Lily skipped along the worn grassy path. She made sure to keep Frederick in her sight even though he was going far too slow for her taste. The forest was very beautiful, so she couldn’t fault him for wanting to take in the sight. The trees were lush green at this time of year, and in the forest, many of them had sprouted vibrantly coloured flowers. It was beautiful in autumn too, but there were far fewer flowers to enjoy then.

Frederick stopped and leant forward, gentle peeking through a bush. He gestured for her to join him so she strolled over. Frederick moved to the side slightly so that she could get a better look. A small frog stared back at her. The small white pattern matched the flowers of the bush it had been hiding in. How had Frederick managed to notice it?

“You like frogs?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah! But I’ve never seen one that looked like this before.”

He smiled slightly as he turned his attention back to the small creature. Lily held out her hand and called it to her. With a small amount of magic-based encouragement, the frog jumped onto her hand. She held it out and Frederick gentle stroked its head.

“There are lots of them like this in the forest.” She gestured with her head to each of the differently flowered bushed surrounding them. “For each kind of flower, there’s a frog that looks exactly like it. Papa told me it’s because of the forest. It’s impossible to hunt here because the spirits protect all of the creatures.”

“I’ve heard that.” Frederick’s gaze wandered up to the trees towering above them. “Actually, I’ve heard that they don’t let humans enter here.”

Lily laughed. “It’s fine so long as you’re not coming here to hurt anything. The spirits don’t come out and attack you or anything…I think.”

“You think?”

“Well I’ve never seen them before, and I come here nearly every day.”

Frederick fixed his attention back on the frog and gently stroked it a few more times. Lily pushed her hands forward for him to take it. He cupped his hands and brought them closer to the frog. When Lily placed it on his hands, his face lit up as and he brought it closer to his face. The frog didn’t seem phased by its new home and croaked contentedly. Frederick inspected it from all angles, and every so often he muttered his thoughts to himself.

When he was satisfied he nodded to himself and placed the frog back where they first found it. With that over, they began walking the path again, this time side by side. They spoke a little about the frog, and Lily told him about some other strange creatures she had seen in the forest, like the deer with the strange, flat face. He didn’t believe here, but that didn’t matter. It was kind of nice being able to speak to him normally.

Soon enough she could see the sparkling, clear water of the lake. Well, she called it a lake, but even when she got to the very centre the water only reached her shoulders. The water was always clear and cool, and anything she planted near it grew very quickly. It was one of her favourite places to be, and after the nightmare from the night before, she wanted to see it.

Frederick hesitantly looked into the water. “There aren’t any fish.”

“Sometimes there are, sometimes there aren’t. There could be some tomorrow.”

He turned to her and gave her a dubious look. “If you don’t believe me we can come back every day. The fish come and go as they please.”

“Fish can’t do that.”

She pointed to the other side of the lake. “There’s a little hole there that they can swim through. They come and go whenever they want.”

Frederick hummed thoughtfully. He placed his hand on the surface, and when he pulled back he was holding a ball of water.

Lily stood behind him as she stared at the sparkling water in his hand. It was only the second time she had seen him use his magic, but still, she found herself in awe at it. Nobody she knew could use magic, and most people didn’t know that she could. To Frederick what he was doing was probably very mundane, but to her it was amazing.

Frederick stood and turned around too quickly, not realising how close Lily was to him. Before he had the chance to drop the water, he’d splashed it all over her dress. The cool water spread throughout her torso and down her legs.

“I’m sorry!” Frederick panicked and waved his arms.

An evil grin spread across her lips. He seemed to pick up on it, his face twisting into confusion and concern in equal measure. It hadn’t upset her to have her dress get wet, but it gave her a wicked idea. In one move she stepped forward and shoved Frederick back. With a big splash, he landed in the lake. His dark hair dishevelled and his clothes darkened as they soaked up the moisture.

He stared at her blankly for a few moments before he frowned. A shadow of a smile crossed his face. A pillar of water sprang up from behind him and rained down on Lily. A chill shot through her body and she gasped. Playful indignation swelled within her and she jumped into the lake herself, landing directly on Frederick. The action caused another splash and more drops of water fell on them.

Frederick knocked her to the side, and when she gasped she sucked in water and coughed. He waited for her to calm down and get herself to her feet. As she pulled herself up she splashed him with some water as revenge.

“You’re lucky the water tastes good,” she laughed.

“I know, I got a mouth full when you pushed me in here,” he grumbled playfully.

Frederick swayed his arms and the water mirrored his actions. Lily copied him, although she had to actually use her hands to get a reaction from the water. When he made a wide sweeping gesture with the water, the current almost knocked her back into the water.

“Hey!”

She made a wide arc with her hand and just missed soaking him again. Not that it would have made a difference with how thoroughly soaked they both were by that point. Frederick turned his attention to the lake.

“How deep does it get?”

Lily trudged her way to the centre of the lake, each step making the water rise compared to her body. By the time she got to the centre, it had already risen to the middle of her neck. Frederick followed her, but his chin was almost sitting in the water. It hadn’t caught her attention before, but she was ever so slightly taller than he was. That was probably something that was better kept to herself.

“Let’s float,” Lily enthused as she pushed herself up. It took some shifting of her body weight, but soon she was happily floating on the surface of the water. The splashing sounds betrayed how much he struggled to mimic what she did, but soon they were both floating and gently bumping into one another.

“Lily,” Frederick said softly, and a little bashfully. “Can I ask you something? About your power?”

Her chest tightened as she considered whether or not she should answer. If she had been more careful then he wouldn’t have known at all, but she didn’t have that chance anymore. Still, maybe it was better if she left things unsaid and refused to answer. But then again he had used his magic freely before, so maybe she could learn something if she was honest.

She took a deep breath. “You can ask, but I might not be able to answer.”

That wasn’t a complete lie. If he wanted to know how she did things or where she got the power then she really wouldn’t be able to answer. Even if he wanted to know what kinds of things she could do if she better understood her power, she couldn’t answer. They were things she just didn’t know. But if it was something she could answer, she would consider it.

“Can you make people do things? Like, if you use your power, could you get someone to do your chores for you?”

“Oh…well,” she hesitated, unsure of how to best explain that to him. “I’ve never tried to make someone do my chores, but this one time, some man came and demanded money from Mimi. She forgets things sometimes so she thought he was telling her the truth…but I could feel that he wasn’t. He was going to hurt her if she said she wouldn’t pay him.”

Frederick twisted so that he could face her, their shoulders gentle brushing together as the water swayed them. “What happened?”

“When Mimi went to get the money, the man started to look around for stuff to steal. At one point he took his glove off, and I grabbed his hand. I knew that I could change how people felt a little bit because Mama used to do that to me when I was sad. So I made him feel…bad. I made him scared, and sad, and angry. I made him feel what I was feeling.”

“And he left?”

Lily shook her head and shuddered as she recalled the memory. “I can’t control my magic, and I couldn’t control it then. He got too sad, too mad…he used a knife and cut his…wrist. Mimi was furious.”

Frederick’s mouth was agape as he stared at her with widened eyes. That was exactly the look she had expected…almost the same expression her parents had when they found out. She wasn’t sure how they managed to convince people that the man had been insane and threatened them, but soon enough everyone who didn’t know the truth forgot it ever happened. After that, she was supposed to never use her power again - and she tried for a long time. But it just happened sometimes.

“My friend can do that too…make people feel a certain way. I don’t know if he ever…killed anyone with it though.”

“You know someone with the same power as me?”

“He can also use fire magic, though.”

Lily kicked some water up and it landed in her eyes. Soon she noticed that the chill of the water was becoming too much and the skin on her fingertips was shrivelling up. With a disappointed sigh, she pointed to the side of the lake to silently ask Frederick if he was ready to get out. He nodded and they pulled their chilled bodies out of the water. But with the sun still high in the sky, neither of them were ready to leave the forest just yet.