Prologue
I was seven the first time Ariana and I discovered something amazing, and frightening. Going into the woods was our favorite past time, living on the edge of a densely packed forest gave us unlimited area to explore. We snuck away from home on numerous afternoons, climbing up into the trees, building tree houses; we had our own little world. I don't remember ever actually building the tree houses, we would decide we wanted a new one, and Ariana would nod in agreement, and the next time we went into the woods... there it was. I always thought that maybe she had more free time than I did, thought that she was amazing for his work she could do. I was seven, and things were always what they seemed, never thought it could be something so much more...
Until the day we snuck out early on a weekend morning, we spent all day jumping from our older treehouse to our newer one, the one we found that day. We sat back in the newest addition and daydreamed and imagined the things we would add to the next one. "A swing!" I exclaimed, looking at Ariana for confirmation. She groaned.
"Dane, we had a swing on a different one!" I stood up, still stuck on my idea, and ran to the window.
"No, no, no! That was a boring swing! What about...what about a swing that hangs off the edge?" I imagined swinging on it, the wood beneath our feet disappearing and all you could see was the forest floor and then the sky. It would feel like we were flying. I imagined Ariana's beautiful black hair flying out behind her, and then crashing forward as she flew back towards the house. She would love it, I knew. She nodded, smiling, closing her eyes. She seemed to be thinking about something, and when she opened her eyes they were shinning a beautiful green. The green you find on the underside of leaves. She ran to the window I was standing at. Except it wasn't a window anymore, it was a door. Outside the door was a swing, and she was sitting on it.
My mouth was hanging open in shock, but she was grinning. She began to swing, and of course it was exactly as I imagined, and she loved it. My shock was a thing of the past, now all I wanted to do was try it.
"Let me try! Let me try!" I was jumping up and down in excitement. She slowed down and got off, letting me get on. I began to swing, and it felt like flying, I leaned back and looked at the sky, imagining being up higher, being able to actually fly, and it was amazing.
Until the swing was no longer under me. I had leaned back too far, and I was falling. I didn't even have time to scream, something was winding around my body, slowing my fall. I was set on the ground. I looked down and vines were unwinding themselves from my body, retracting back up into the tree. Ariana was floating down, she landed in front of me, two vines unwrapping themselves from her arms and retracted back up where mine had went.
"Don't say anything," she said, her eyes were doing the glowing thing and my heart was beating so hard in my chest that I didn't think I could get words out if I even had words for what happened. I nodded my head, and looked back up into the trees, I realized you couldn't see the treehouse from here. I looked back down at Ariana, still not asking anything. She was giving me a small smile, and she grabbed my hand and started walking through the trees. I could never get through the woods without her, but she always knew exactly where she was going. I looked back up at the canopy above us. My mind was spinning and Ariana didn't seem the least bit bothered.
We reached the edge of the trees and stopped at the backdoor of my house. "See you tomorrow?" She asked, hesitation in her voice. I looked back towards the forest and then back at her. I smiled at her, and nodded.
