The forest was alive with noise, there were the humming’s and chirping’s of cicadas as a musical undercurrent. The plethora of birds chirping happily and sending out mating calls to one another wafted through the air like the overtones and the various calls of mammals and the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees served as punctuation to pull the song together. She knew this song so well she could easily pick out something out of place in the music, but she was concentrating on day dreaming.<br/><br/>From where she was perched Akasma could easily see the top of the nearby mountain range and was wondering what it felt like to walk through snow. She could see the snow capped portion of the mountains clearly, though had never actually touched snow. She knew it was supposed to be quite cold. The valley she lived in was to warm to have snow and though she had requested her parents had never seen any reason to travel to the mountains. It did not stop her of day dreaming about it though.<br/><br/>She could see herself playing in the snow, feeling the cold against her skin. She was always hot as though she had a furnace inside her somehow. She could imagine the snow melting against her and letting her cool off for once. Sort of how she felt in water but she was sure it would be even better. She wanted to have a snowball fight and make snowball angels and even maybe a fort with her friends. Many of them felt they were too old for children’s games now but she had a very different opinion.<br/><br/>As she was thinking this, she noticed how quiet it had gotten except for a rhythmic swishing noise, someone running through the forest. She turned to look in the direction the noise was coming from. In a moment they should come into view. She was relieved to see one of her friends round the corner, Branin. He was one of her favorites, he was a few years younger than her and not too grown up for kids games yet. She slid down out of the tree landing lightly on the ground and went to meet him with a hug.<br/><br/>“Knew where I was huh?” She asked with a twinkle in her eye.<br/><br/>“Always.” He smiled at her smugly. His blue eyes twinkling with the secret he could not wait to spill, his blonde hair looked windblown from his run as it fell about his shoulders “You have company at your house. Someone nobody knows.”<br/><br/>Akasma looked at him shocked, her mouth forming an “o” of surprise. “What do you mean someone that nobody knows? A stranger just went to my house? There is no one in the village we do not know.”<br/><br/>“Some guy in a dark brown hooded cloak walked into town and straight to your house and they let him in. We were playing in the gathering circle and saw him and I figured I would find you here but Lyra went to the pond just in case.” He was enjoying her shock and he was just as curious as she was who this mysterious person at her house was. Without a word she started running home. It was only a moment before she heard Branin again. “Race you!”<br/>