Riddles of the Wind

"Whoopee!" Keievia exclaimed as she flew back and forth on the branches of a great tree. She was a carefree child, always opening to everything.

"Be careful, Sora!" Keievia's friend, Lila, yelped from the ground, glancing up and shielding her eyes from the sun. Sora was what people called Keievia, but Keievia was her real name.

Keievia giggled to herself. She wouldn't fall, not even if a squirrel crawled out of its nest stealthily and nipped her foot a million times. Not even if the tree was chopped down from below.

Lila put her hand on her forehead and groaned. "You're always so stubborn.

Keievia hopped down from the tree. "Says who? You always groan whenever something you don't like happens!"

"I guess you're right... But that doesn't mean I'm stubborn!"

"To me though, there's no difference! Haha!"

Lila sighed. "I hate to say it, but you, are crazy."

As they walked back towards the small hut they shared, Lila couldn't get her mind off her hairpin. She had so many questions. Why was it glowing in the morning? What really was Alrind? She felt like everything connected...

The next day, it was especially windy outside. The trees were almost blown down, and their hut was about to collapse.

Somehow, Lila knew this had something to do with the hairpin. She ran back inside and took the hairpin out. It was flashing madly.

She hurried outside. Shielding her face from the wind with one hand, she held up the hairpin.

A section of the silver line disappeared. Lila gasped. What had happened?

On the other side of the crack, there wasn't the scenery behind, but instead, a little girl, practicing some sort of fighting—as if battling an invisible enemy.

She peered in. The image seemed to swallow her vision.

She entered the body of that little girl.

Practicing this was familiar to her limbs and mind. It was like it was part of her daily schedule.

The hairpin appeared in front of her. She wanted to peer back into the crack and see the real world, maybe return to it, but the hairpin only burst into small shards, grouped together, and formed a completely different thing: a short thread.

She touched it. It was freezing cold. Why? She was not in a cold atmosphere at all.

She took it and wrapped it around a strand of hair. The moment she did, it seemed to attach to her hair.

That very moment, she was back in the real world. Keievia was kneeling next to her, shouting her name.

Lila rubbed the back of her head. "Hairpin..." she muttered.

Keievia helped her to her feet. "What happened back there?"

"The hairpin! It brought me to a magical dimension."

"This happens to certain people," Keievia reassured her.

Suddenly, an especially strong gust of wind blew by. It sang:

Over the treetops

Reaching the sky

Many that dwell there

Always lie

Never to wither

Never to fall

Never can one's

Memory recall

Far north from the rest

Jagged stones stand

Wild winds blow

As if were fanned

Snow covered mountains

loom over the land

First to the first,

Near one thousand years old

Second to the next

Whose history unknown

"So..." Keievia said after a long silence. "I suppose we're parting ways."

"I should be approaching—wait, which river?" Lila glanced at the river a few miles ahead of her and then a map she held in her hands. "Uh..." Lila mumbled nervously as she cautiously approached the river.

As most waters would do, the river had no answer. It just continued its repeating cycle of waves and splashes.

"Uh..." Lila said again. "I think I can pass... because... you show no sign... of blocking my way?"

A few inches of water lowered, and she could clearly see the pebbles at the bottom. She slowly stepped in. The river was lukewarm and was certainly pleasing to her feet.

She crossed it without any trouble. At the last moment, the waves sprang up again, and her foot almost was sliced in half.

"A lake, now?!" exclaimed Lila. She squinted at the miniscule words on the map. "Called Erivnira. Easier to pronounce. On this map a dock is marked..." Lila shaded her eyes from the blazing sun. "The dock has all rotten now! Must've been a long time since this map was made." Lila sighed. "And it's not going to do any good crafting a raft. No trees here, as far as I can see. Besides, I don't know how to handle axes or swords."

"Excuse me, Miss, I'm sorry to interrupt your thoughts, but it seems like you need some help," a voice behind Lila peeped.

Lila whirled around, alarmed. "Who's there?!" She only saw a girl about a year younger than Sora. She frowned. "Who are you?"

The girl smiled. "I'm Keienia."

"Who?"

"Keienia. Keievia's younger sister. Oh, you don't know who Keievia is yet."

"Are you a fortune teller or something? How do you know I'll meet someone called Keievia?"

Keienia giggled. "You've already met Keievia. And I'm no fortune teller!"

Lila was confounded. "Are you and Keievia one person?"

Keienia rolled her eyes and answered, "Obviously not. I'm Keienia, not Keievia, not both."

"Could... you mind explaining all this?"