"Where have you been? Hurry and finish the laundry so we can go practice more." Her tone suggests that I had known we had scheduled an outing, and I blush despite not having been informed.

            “Can we… do another day?” I say, not quite sure why it suddenly feels so foreboding to learn the thing I love with people who I had found to be quite nice, but I still feel a burning no in my chest to Ebony’s pleading eyes. Besides, “I, um, have chores to do.” She tries to stare me directly in my eyes but as always I avoid them like the plague. Not sure what to do now, I hesitantly turn back to the washing and continue to scrub the dirt stuck to my underdress.

            Wait, is this improper? I blush again but continue to wash, trying to hide the garment with my body. While Ebony had accompanied me some times to wash together, I have only just met Iren. Is this how friends usually act, or am I being extremely impolite right now?

            No, I try to tell myself. They are the ones who came here, right?

            “Evika, come on!” Ebony crouches beside me and does her best to hold my eyes. “It will only be for a few hours.”

            “She doesn’t have to come if she doesn’t want to.” Iren tries to offer, but Ebony shushes her.

            “Eve, I know what you are doing. Don’t distance yourself from new friends just because they are not your old ones.”

            That’s not what I am doing, and she clearly does not even want me to come! Did you not see how horribly the last meeting went? I briefly remember how the time did fly, but only for a moment. I don’t want to feel that pain, that need to run, for hours so unexpectedly. Perhaps if I were given a warning, I might have considered it, but today has already been decided to be a laundering day.

            “I-” her grip tightens on the ground beside me, and her face cracks slightly, and my breath catches. For once, I look into her shining brown eyes. What I see is something similar to everything that I am and have been feeling.

            I sigh and look at my washing, finally understanding. I am not the only one who craves something familiar in this shifting path, she just needs more than one person to thrive.

            And Ebony is not waiting any longer for them to come back.

            “Fine” I grit out, already regretting it and re-arranging all the chores I had planed for today, and saying a silent sorry to a somber seeming Iren. I really hope I do well today so that the group can hopefully not hate me to much for intruding.

            “Great! Once you finish that basket of washing, nothing more,” she looks at me suspiciously, “meet us by the…” she trails off, suddenly realizing something, and as she pauses indecisively I realize what she is about to say. My eyes go wide and I try to be subtle as I shake my head, making full eye contact with her. The Willow tree is to close to the village, we cant risk getting in trouble.

            I unconsciously rub my wrist where that unnatural rune had faded into.

            I didn’t recognize that rune, I don’t know what it does.

            I don’t know how far out of the coven I can go.

           “The aspen grove.” She determines, standing up and dusting her hand against her skirt. I look back at my washing and just.

            Stare.

            I don’t really think of anything, but my spine stays in its chilled state from the realization that I have no idea what that hideous thing that is now apart of me does. I can only guess that it has something to do with my location, and even then what is the extent. And how do I get it off.

            Another chill runs down my spine at the memory of that gleaming white tar, like nothing I had ever seen.

            Eventually, I am not entirely sure when, I slowly finish my washing. Its not only the mark that is worrying me, but the fact that we could have been caught. The willow tree is closer to the small human town than my mother realizes, and it is ours. I think even Ebony has not given up hope completely that they will return when they promised, and when they do, everything can go back to our sweet, rhythmic normal and everything will be okay.

            Everything will be okay.

I stand with the washing snugged into my left waist and walk calmy up the hill, my yellow dress fluttering slightly in the chilly breeze. I open the door to my hut and set the laundry to dry and set the basket down inside. I look around our small, three-room cottage for my mother before venturing out to the garden, where I find her tending to her basil and ginger plants. She lightly wields a small, rusty blade, and swipes off the slightly frost-bitten and wilted branches of the aforementioned herb and sets the trimmings in a small basket to be used to brew one of her tinctures.

           If only she could make one to set my mind at ease when I am near her.

           “Mother, may I go to the aspen grove with Ebony, Masy, Iren and…” Sprites, I forgot his name, of all people!

Her eyes frost over like the potion she is no doubt intending to make, and her blade cuts viciously through the branch she was working with so tenderly before. I wince and my hand almost shoots to my wrist again, but I stay still.

          “Didn’t I say no more dawdling around with that girl?” she says, barely noticing my mishap.

          “I had thought you had still meant for me to meet new friends as well. I apologize.” I try to turn away and end the interaction, but she draws me back in with a sigh.

          She pinches her nose, “I did, didn’t I?” she murmurs. “I just think that Ebony girl is a bad influence on you, I wanted you to find other friends…” she bites her lip. “Fine. Just make sure to bring something warm, it will be getting cooler by the time you get back. ‘My daughter’ should I say, to fit in with your fancy words?” she smiles and waves me away. A woman with emotions so temporary you could get whiplash.

          I plaster a similar smile on my face and nod in thanks, finally turning away and almost running into my room. I quickly button up my waistcoat and swing on a caplet, and grab my satchel, refraining from entering the kitchen before deciding that it was indeed a good idea, and leave with A Hedgerows Guide To The Sun Vol.1, some sweet nuts, and a growing, inexplainable dread.

           As I walk through the coven, I rehearse some things I may need to say so it may not be as disastrous as last time. That’s close! An encouragement. Focus your mind and remember to take your time. A… tip? You want to have to really want to- no, that’s not it either. How to describe the process? The best I can say is just want it to happen. That. it doesn’t think that will be too helpful.

          Suddenly, I pass the community garden and am at the base of the small bridge, only a couple dozen yards from the grove. I am not ready. I stay at the bridge for a minute in a silent panic, my hand fidgeting, and now a movement in the corner of my eye freezes me. Wey hurries from his garden in the Crudena cluster with some plants clutched to his chest, and he pushes his way into his cottage with his back. Listening closely, I can hear faint shouting and rummaging around, and then a disheveled Wey rushes out of the front door, Masy close behind, looking annoyed at their apparent delay. They hurry intently towards the bridge. The bridge I am standing dumbly in front of. I look around for a place to hide while also thinking of a reason for my idling.

          I attempt an escape beneath the bridge but Wey shouts, “Oh, hey Evika!” and heads directly towards me. “are you running a bit late too?” he says with a chuckle and he wraps his arm around my shoulder driving us quickly over the bridge. I am taken aback by his forwardness and can say nothing, my mind occupied by every one of my atoms that touch his. The points of contact shift and squish with the offset rhythms of our strides and breath. Every movement sends a shockwave of sensation into my body, its all I can focus on, everything he is saying is only the chattering of birds or the running of water, and I don’t know. I don’t know if I like it or if it absolutely revolts me, but ether way the feeling is so strong and sudden that I stumble on one of the uneven planks of the small bridge as the quickest excuse for getting out of his arms that I could think of.

        The only person who I felt comfortable enough to touch so casually and for longer periods of time was Silver, and even then it was small points of contact, a head on a shoulder, and even then I had that indescribable feeling of… utter awareness, for lack of better words.

        Wey stumbles a little along with me but quickly regains himself and holds my arms as if I were to collapse any moment.

        “Are you okay?” he says, half laughing. I nod my head, embarrassed now at my overreaction.

        Yes.

        An overreaction.

        “Aw, she’s flustered.” Masy croons as we continue walking, the lack of contact slowly making me feel less of that unexplainable feeling. I continue to focus on my steps, not knowing what to do about her teasing other than to ignore it.

         Wait. I look over to Wey and he looks away. Do they actually think that was the cause of my reaction? My face burns even hotter at that realization, and I speed up, hoping that Ebony can somehow shield me from this embarrassment.

         After a few failed attempts at small talk, we finally make it to the aspen grove. Their white bark swirls with eyes that track my every moves, and they whisper greetings and cadences for someone has finally arrived to listen. I slow to a stop and frown. “…Hurt."  What Iren had said while connected to the grass floats through my mind. It is a coincidence surly, but a worrying one. A grove so close to a coven should not be this lonely, it should not be brimming with untold stories. And why are they so loud? I should have needed to actively connect with them to be able to understand their intent, but I am simply walking through their quaking boughs.

       For once, I am disturbed by my connection to this world.

       From the corner of my eye, I see a splash of misplaced color, and-

       “Are you coming?” Masy says with a fair amount of sass.

      “Oh,” I pause, “Yes, I just…” its just a particularly bright leaf. That must be it. “I thought I saw a crane.” I shake my head.

       I shut out the trees easily and enter a small clearing with a few small boulders sitting peacefully between the trees. Ebony and Iren sit on twin boulders and Iren sits up to greet Wey and Masy. I make my way to a boulder beside Ebony and Masy makes sure to make a show of sitting down between me and Wey, her burgundy skirt and waistcoat standing out against the cool greys of the scene, and she too has acknowledged the shift in weather, this time adding volume and warmth to her skirt with a petticoat.

       Iren looks eagerly to Ebony and the lesson begins.

       It is a similar format as before, Ebony, however, opts not to humiliate me as she did before, and everyone starts to practice on the rocks.

       Wey is the first to connect, and he shares exited smiles and ‘well done’s’ with Iren, who connects soon after. The twisting in my gut slowly ebbs as the day wears thin and I grow more confident with my advice, helping them move to lose pieces of wood after some practice with the rocks. I start to remember how I did feel more at ease with them a day ago than I had thought, and time once again starts to slip. Soon, we are sitting in a disjointed circle sharing some of the nuts that I am glad to have brought, the sun dipping below the trees. They had all been able to successfully connect with a large rock, a piece of wood, and moss, the later being more challenging to get out of.

       Ebony sits with her legs crossed and back against the boulder, and beside her I have my knees drawn up to my chest, rocking slightly on my tailbone. We soak in the sun for some moments, basking in its warmth, before Masy stands up.

       “Anyone want to come to my house for a frozen treat?” Everyone gasps, for making frozen things and making them stay frozen is not an easy task. The potion my mother was preparing to make was a temporary coolant that, when combined with other things, can keep things cold for an amount of time, helping to preserve them. Freezing things, however, was a much more precise and mindful work, and I am not sure if I have even seen my mother, one of the best potion makers in the Silexyn, the cult of earth magic.

        She looks to the sun as it sinks lower and lower behind the tree. “Yea, lets go now! Dinner is soon and we have to savor it.” She starts out of our little circle, and we follow, the trees sorrowfully watching us leave.

        There it is again.

        I pause and look closer. It is a splash of stark, blood-like red at the base of one of the trees and sprinkled on some leaves. It. It is blood.

        Ebony steps behind the others and grabs my hand, claiming my attention. “Are you exited for frozen treats?” she smiles.

        I smile back, genuine. I am.

       It was just an animal having their treat. 

       That's all.

                                                                                 ~End of Chapter One~