Several hours of trekking, one lunch, then several more hours of trekking later Eric and Sonia reached the waterfall.

Sonia couldn't find the words to describe how beautiful it was.  It was wonderful, glorious, magical and incredibly picturesque.  

It was situated in a valley, hidden deep in the forest.  The water was so clear you could see the fish swimming at the bottom.  The waterfall was perhaps three metres high.  It fell beautifully off moss covered rocks into the small lake.  Faeries darted and pranced around the edges of the water.  A few bathed near some lilies.  Vines fell from the trees and hung like swings.

'You like it?' asked Eric nervously.  Sonia shook her head in disbelief.

'I don't like it, I love it!' she replied.  Eric burst into laughter and Sonia couldn't help but stare at his smile.  She loved it when he smiled so wide.  It reminded her of the first time they met ... even though he insisted it never happened.

Eric dropped his backpack to the ground and pulled his t-shirt over his shoulder.  Sonia quickly turned away and averted her eyes.  Those abs!

Eric chucked his shoes off and screamed in delight.  He ran forward and dived into the water.  He disappeared for a few seconds then reemerged.  He shook his hair and floated onto his back.  The sun shone down and warmed his body.  Sonia bit down on her lip nervously, she didn't bring any swimmers with her.

'Come on!' yelled Eric, 'the water is incredibly warm!'  Sonia hesitated and looked down at her clothes.  She was wearing a pair of Eric's shorts that were two sizes too large - they were held up by a piece of rope and a baggy old t-shirt of his.  She supposed she could jump in wearing what was on her.  There was a second change of clothes in the backpack after all.  She crouched down and begun to untie her shoe laces.  These were a spare pair of women's sneakers that were luckily lying around Eric's house and fit perfectly.  She kicked her shoes off and took a deep breath.  Eric was now treading water and grinning profusely at her.

'What are you waiting for whimp?' he called out laughing.  Sonia grinned back and shook her head.  She loved swimming and had come first many times in her local swimming carnival.  But running and jumping into a lake in the middle of a forest in a foreign land?  It felt exhilarating.

In her head she counted one, two, three!

She ran and leapt forward.  Her feet touched the water and she held her breath as her body dived in.  She gasped and swam up towards the surface and took in a big breath.

"Eric you tosser!" she screamed.  The water was freezing.  It felt like ice.  Eric howled with laughter.

"Okay, so I exaggerated, it's just a little chilly," he said.

"A little!" she shrieked.  But as she kicked and moved her limbs to tread through the water, she could feel herself warming up a little already.  It was time for payback.

She took a deep breath and started flailing her arms around.

"Cramp in the leg, ouch, cramp!" she cried and she slowly sunk beneath the surface.

"Sonia!" cried Eric.  He quickly swam forward and went to dive underwater to save her when all of sudden she pounced out of the water behind him and shoved his head underwater.  She screamed with laughter.  This was so much fun.  Eric resurfaced moments later laughing.

"Okay, okay, maybe it's very cold," he admitted.  

"You're forgiven," said Sonia.  She kicked backwards and floated onto her back.  She loved this place!  

'Thank you so much for taking me here,' she told him.

'You're welcome,' he replied.  

Something swam past Sonia's leg and she gasped in surprise.  She looked down and saw a seahorse near her leg.

'Is that a-'

'Seahorse?  Yeah.  There's loads of them here,' answered Eric.  Sonia watched amazed as a group of multi-coloured seahorses approached her and started sniffing her leg.  Sonia giggled.  A baby seahorse the size of her thumb approached her and started sniffing but sneezed at one sniff.  It flew backwards towards the back of the group.

'What are a group of seahorses called?' asked Sonia.

'A herd maybe?'

'But they're not real horses, they're fish,' laughed Sonia.  Eric shrugged his shoulders.

'That's a good question.  Geoffrey would know the answer to that.  Come on, there's something else I want to show you,' said Eric.  He laid his head back and started kicking.  Sonia laughed and followed him.  They made their way to the edge of the waterfall.  Up this close the sound of the water crashing against water was deafening.  The water sprayed into Sonia's eyes.

'Follow me,' shouted Eric.  He dived head first into the water and kicked.  His body moved smoothly under the water until he disappeared onto the other side of the waterfall.  Sonia smiled and took a deep breath then dived in after him.

She reemerged and wiped the water away from her eyes. There were diamonds.  Millions of them shining brightly, set in the stone of the waterfall.  They glittered.  Some were white, others were blue and a few were pink or purple.

'This is incredible,' breathed Sonia.  'How did you find this place?'  Eric swam to the edge of the water and heaved himself onto the rock.  He waited until Sonia had finished doing the same.

'I've read the book that I am from.  Well, some of it.  The beginning of it anyway.  The waterfall was described in one of the first few chapters.  After I found out about it I became obsessed.  I searched for it for weeks until I finally found it.  I immediately came here to see if I could steal some of the diamonds but the second I laid eyes on this place I couldn't do it.  It's too beautiful.'  Sonia looked up and took in the view.

'I know what you mean,' she said.  'A few of these diamonds and you could become the richest person on earth but ... it would seem a crime against ... against myself if I did,'

For a few minutes Eric and Sonia sat quietly admiring the different shapes and sizes of the diamonds.  As the water fell, light from outside peered through and the diamonds wouldn't stop glimmering.

Sonia turned to Eric and noticed he was staring at her.  'Thank you for taking me here,' she told him.  Eric still stared at her, he started to smile a little.  Sonia wondered what he was thinking.

'Do you like water fights?' he asked grinning.  Sonia's smile turned to a scowl.

'Don't you even think about-'

Suddenly he lurched forward and pushed her body into the water.  Gasping for breath, Sonia reemerged from the water only for a splash full of water to land on her face.  Eric howled with laughter.  He sounded like a hyena on crack.  So Sonia swooshed her hand forward and watched as a wave of water wash over his head.  

Oh this was going to be fun.

*

Hours later Sonia was sitting on the grass shivering under blankets and sleeping bags.  Eric had changed into a set of dry clothes and called Sonia a whimp for not toughening up.

"It's so cold," she moaned.  She didn't understand why she was so cold, she had got changed into a set of dry clothes too.  For the last ten minutes Sonia had sat moaning, Eric had gathering some sticks, started a fire and put some tinned soup in a small pot.  Their wet clothes were laid out next to the fire drying.

"Here, take this," said Eric and he went to remove his jumper.

"Are you crazy?" said Sonia.  "Don't be silly, I'll warm up soon, hopefully."  Eric shook his head and kept his jumper on.  The soup had started boiling so he took the lid off the flask and poured some into it for Sonia.  Sonia grabbed it thankfully and took a sip.

"Thank you," she said.  She could already feel the warm liquid warming her insides.  "And not just for the soup, for the whole of today, I loved every moment of it."

"Even the 5am wake up call?"

Sonia grinned, "even the 5am wake up call."  

'So what is your home like?' asked Eric.  "I didn't get to see much of it apart from your now trashed living room."  

'It's nice. I live in small town where nearly everybody knows everyone.  I go to school everyday. I have a nice group of friends. I play the violin and go to orchestra once a week, although dad wants me to start learning the cello too. I have a dog named Jasmine, she's a border collie. I live with my dad, he works for the local newspaper.'

'What of your mum?' he asked. 

'She mum passed away when I was little.' There was a second of silence as Eric thought of something to say.

'I'm sorry to hear that,' he said. He watched Sonia gaze aimlessly at the flames within their small fire.

'Don't be,' she said after a while. 'It happened so long ago.  I barely even remember her.' Sonia took a breath and racked her mind for ideas to change the topic. 'So, what has been your favourite book to read yourself into?' she asked.

Eric laughed out loud. 'Well that's a hard one,' he said.

'Fine,' said Sonia, 'favourite two.' Eric grinned.

'Well, there's too many,' started Eric. 'There's the Power of Five books, Hunger Games, Throne of Glass, Divergent, Harry Potter, Snow White-'

'Snow White?' interrupted Sonia, she started to laugh, 'did you prance around and sing too?'

'Hey! Snow White isn't all as girly it's made out to be. The Evil Queen and her army are ruthless!'

'And what was Harry Potter like?' asked Sonia.

'I loved spending time in the world of Harry Potter. I spent a couple of months living at Hogwarts actually.' Sonia screamed a little with excitement.

'No way! That's so cool! What house were you sorted into?' 

Eric blushed a little.

'Um, actually, I was only Filtch's assistant whilst I was there,' he admitted sheepishly. Sonia burst into laughter.

"Are you serious?"

'Come on!' laughed Eric. 'I don't have any magical powers. Everyone thought I was a squib!'

 Sonia grinned, she was so jealous of Eric's life.

"Your life must be pretty amazing.  I would love to read myself into a different novel everyday."

"It's not that all great to be honest.  It gets a little tiresome.  And with Master now on my back I have to be careful.  I'd love to go to school, make friends that don't disappear when the novel finishes, have a normal life."

"I suppose everyone wishes for a life they could never have," said Sonia.  Eric smiled softly at Sonia.  That he did agree.