I thought I would feel something different once I stepped out of the boundaries, but between you and I feel just the same–worse. My arm feels worse. I hugged my left arm with my right hand, gave the fence one last look, and continued south.

I could only hear the river from here. I tried to walk towards the sound until I could see it. I walked through it’s left edge upstream so I could get to the waterfall. Sometimes I like to go there and just sit–be. I like it there. It's far from home, but you get a nice view from the top. And sometimes when the weather is nice, you can see rainbows form from the mist. Quite magical. But don’t tell the others I told you that. Amala and I used to go there when we were kids. We liked going there to contemplate the landscape after playing in the south woods.

We got bored and wandered around the forest regularly. One day we were playing hide and seek–years before the fire started–it was Amala’s turn to hide. She was the only one I’ve known that could climb the trees so high up so easily. It's been only once that I’ve given up searching during the game, so I decided to rest on the shadow of a tree–the tree Amala was sitting on up above. Sitting down and hugging my knees, I shouted her name to let her know she’d won, and suddenly she fell just beside me. She had not a single scratch, but she did leave a dent on the ground. She brushed off some of the dirt from her clothes, and once she stood up we both noticed an unusual reflective glare coming from the dirt. We both looked at each other and then began digging up a nice looking crystal. I promised to hide it in my left pocket for a few years. Then I gave it back to her, now she could wear it. She never took it off.