Large fingered leaves and tiny brown pine needles got themselves tangled in Elijah’s hair. Hanna leaned forwards and pulled the leaf free from his hair, spun it between her fingers and let it flutter to the earth. They locked eyes for the briefest of moments before she rocked back down to her sitting position. It was also the first time in his life that Elijah felt compelled to glance away from her; as if the light burning deep in her eyes had somehow wound its way into the core of his being. 

“Hey Han--” 

“ ‘kay, let’s go.” She rocked forwards and hopped to her feet. “It’s nearby. You’ll believe me when you see this.” 

She sprinted away before he had a chance to push himself to his feet, and once again follow after her. A sweet scent filled the air. Far sweeter than the orange blossoms in full bloom as they cut through the woods. They went over the trickling stream that cut through the rocky hill — Elijah simply stepped over from bank to bank, while Hanna balanced on a log that had fallen over it. Every step they took through the shaded woods the sweet smell became all the more powerful. Even more overwhelming than the scent of decaying foliage that cluttered the ground. Soon the shadows ceded ground as the trees thinned out and came to a halt a few feet in front of them. 

Sunlight stung their eyes as the shadows completely fled to the bright light of the sun. Hanna burst free from the tree line into the meadow stretched out before them like a wild mustang through a broken fence, and zipped through the ankle high light green — almost yellow, moss like grass that grew along the stony ground. 

“See? Isn’t it cool?” She said as Elijah lingered at the edge of the treeline. 

Elijah was speechless. Among the moss like grass was a bed of wild flowers that grew in a seven-armed spiral, like the arms of one of the many galaxies that he had seen in a book one time. A diverse array of flowers, in both species and color, grew along the arms. Reds as deep as blood, orange as bright as fire, blues as deep as the sea, and whites as pure as the clouds drifting on by. In the middle of this galaxy of flowers was a singular, bulbous flower, like the tulips that Hanna’s grandparents but significantly bigger. About as large as a balled fist, and grew tall enough to reach up to Hanna’s knees as she wandered among the flowers. Even in the bright afternoon light, Elijah could make out the slight bluish glow coming off of its frost colored petals. 

Hanna stood in the middle of the flowers; her feet planted apart, on either side of one of the arms, next to the large unknown one. 

“Isn’t it cool?” She said, with her arms spread wide as if to show her own creations. 

Just as she uttered the last syllable of the question a gale of cold, biting wind howled out of the woods and nearly pushed Elijah into the tree all the harder. A man-sized dervish formed in the meadow just as the wind breached the tree-line. It cut the tops of the grass as it passed through and made its way towards Hanna. The shards of green danced in the dervish and formed something that almost looked like a face within the wind to Elijah, now clinging to the birch. As the dervish formed and approached the flowers, a faint song; like a choir singing at a great distance. 

The spinning wind wrapped around the girl with her arms still in the air. She lowered her arms and spun with the dervish like a pair of dancers. She stepped in between the arms of the spiraling floral garden as if guided by a pair of expert hands and skillful steps. She pulled back, and pushed forwards and spun in a pirouette; never breaking the spiraling arms with her foot falls. The singing in the distance grew louder and louder the longer the dance went on. Elijah’s teeth chattered as he watched; hidden behind the birch trunk, and Hanna laughed wildly. 

Eventually, the dance ended as the wind was swept up into the clear blue, and Hanna was left on her own. Everything was perfectly still and quiet; save for the bristling grass and the wind howling further and further into the heavens. Elijah stood there with his jaw slack; his logical mind grinding in search of any explanation or rationalization that would dispel the sense of wonder and awe flowing through him. 

“What did I tell you? Wasn’t that cool?”