“Wait, hold on a second. Are you… the brook?”

It let out a long exasperating sigh. “Don’t interrupt the story! Never interrupt a story!” It said angrily. “But fine, your question is a valid one pertaining to the story. So, I shall in my goodwill, let you have that. I am and am not this… brook.” It looked down at the water beneath it. “We used to be so much bigger it said sadly. “I am what you could call the Guardian of this brook. We are linked; we are one and the same. Though I can take on whatever form I please, like water can turn to ice and vapour. Haven’t you met your river’s guardian?”

Clover shook her head.

“Huh, a pity. Maybe you have and don’t know it yet. You should think backwards. I’m sure your river’s guardian would have wanted to meet with its new recruits. Now where… yes. There were several parts of the river that was broken off from the River of Time, from the different areas of time. The past, the present, the future. This is part of the flow of the future, while your river, is part of the present.”

“Present?”

“You travel through space, anywhere you want. But never to the past or future. Isn’t that right? The present is all at once and passes in a fleeting moment. Every second past belongs to the past and every moment ahead belongs to the future. It is odd isn’t it? How only a tiny fraction of time divides it all?”

“I guess. Yeah.”

“But really the present is all anyone has, for once you enter the future or the past, that becomes present ‘now’. But I digress. What this little brook once was, was a part of the flow of the future. And thus once you touch it you see an image of what a future may be. You could plan a whole future ahead, know of all of the possibilities if you do one thing of if you do another. Remarkable isn’t it. Many used to want to come down and touch the water.”

He paused looking at the water again. “How small we are now.”

“What… what happens if you drink it?”

It looked at her and laughed, its eyes a clear blue. “You change of course. All of you. Your body moves to your future state.”

“You grow older?”

“Of course. Depends on how much you choose to consume. In the past there were some young children who sought out the water to do so. Oh young children, how they do not understand. I let people touch the waters of course, and ask for one thing in return. To tell me. To tell me the story of what they have seen. So your little trip to wherever it was, that was merely a reflection of what could happen if that was the path that you chose. Nothing horrible I hope?”

“No,” she mumbled.

“That’s good that’s good! Now tell me. What is it you saw?” Its eyes glistened, it was a purple-blue.

“And if I tell you, you will tell me what became of the missing child?” Clover asked. It nodded gleefully. Clover told him everything that she saw.

“Ah, ah. How intriguing!” He said after she was done. He clapped his hands. “Please if you ever decide, do come back, it gets lonely by ourselves. The keep us here alone, hidden. And now even the owners that hide us tell everyone not to touch the water and say nothing more.”

“Alright, so I told you what I saw, now will you tell me what you saw? The missing child? What happened?”

“Ah, yes, I did see the boy. He was walking with a lady through the woods and then a wolf took him.”