I'm not sure why I lash out at the vines--it's not as if they've done anything to me. I'm just irritated, and they've presented themselves as targets. I stalk through the forest, the basket on my arm weighing me down. I don't even know why I'm irritated--it's not as if anything's happened, or-

         Maybe that's it. I'm irritated that nothing's happening. That boring village life is taking over again. Usually, when I go to town, I get stared at. And Jon is almost always lurking around, staring at me. He wants me to date him, but I keep turning him down. He's getting mad.

         Today, though, he wasn't there, and neither was Hon. It's a little worrying, but I try to ignore the feeling that something is brewing.

         I stalk through the forest, making for home. Well--not home, home; but close enough. I'm beginning to think it's as close as I'll ever get. I sigh, my anger gone, dissipated by the familiar hopelessness. I reach the tree line and stop, staring at the cottage Aki and I call home. It's small--more a hut than a house. But it's beautiful, with flowers growing out of window boxes and along the clapboard sides. She's even strewn grass in the thatch roof, making it look colorful and cheery.

         I shake my head. Don't get me wrong--I love Aki to death. But sometimes she needs to tone down on the whole 'cheerfulness' thing. The whole world doesn't have to be happy all the time. I sigh and shake my head again.

         I don't know where this bad mood has come from, but I hope it goes away soon. I can't stand myself when I'm like this.

         I step through the door and, setting my basket on the table, make my way to the garden. Sure enough, Aki is sitting in the midst of her lily patch, meditating. She's the only person I know who can grow all these different types of flowers in one place, when they're native to different climates and countries.

         She's got water lilies, panda lilies, fire lilies, rosca lilies, tender lilies... the list goes on. I sometimes joke to her that if our true selves were ever revealed, her whole body would be green, not just her thumbs.

         I settle beside her and stare out over the sea, spread out below us like a rippling carpet. Aki's cottage is at the edge of the forest, above the cliff leading down to the ocean. There's a small white sand beach directly below us, out of our sight line and beneath the cliff. It's where she found me, all those months ago.

         The forest slopes down a much less steep incline about a half mile to our right, meeting the rocky part of the beach that leads to the water cave. It's said that on a full moon the forest and ocean spirits meet in the cave, dancing their dances to turn the tides. I've never seen them, of course, and I go down to the water cave every full moon.

         There's something inside me that pulls me to it, to the water and the sand beneath my toes and the salt of the sea in my nose so thick I can almost taste it.

         There's something about water in general, but never so much as on a full moon.

         Which reminds me--tonight is a full moon!

         With this realization my bad mood floats away as if it never existed, and I shoot the silent, even breathed Aki a grin. Her eyes are closed, but she cocks a brow at me anyway. Somehow she knows that I'm grinning at her like a loon.

         “Yes?”

         “Nothing. Go back to meditating.”

         She sighs. She hates it when I do that. “Kara...”

         I roll my eyes at the sound of the name she's given me. She named me that after her mother, who died when Aki was very young. She says I remind her of her.

         “I just remembered that tonight is a full moon. I'm excited.”

         “Ah.” She nods wisely, somehow pulling off the look even though she's only a few years older than me. At least, older than how old we think I am. She smiles. “Have fun. Say hello to the spirits for me.”

         I roll my eyes again. She knows as well as I do that there's never anyone but me in the cave. “I will.”

         And we retreat into silence, her with her thoughts, me with the sound of the birds and the sea rushing together into an odd sort of song, and scents from the four nations heady in my nose, mixing with the salt tang of the ocean.