Lumi woke in her cabin.

She got out of bed and thought about yesterday. The Quen festival, the dancing then....

She frowned. What had happened?

How had she got back here?

Ciela entered the room, and smiled to see her awake. "Hey. Are you okay? We found you in the woods yesterday... You'd ran away! You were missing for a whole day!" She grinned.

That would explain everything.

°\Time Skip/° °\Three years/°

The group of eight were sitting together outside their cabin, the girls fiddling with the grass, they boys doing stupid things like arm wrestling. Finally, Beck sighed and stood up.

"We need to do something. This is way to boring."

Lumi nodded. 'Goes by in a flash'. Sure.

"What will we do?" Asked Tyler.

Beck frowned. "I dunno. Explore. Adventure. Do something other than just sitting here!" Everyone remained seated. Scout took a sip from one of his drinks. Ciela picked another blade of grass.

"Fine." Beck huffed. "I'll go alone. Screw you all."

A shocked silence echoed around the cabin as Beck walked alone to the forest, unaware of the dangers that had grown last night.

After around a hour, she hadn't returned. Everyone was nervous. "Maybe... We should look for her?" Groose suggested. Everyone nodded.

"Get into pairs and if you see her, yell." Alan said. Lumi grabbed Sally and they headed for the forest together.

The branches overhead seemed thicker and more winding, almost like a slide. The undergrowth seemed more tangled, wilder and harder to get through. Almost like the woods were shutting them out.

What the children didn't know was the forest was shutting them out. Had they watched Beck disappear and kept watching, they would have seen everything tangle up and block them out. But they hadn't bothered to.

Lumi and Sally wrestled there way in and began the search. They came up with the idea of climbing the trees to search from up high. They swung to another branch and stopped.

A huge, strange plant sat in a clearing. No other plants grew in a ten step radius. It had spiked leaves, a spiked stem and a huge pod, big enough to hide inside.

But the thing that made them freeze was Beck's hat hanging off one of the spikes

Sally pointed to it, silent. Lumi nodded.

I see it.

They exchanged a look. What to do?

They swung back a bit and yelled for the others. They arrived quickly and quietly, and hoisted themselves into the tree's.

Together, all seven of them approached the same plant, just in time to see what it did.

A little brown bird was hopping around the plant. When it grew too close, a leave swung down, implanting a spike in its skull. It died.

The plant lifted the spike up and dropped it in the pod. The plant grew a little.

The children looked at one another, all thinking and hoping the same thing.

Was Beck in there?

As if responding to the children's plea, the plant heaved a little, and pushed. The top of a small head with leaf green hair emerged, with what looked like a pink flower attached to her head and the plant, pulsing something into her or taking something out.

The children breathed out. Beck didn't have green hair.

That was what they thought.

The child emerged bit by bit. The shocking, open green eyes. The pale skin. The leaf tattoos on her cheeks. The green, strappy clothes that seemed to be made out of woven grass. The bare feet came out last.

When she was fully out, the flower on her head started to wither. It placed her on the floor, and detached itself from the child, before dying along with the rest of the plant.

As soon as the plant disappeared, the child on the floor blinked and gasped, sitting up. Where her hand was placed to prop herself up, beautiful flowers emerged. The grass peaked up, turning lusher and greener.

The children in the trees exchanged another look.Who was this girl?

When they looked back, she was frowning at them.

"What are your doing?" She demanded. Her voice sounded like a spring breeze.

"Uh, we, uh, we..." Stuttered Tyler.

"We were... Just going..." Ciela said smoothly, staring at the child. "But... Who are you?"

The child frowned deeper. "I am Tabia, guardian and mage of nature. And you are no longer allowed in this forest. Leave and never return...Or..." Her gaze softened when she saw Ciela. "You may join me, if you please. Unlimited power.... Links to nature... Just, you won't be allowed to see this lot."

The children looked at Ciela, begging with their eyes. But Ciela was grinning, lowering herself to the floor. "I'd love to!"

And just like that, the plant regrew, the pod consuming the smiling girl.

The other children were banished from the forest. And Ciela returned just like Tabia, with the same hair, same eyes and same clothes, just not the same tattoos. And same side-effect.

She couldn't remember her past life. Not her past life. But someone else's.

And the same had happened to Beck. Or Tabia, as she was called now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOO!

*waves arms around wildly*Did you miss me?

I have almost 10 pre-written chapters, but I've been so busy, I couldn't spare a second to publish any.

Not that anyone really reads this.

Adios!