Chapter 1

“Let’s go…"

I grabbed Aase’s hand and, before she could object, I touched the Flow. I wasn’t as good at magic as my auntie, but the few seconds I got us were enough to slip away from the watchful eyes of my uncle Bari and the harvest of Nuru fruit we were supposed to be helping with.

We ran to the fence separating the grove from the jungle, and I dived under it, squeezing through the hole we’d so carefully made two summers ago. That had been the first time we were old enough to help with the harvest, and so we’d taken sensible measures to be sure we had a way out when we got too bored.

“Aagh, wait!” Aase yelped as I pulled her through.

She’d grown a lot over the winter, and the hole we’d created had become too small for her. But she managed to squeeze through, and once she was out, I covered it with dry branches and then collapsed on the soft grass, letting go of the Flow.

“Are you okay?” she asked, poking me.

“Yeah, and you?”

"My tail …”

She sighed, and I giggled at her fluffy orange tail, full of twigs and dry grass.

"We should go back. We’ll get in trouble again," she murmured.

“We're already in trouble!” I laughed, but when I saw her ears drooping, I leaned over and hugged her.

“Let’s go to the stream, and I’ll comb your tail."

She looked away, but I managed to catch her blushing. I let it be this time rather than tease her as I always did. I felt bad for getting her into trouble, but she couldn’t really think harvesting Nuru was fun?

I got up. It was a hot day, another reason to spend the afternoon by the stream rather than doing boring adult stuff. My head still felt dizzy after holding the Flow, but I guess it was good practice. Auntie Rikka always told me that I should work on my magic. After the harvest was over, I would probably leave for Naria to learn to become the next Guardian. I would need all the practice I could get to learn how to keep the Air Crystal in balance, just as she had done all these years.

I glanced at Aase still picking twigs from her tail and took her hand. Just for her sake, of course, not mine, and so she had no right to tease me about it. The sound of the birds and insects filled the humid air as we ran into the jungle, and the ground under our feet soon grew soft, and Aase slowed down, not wanting to step on the Aga seeds that littered the ground at this time of year and spend the rest of the afternoon picking spikes from her feet.

We continued deeper into the forest, pushing aside huge ferns growing on the path, and the sound of running water filled the air when Aase suddenly gripped my hand tighter, and she whispered,

“Silje, I will run away with you…"

I sighed.

“Maybe they’ll let you come to Naria too”, I tried, but she looked away.

I didn’t want to spend our hard-earned time together planning what we would do if our parents decided to separate us. Although we already knew, of course. We would run to Akkadia, where we would plead our case to the Council.

“And what if they don’t?” she sniffled. “The temple belongs to the Moon Elves. You’ve been the Guardians of the Crystal for generations.”

“Everyone can help in the temple."

“Really?”

"Yep," I nodded. “When I visited Auntie Rikka, I even saw Water Dragons from the coast staying there."

In truth, they'd left before we arrived, but it wasn’t a total lie, and seeing her brighten up at my words convinced me I had done the right thing coming up with that.

I brushed aside a huge purple leaf, and a swarm of butterflies erupted into the air. Momentarily forgetting about our potential fate, we set out after them, chasing them until we almost stumbled into the stream. Only Aase saved me from that fate by grabbing me just in time before I slipped on a wet rock.

She pulled me close, not letting me stumble again. To be fair, it wouldn’t have been that bad to have slipped into the water. The stream wasn’t very deep, and my tunic would dry in no time in the sun, but being held by her, even for a moment, felt even better. Not that I would admit to such a thing. She would tease me forever if I did, and fearing it would come anyway, I was forced to push her into the water, not to show how much I liked it.

Of course, she just elegantly stepped into the air and hovered above the stream, where she dipped her toes into the cold water, grinning at me. She’d always been too fast to fall for such a simple trick. She was a Kitsune for a reason, and I was yet to find a way to trick any of her people.

I stepped closer when her image vanished, and moments later I got a good shove from behind. I only realised I'd been fooled when I plunged into the cold stream, and her laughter rang in the air. I gave her a look, but she just laughed and followed me into the stream.

We splashed in the water until we were so tired we almost collapsed when we finally got out. I sprawled out on the ground, watching the trees above us. I regretted not bringing any food with us. It was a perfect day for a snack, but I hadn't planned on running away. I knew there were Sui berries higher upstream, but none of us could get ourselves to leave our spot to see if they were ripe enough to eat.

She shook, spraying me with water, and then lay next to me, her tail on my lap. My heart skipped a beat, and I told myself that it didn’t really mean anything. Hadn’t I told her I would comb it? It was nothing. Right?

We didn’t really get into trouble when we came back. Not more than usual, anyway, but we decided that we would stay for the rest of the day and help.

It turned out to be a good choice because at lunchtime Uncle Bari accidentally let slip that our parents would meet that evening to discuss. He didn’t say what, but it wasn’t hard to guess. This would be the night when our future would be decided. He told us that we would stay with him and that we could eat as many dried Nuru fruits as we wanted, and even though we both pretended to agree, we both knew we could never let this opportunity slip without us being involved.

The afternoon seemed to drag on forever, but once the sun had set, the harvest was finally safely stored from all the animals that always wanted their share. We lingered, pretending to pick up fruit that had fallen from the baskets, until Uncle Bari and his family left, telling us to join them for dinner when we were ready.

The moment they left, Aase gave me a shy smile, and her tail puffed as she wove the spell meant to hide us from unwanted attention.

“Will it hold?” I whispered as the soft mist surrounded us. I really didn’t want to get caught trying to fool her dad.

“As long as they don’t look for us, it will," she whispered back, but I could see her ears twitching nervously.

“They think we are with Uncle Bari…” I tried, wondering what prank her dad would play on us if we got caught. Last time, believing we had finally managed to get hold of one of her grandma’s famous jams, we’d eaten almost a whole jar of pickled chillies before he lifted the illusion. None of us wanted to repeat that.

"Yeah…" she nodded.

When we were sure we were alone, we sneaked out and made our way back to the village. It was one of those fresh summer evenings where the scent of Yari flowers filled the air. We climbed the fence that kept wild animals away from our village, and I reached out and picked a few of them.

On impulse, I tucked them into Aase’s long, orange hair. She looked at me, surprised, and I regretted it in an instant. I looked away, bracing myself for the tease that was sure to follow. My heart skipped a beat when instead, she, too, picked a flower and tucked it behind my long ear. I caught a glimpse of her shy smile before she turned and ran to the house, forcing me to follow her.

It might have been for the best, because the image of her weaving a bracelet around my ankle, as our people did for the Dedication ceremony, couldn’t linger long enough to distract me.

We crouched down behind the old tree in our garden, listening to the insects filling the air with their buzz. A soft white light emanated through the cracks in the walls, but from where we were, we couldn’t hear anyone in the house.

“We need to get closer. They must be in the front room," I whispered and glanced at her, but she avoided my gaze.

Why did she have to be like this? It was she who had done something weird last, not me. I sighed and got up.

“Let’s go..." I whispered and reached out to the branch above my head and climbed up.

It was the secret way I always used whenever my parents forbade me from going out, so I knew it very well. High between the soft, silky leaves was a branch, just thick enough to support my weight, which led to the roof, and from there it was easy to get into my room or, in this case, onto the small overhang on the side that just happened to be above the window of the large room our parents used to host guests. Exactly what we needed.

Aase followed me, and I held my breath as we slowly crawled towards the overhang. I tried to tell myself they wouldn’t hear us and they were busy deciding our fate, but every sound made me flinch until we finally reached our spot.

“They will be fine. They’ll get used to it…” I heard Aase’s dad chuckle as we settled in.

Used to what? How could he laugh about whatever cruel fate they were preparing for us?

“They are old enough to know it’s for the best…” my mum added.

“They want to send you away by yourself," Aase gasped and shuffled closer to me.

“Hush…”

I tried to cover her mouth, but the moment my hand touched her cheek, she flinched and slipped. I desperately tried to save her and managed to grab her tail, but instead of me pulling her up onto the roof, she pulled me down to the ground.

It was her fault; she shouldn’t have grown that big over the winter, I thought, as we landed with a thud in front of the window and our parents rushed outside to check what had happened before we had a chance to get away.