"HELP! IS THERE ANYONE! HEEELP!!!"

I was running in the direction of the voice calling for help. It wasn't that far. It was...it was coming from the Lunar Meadow.

That's weird. Never before has anyone been in trouble here. The forest was scary for everyone, but their fears came from their minds, and not from a real danger. No, there wasn't anything life-threatening here. Everyone's fear was just a fruit of their imagination. The threat in this forest was as real as the monsters created by the shadows of the tree branches lit by moon light. But people were not to blame. The darkness had that effect on us, it could easily alter the reality and show danger where there wasn't any.

That's why these cries for help really shocked me.

I approached the Lunar Meadow, and I froze in place.

This meadow was...magical, mildly said. It was different every day. I had seen a lot of its wonders but this time it stroke me as a bolt out of the blue.

All the trees around it were abnormally tall. I thought the trees in the Shadow Forest were tall, but those here were HUGE. I felt like an ant compared to them.

I got closer to one of the trees and touch it. Something like a rope was wrapped around it. I took a deep breath. The air was different, unusual. The breath of pine was replaced by the aroma of green leaves, moisture and soil.

The green rope-like plants, the air filled with the scent of coming rain...Hmmm, this was reminding me of...Rain forest! So these 'ropes' must be lianas!

I was so fascinated by this new scenery that I didn't realize how and when I stepped in something which was sucking me into the ground. Actually the ground wasn't solid anymore. It was wet, and it was cold and sticky. I tried to take my leg out of this thing but it was stuck. I had to grab one of the ropes...I mean the lianas so to pull myself out of this substance.

Looking around the place, I realized that the whole meadow was covered in this thing, and then I noticed something protruding from it in the opposite end.

Hands!?

Oh, no. This must've been the screaming man. He was sucked in by this... sand pool.

Ah! And then I realized. That must be quicksand!

"Amara stop observing and start acting, there still has a hope for him", I scolded myself.

Without wasting any more time, I reached forward to a tree nearby the sunk person, and drew a liana with my magic and I wrapped it around his wrist. Then I stretched my right arm and repeated the movement with another liana. And when his both wrists were secured with the nature's ropes, I started pulling him out of the quicksand.

By the time his body, down to the knees, showed over the quicksand, my eyes were filled with tears, and I was barely seeing what I was doing. Nevertheless I kept on holding him tight, and stepped back. Step after step, I pulled him out of the quicksand and onto the solid ground.

The tears had dried on my face, and I saw him there, around 20 steps was separating us.

He was there. He was safe.

I breathed in relief and fell to the ground, exhausted by the effort - emotionally and physically drained. Another flow of tears was coming, but I pushed them away, breathed in and out, and got up on my feet.

It wasn't over. I had to check him out. He might've been hurt.

I walked slowly toward him, tottering. I felt dizzy. My eyes lost their focus. These twenty steps seemed like twenty thousand to me.

I reached him and slumped on the ground next to him.

With slightly trembling hands I touched his face and removed the dirt, and the strands of hair from it.

He was young, maybe two or three years older than me. He had beautiful features but what drew my attention was his lips. They were...bluish.

"Oh no oh no oh no! Is it too late for him!? Oh no!", the panic was rising fast inside me, "Oh, what to do? What to do?"

Tears were coming again. I wiped them angrily. It wasn't the time for crying.

"IRIS!!!", I cried.

She was the only one who could help me!

"IRIS! PLEASE!", I shouted but my voice broke, and the rest came out as a whisper, "come...please Iris come!"

And she appeared before me.

"Amara, what's going on?", she asked anxiously.

"Help me! He was stuck in the quicksand. His lips are blue. I don't know what to do", I said quickly, "Please help him!"

"Calm down!", she replied. She approached him and touched his forehead with her horn. The traces of quicksand disappeared from his body and face.

"He's not gone. But you have to warm him up quickly. He's hypothermic", Iris said.

"But how?", I asked.

"With magic, how else!?", she replied, "Put one hand on his forehead and the other on his chest. Close your eyes and imagine a heat wave rising in you, then passing through your hands and flowing into his body. And do it quickly! He doesn't have much time left."

"I don't know if I can. Can't you...", I started uncertainly but she interrupted me.

"Amara, DO IT NOW, there's no time!"

I listened to her and did exactly what she told me.

But it was hard because the panic in me kept me from concentrating. And the touch of his cold skin under my left hand resting on his forehead scared me even more.

I took a deep breath and thought of warmth.

Edelweiss's smile flashed through my mind. How she came in the morning to wake me. Her laughter when I tickled her. Our games at the Lunar Meadow while we were chasing each other, picking flowers and weaving wreaths...

I filled my mind with thoughts of my little sister, with our wonderful memories and moments together, and I felt warm.

The warmth originated in my heart and then started spreading. I enlarged it mentally, and then directed it to my hands. The heat passed through me, reached my fingers, and flowed into the young man's body.

I opened my eyes and looked down. My fingers shone, and that light sank into the man. Gradually, his colour was coming back.

As his lips turned slightly pink, a breath came out of them, like a sigh.

He was good, I felt it.

"Thank you, Iris", I said with a smile and raised my head to look at her, but she was gone.

"What happened!?", the man said barely, almost in a whisper.

I looked down and sank into the bluest eyes I had ever seen. Dark blue as the night sky.