"It speaks to me, you know..." the words pattered out of his lips like fresh rain on dry grass.

A head slowly moved at him. The gesture, an act of attention, an act of motivation. Her eyes trained on him, yearning for that moisture the words promised. "Well, what does?" Ever so innocently did she put her thoughts into words. Eloquence, he had known for a long time, longed for yet longer.

"The wind." His eyes met hers. "It speaks to me." They were wistful eyes filled with something deep. The depth of which she had yet to venture.

A giggle escaped her body, so tiny yet so profound. "Yeah? And what does it say?"

"There comes the hard part." A pregnant pause befell. And yet... "I don't know." That was what followed.

Suddenly surprised, her lips parted, eventually to hang her mouth agape. "Yet you know it speaks to you?" She chuckled. "How about it then? Is it in a language you're yet to learn or..." The words trailed off into uncountable possibilities of what meaning they lurched to reach... Yet the boy, now staring at the sky was distant somehow, to those very words. It trickled a faint drop of anxiety in her feminine and caring heart.

"You're scaring me, Carl. What is it you're talking about really?" The words were no longer that gentle as they were before.

Still distant, he looked over the mountains, the breeze promising of spring to arrive sooner than they had hoped for. For preparations were not yet underway. For who liked to shiver in the unforgiving cold, and betray their hearts that sought warmth?

"I feel something, Aisha. It's not concrete, nor tangible... I can't put it into words but," he shrugged, "I know it's real. I know I feel it. I...know I hear it. And...it's not scary as it may seem to be. It feels...amiable. It promises something to me I can't quite connect yet."

"Something profound." Aisha mumbled, involuntarily.

"Most likely. Yes." He smiled, now that she was better acquainted with the idea he aimed to convey. His hand gently reached her cheek and brushed past her ears. She embraced the warmth as she closed her eyes. He then held on to her hand resting on the grass and spoke, "It's mysterious, and thus, exciting."

"It won't affect us in any way would it?" Her worrying eyes searched for assurance from his. A subtle wave of relief washed over her upon seeing that his smile still lingered.

"Not to be an insinuation, I hope. But, maybe something more."

"A commandment? Something creeping towards a revelation, maybe." Unsure, she spoke her immediate thoughts.

"Whatever it maybe be, it holds a promise. And I trust it." His grip, became tighter, enriching the warmth in this not so warm world. Was it the winter to blame though?

"Our villages are far," she enounced.

"They are." He concorded.

"And now you speak of revelations..." Her eyes narrowed.

"It could very well be!" Carl pressed.

Aisha frowned in reply.

"Come on, brush it off! Don't worry so much." He gave a cheeky grin, while waving his hand.

"Would we truly be alright?" In almost a pleading tone, the girl let those words escape. For she had seen enough to fear betrayal before it even came to her.

"We trust each other, don't we?" Carl pressed.

"But can we trust the world, the people, the elements?"

Carl took a moment. Then ever so shrewdly something took a hold of him. He got up. Flustered, she followed suit. "W-where are we going?"

"You like adventure?" He looked back, stopping momentarily.

"Only if it's not reckless, I do." She admitted, albeit embarassed.

"Then come with me." He strode off, his pace wide. Aisha, caught by surprise erupted into a "Hey, wait for me!" as she followed him in a hurry.

And then he ran. "Hehe."

"Wha-"

Humming fantasies of his own creation, he transformed into a bird of his own imagination, as he flew underneath the shade, his frenzy of movements all somehow coordinated, evident from how he carried himself in this rugged terrain.

"Hey! Stop already!" Breathless to keep up, Aisha called out.

But he was soon out of view. Nervous and panicking, she frantically called out to him. "Come back!" How would she follow him now? He should have known better than to do something as childish as to run off into the distance.

"But, he clearly has some intention." His eyes had carried meaning. And she had known him long enough to know better than to question what his eyes proclaimed. For within them danced embers, of the flame that burned between them.

She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.

Slowly, Aisha made way through the trees on the side of the trail and tried to peer to the side of the road. If only to catch his silhouette.

A breeze glided past her hair. She raised her arm and moved her fingers through the volume to not let them get too messy. Then suddenly-

Cave.

"Huh?" What was that?

She looked to the side.

No one.

And again.

Follow him.

She raised her hair over her ears and tucked them in. Her heart raced, frantic. What was this? She raised her palm to her lips and pressed her mouth. It was not cold.

There was warmth to it. The message...the instructions...

The words. They carried warmth.

Aghast in shock, she stepped towards the trees. More, and more. Further and further she disappeared in the shade, the growth around her engulfing her figure in a swathe of greenery.

She disappeared from the outside world.

And then-

"So now you believe me?"

Aisha turned her head, getting goosebumps all over. "C-Carl?"

He stood under a skylight, an opening in the ceiling of-

"Oh."

She had entered the cave. All around, there was algae, covering the rocky walls. Water trickled down from between those rocks.

"Where are we?" But she didn't look at him. She was so astounded that she couldn't help looking around more.

"A groundwater channel flows through that side", Carl pointed.

"But how did you... Why did I..."

"You were able to follow." He smiled.

She looked at him, still uncomprehending it all. "So it was on purpose, you knew this would happen...?" Her feeble words echoed in the enclosed place.

"I knew. And I did because we share a bond, Aisha. We have trust. And something similar has developed between me and the wind. I wanted to show you that."

She stood, no longer looking from one side to the other. Instead, her face was devoid of anything. Anything at all. The only details that could have been pointed out were her ever so slightly parted lips, and the eyelids that were raised, not to view the world in greater colour, but to view nothing at all, and at the same time, view something greater. Something greater that she had been a part of, that had transpired just now.

"It told me. It did not give me directions-"

"And yet you could follow."

It was terrifying how accurately she had stumbled upon the place the whispers in her ears had likely spoke of. And moreover, she had even found him. What was this, if not divine intervention?

"B-but, it told me to follow you. But I didn't... So how, I don't understand."

Carl shook his head and slowly made his way towards her. Gently, he kept his hands on her shoulders. Aisha looked up.

"Don't you see it yet? You could follow it because, I followed it. We three connected."

A gasp escaped her mouth, only to be sucked in by his. They exchanged and indulged in the kiss for the fleeting moment, and then, Carl embraced Aisha.

"Don't be scared anymore. Spring shan't arrive soon."