morning breeze on my face and the sharp spray of the water hitting my body; it made me feel free and alive.

Staring around, the jungle stretched out far around me and the water stretched far down below me. I put my arms above my head and bent my knees, then I threw myself off the rock, falling down with the water. Plunging into the cool lake woke me up completely, as I broke the surface the whole jungle seemed to come alive after the utter silence of the deep lake. I smiled and pulled myself out, picking up my bag I caught a glimpse of a path that led behind the waterfall, I followed it and saw to my amazement that there was a cave behind the fall, completely hidden by the curtain of blue water.

I slipped behind the water and sat on the ledge in front of the cave in silence, the morning sunlight reflecting off the water and creating ripples of light that glimmered off the back wall of the shallow cave. I could not believe the natural beauty of this place, it seemed dreamlike, how could one place hold so much splendour? It was incredible.

Eventually I knew I had to move and get out of the cave before people started to come to the lake. I put my arms above my head and dived through the curtain of water and into the lake on the other side, going deep under the blue water. Breaking the surface of the lake I saw a boy standing at the edge of the lake, just watching me. It was the same boy that had called to me yesterday, but I just ignored him, diving back under the water and feeling it’s freshness on my face.

When I came back up he had disappeared from the lake side, a splash from the water made me turn my head suddenly, ripples flowed out across the water from where I had heard the splash. I ducked under and saw him swimming towards me, fast and powerful, I did not move, but made a small force field around myself keeping me floating upright in the water without having to flail my arms and legs about.

“Are you the girl from yesterday?”

“Why?”

“My brother was shouting at you and I did not know if he had offended you at all?” I looked at his face closely and saw that he was not the same man as yesterday; he was younger, although he was still a man.

“No, I am used to men like him.” I said coldly and brushed a strand of hair back from my face, my hand fell back into the water and as it did it briefly touched his, a shock ran through my arm and I snatched it away looking up at him in surprise, but he did not seem to notice that anything happened, the same smooth expression remained on his face.

“Good.” He was bobbing up and down on the surface, but looked completely at ease in the water, I kicked my legs slowly, just to make it look as if they were keeping me afloat. He said nothing, looking as if he were slightly bored by where the conversation had ended up. I presently turned around and swam off, climbing out effortlessly, pulling on the robe when I got to the trees and tying the sash tightly around my waist. I belted my sword round my hips and slung the bag over my shoulder, turning round to check if the man was still there; he was, in exactly the same place, just watching me.

I walked into the trees and made my way to the village slowly, drying my clothes and hair off as I walked, letting the steam rise up around my face. As I got closer to the middle of the village I saw the old woman, sitting outside her house as usual, I walked up to her and she looked at me briefly and then stared at me openly, “Your hair?” I smiled at her mischievously.

“Do you like it?” She stared at me open mouthed for a minute and then looked me up and down again. I could feel her scrutinising me and did nothing, waiting patiently for her observation.

“It was short yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“And today, it is long?”

“Yes.”

“You are more mysterious than you look at first sight, I would have believed it impossible.” She smiled at me and I smiled back, unguarded. “Now, that is a true smile.” She said happily. I took out the fruits from my bag and laid them out for her.

“These are all the fruits I found, I recognised these three, but I was not sure about these.” I said separating the fruits into two piles. She told me how one was edible, one would cure minor ailments of the skin and that the other would kill you as soon as the juice touched you tongue.

“You see the red flesh? This is a warning; Do not eat me.” We talked for a while and I told her that she could have the fruit that I had brought, except of course the red fleshed one, unless she wanted it as a dye for the cloth. She looked at me for a while.

“I have never thought of trying to use the flesh of this fruit for a dye, maybe it would work.” She sat there with a thoughtful look on her face and then we spoke for a few more minutes. In the end I left and promised to be back the day after, I was enjoying these chats with this woman so full of advice and knowledge. I walked back to my waterfall by the stream and up the smaller one, I thought it would be safer not to walk past the lake; I did not want anyone following me.

When I got to the waterfall I checked around me and then flew up it and over the pool. I ate and then practised my magic for the rest of the day, trying to improve my concentration levels. I went through everything, water bending, fire bending, wind bending, earth bending and then just other forms of magic. I was hungry at the end and sat down in the big tree eating the fruit and bread; I was running out and would need to buy some more in a few days.

Climbing out of the tree I sat on the grass and put my back up against the tree trunk, closing my eyes and listening to the sounds of the jungle around me. After a while I lay down on the soft grass and fell asleep.

I knew I had been sleeping on borrowed time, that night the nightmares came back, the man lying on the dusty floor, his eyes open, dead and cold, the wounded tears still wet on his cheeks, his mouth still open endlessly screaming in pain and loss. I woke up screaming and had to force myself to breathe deeply, but the tears still ran down my face as I remembered how helpless his eyes had been staring at me in her last moments, finding me, uncovering me and pulling me out of my shadowed hiding place.

I climbed up into the tree and hid amongst the branches, hoping that they would protect me from the inescapable dreams. I managed to get back to sleep just as the sun was rising over the horizon.

I awoke again later in the day and put on my new tunic and the long skirt, belting my sword I went over the top of the pool and floated down over the small waterfall. I walked to the village along the streams and made my way to the woman’s house as promised, she smiled when she saw me, but then it turned into a look of worry.

“What is the matter?”

“Nothing, I am well, I simply did not get much sleep.” She looked at me closely.

“It’s more than that, you look, older, there’s a look in your eyes that reminds me of myself, and I’m nearly in my eightieth cycle.” I smile at her and said nothing, unable to tell her, if I did I wouldd have to move again and I loved this place too much.

We only talked for about an hour that day and then I made an excuse and left her. Making my way back from the village I saw a dying bird on the path, I checked no one was around and then put my hand to the bird’s side, healing the wound that was killing it. Once it was done it looked at me with curious eyes and I recognised it as being the bird that had sat on my arm in under the branches of the fruit tree. I lifted it up off the floor and it cawed, I shushed it and carried it with me, flying up the waterfall with it still in my arms, I knew it would be weak for a while so I laid it on the grass and fed it a bit of my bread roll, eating the rest myself.

When I stood up it flew to the lowest branch in the tree and sat there just watching me as I picked up my sword and went through the Tingure, trying to perform it to perfection, but unable to concentrate properly, the image of the man’s face kept coming up in my head and stopping me from concentrating. In the end I gave up, I tried to do some water bending instead, but that was even worse, I could barely make the water into the first shape before it fell back into the pool below. I picked up a pebble and threw it into the pool in anger, it hit the stones below with a thud and the bird flapped its feathers a bit and shot me an annoyed look.

“Oh, do not give me that!” I said to it huffily, and stormed off to the edge of the water. I took a deep drink and splashed some over my face, trying to focus. I walked back over to where my sword was and picked it up, slowly going through the Tingure, I kept making mistake after mistake and got so exasperated that I threw my sword across the grass and it thumped into a tree on the opposite side of the clearing, the whole tree jolted to the side from the force of the sword hitting it.

Standing stock still I closed my eyes and breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm down. I walked over to the tree and pulled the sword out, throwing it on the floor and then inspecting the damage I had done to the tree. There was a large slit that went deep into the trunk and sap was already beginning to form over it, I put my hand to the bark and felt inside the tree, knitting the wood back together, repairing the damage I had done.

Walking back to the biggest tree, sword in hand, I saw the bird looking at me again with inquisitive eyes, its head slightly cocked to the side. I ignored it and slumped onto the floor, eating some fruit and then simply falling to sleep.

I woke again in the middle of the night, screaming.