I've always liked blue eyes. Whether it was because mine were so dark brown that they sometimes looked black, and black wasn't one of my favourite colours, or because they reminded me of the sky, I didn't know. But they've always been so appealing to me.

Actually, I grew up surrounded by blue eyes.

Adele's eyes were as light as the sky covered with a thin layer of clouds through which its blue colour shines. In the beginning they had a friendly glow, but then... Well, for me her eyes became cold, and they lost the beauty I saw at first in them. Now, the glow in Adele's eyes was chilling and repulsive, the complete opposite of her warmth in the first years of our acquaintance.

Edelweiss's eyes, on the other hand, were bright blue, like the sky in the midsummer. A beautiful bright deep blue that was shining like the midday sun when she smiled.

Our dad's eyes were...hmm...his...Hmm, odd, I couldn't really recall the colour of his eyes, but... maybe they were similar to Edelweiss's eyes!? Maybe.

Anyway...

Growing up and seeing only blue eyes... hmm... Maybe that was some explanation of my attraction to them.

I'd always compared my dull brown eyes to someone else's sparkling blue ones. They've always amazed me with their similarity to sky.

The sky, so vast and unlimited, it was the perfect example of freedom for me.

A freedom - something that it couldn't be anything more than a word, and a beautiful unrealistic dream for me. Freedom. This magical word had become my deepest wish, the only dream that I really wanted to fulfill, the only thing I long for so desperately, and also the thing I could never have.

~ Freedom ~

Yes, blue eyes were symbol of freedom for the unhappy kid that I was. It's actually funny how when I was little I believed that if I had had blue eyes I would've been free. And because I hadn't sky-like coloured irises, I wasn't free.

I was trapped, no, I was caged in darkness. And the shade of my own eyes was an excruciating reminder that I wouldn't be ever able to escape from it.

But these thoughts didn't abandon me when I grew up. Even now, there's one question that was still coming from times to times in my mind to torture me...What if the darkness was my destiny!?

However...

I shook my head, and got out of the swirling tornado that my thoughts created in my mind.

And I focused again on the man. The man I was still touching with my hands - the one, placed on his forehead, and the other, on his chest.

This young man's eyes were something I had never seen before. They were like the blue velvet night sky, right after midnight when all the stars could be easily spotted.

I was immersed in my thoughts of now and then, when a man's voice dragged me out of my inner world.

The man I saved was saying something to me.

I didn't know why but the sudden realisation that while I was wandering in my mind, in my thoughts, he had started talking, scared me.

I flinched. I pulled my hands away from his forehead and chest, and folded them in fists under my chin.

"I didn't mean to scare you, Miss, but... where am I and what has happened?", he asked.

"You are in the Shadow Forest. And you were sucked in by quicksand", I replied, and slowly put my hands down on my knees.

"But how...?", he started but didn't finish.

There was confusion in his beautiful eyes.

"I don't know how you got here", I answered his unasked question.

He kept quiet.

"Why don't you tell me what has happened?", I asked him.

He frowned.

"If I knew I wouldn't...", he began, but suddenly stopped.

Different emotions ran through his face.

His eyebrows furrowed, trying to remember. Then he turned pale, apparently recalling the incident. The wrinkle between his eyebrows disappeared and they shot up.

"I think I...", he started.

"Come on, what do you remember?", I encouraged him to talk.

"Well", he breathed in and then out, "I was coming to the village on my horse when it started moving slower and slower. I realized that it was tired. We were travelling miles after miles, and we both were really tired but I... I had to keep going. So I got off its back, and left it near the forest. I knew that it would take a rest and then it would go back at the p...uh...hm.. at home... I moved forward. I entered the forest. And it turned out darker than I expected but I knew that beyond the woods was the village, so I kept straight line. Then I got to this m...meadow...", he stopped and swallowed, "I stepped on it, and it was hard ground and there was grass on it, and it was a... A NORMAL MEADOW..."

He raised his voice, his hands started shaking, he drew them tighter to his body, and folded them into fists so to hide his trembling, and his feelings from me.

Even though I knew that it must've been a really traumatic experience, I couldn't imagine the power of its impact. But he involuntarily showed me that it actually has affected him heavily.

He was upset, and it was hard for him to talk but he swallowed his emotions and continued more calmly.

"But after only a few steps into the meadow, I stopped. The air thickened, and it was hard to breathe. I looked in every direction, the image around me was trembling. Everything was blurred.

I felt like I was looking through flames - the images were no longer static and clear, but flickering and refracted... unfocused.

I assumed that my eyes were just showing my excessive fatigue, so I closed them and pressed my eyelids with my fingers. I stood there for only a few seconds, reminding myself that the village must be nearby and I would soon be able to rest. I relaxed my hand, opened my eyes, but the picture was not quite clear, so I did not see the change...

Before I knew it the ground was no more solid, and I sank in it.

I tried to get out, to move, but it was impossibly difficult. I struggled, but instead of getting out even a millimeter, as if... as if I was sinking deeper and deeper."

"Honestly", he swallowed, "the more I was trying to get out of it, the more I sank."

"Imperceptibly... I was stuck in the... ground ... in ... this ... this thing", the tension in his voice was released by the anger inside him, and he started yelling, "I don't know what it is, but it sucked me to my chest. And then I felt an ice wave passing through my body, and it scared the hell out of me."

He stopped, swallowed and continued again.

"I was petrified. I didn't know what to do, so... I started screaming for help. Hoping...", his voice broke, but he swallowed again, and said with raspy voice, "Hoping that someone will hear me and help me."

He fell silent. His mouth tightened into a thin line. He was trying to hide his emotions once more. But he couldn't control the tension in him, his nostrils were expanding and narrowing rapidly, in sync with his tense breathing.

Then his gaze fixed on the Lunar Meadow. He was staring at the tropical scenery next to us.

Quiet. Tensed. Angry.

He was really upset, so I didn't break the silence and gave him time to calm down.

After a while, he looked me in the eyes and I saw tears in them. It wasn't unusual, considering the circumstances, that he was about to cry but I got the feeling that these tears meant a lot more than I could guess or imagine.

"The next thing I know... I'm lying here and...you are... You are...here", he broke the silence, "Actually...did you get me out? Did you save me?"

I nodded.

"But how!?", he asked.

His gaze traced my body, and he was not convinced.

"How did you do it? You are so...", he said.

"Skinny!? Weak!?", I replied, finishing his thought.

He nodded.

"Well, it wasn't easy but I did it. With my magic", I simply said.

"What kind of magic?", he asked and moved nervously.

He slowly got up to a sitting position and slightly pulled away from me.

"I can make... plants grow, so to say", I said.

I turned to one of the tropical trees near us. I reached with my right hand and made a liana extend, and get closer to us.

"See", I showed him the liana, "I used a couple of these as ropes, and dragged you out of the quicksand."

"Oh! It's innate nature magic then", he said and sighed in relief, "Okay. Thank you then!"

"You're welcome!"

"May I ask you something else?", he asked.