Autumn wandered the streets. She was wearing a soft, blue, long-sleeved shirt. It was warm out, unusually so, so she didn’t need an extra layer. She was also wearing a pair of jeans, faded at the knees. The chain attached to her wallet jingled, and her old leather boots made no sound as they walked along the dirt and cobblestones, perfectly broken in, old boots of Winter’s. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her hair spilled out of it like a sparkling copper fountain.

Autumn was in full, as October 31st, the second annual thinning of the veil to the spirit world, drew near. This meant that, besides getting quickly colder, her birthday was coming closer, too. It had been nearly a year since Winter had left her to go to Pearlescent. She had already gotten used to Winter being gone, since she ceremoniously got a letter the same time every month about the happenings of Winter’s school. In fact, that time was drawing closer, the 25th or 26th, and she eagerly anticipated the letter and, hopefully, birthday present from Winter.

And this was her last month of school. The instant she hit thirteen, she was free. At that time, she would go around to various village people, appointed by Grandmother Hazel, to learn about their trades. It was like an apprenticeship program that would last for a year, until she turned 14, similar to what Winter had gone through. Autumn wondered if she would be as good at it as Winter. She had found it funny that Winter had only been good at one thing, Divination. But Winter was really, REALLY good at divination. It was said she might be the best Divination master ever, with the right training, as famous as the Element-Shapers from years before. Luckily, the Divination teacher there was really good.

“A woman with milky green eyes...” Autumn murmured to herself. Autumn wondered if she was really mean. She had a feeling of malice at that description, probably because she once had a teacher with kind of milky, green eyes who was really strict and yelled a lot.

She paused in front of the plaza tree. It’s leaves were still green, and the lemons were ripe. The lemon trees were the hardiest of fruit trees. She thought about school that day. She had it every day, so it was sort of like a job, but at least she didn’t have to bring work home to do, and her parents rarely made her do chores. She was waiting to meet her friends, Gwendolyn, Belle, and Ron.

Gwendolyn was really pretty, really smart, and really mature. She was Michelle’s sister, but looked more like their father then their mother.  She had long, curly, dark brown hair, light brown skin, and a deep, slightly raspy voice. Her eyes were big and dark, and her eyelashes were long. In our world she might look somewhat like an Egyptian Queen. She wore light colored, flowery clothes, contradictory to the usually cold weather, but seemed not to feel the brisk air. She was not the smiling type, often cynical and sarcastic, usually holding a serious expression, but when she smiled at you, you knew you had earned it. Her eyes sparkled and her mouth opened to a full grin, showing her incredibly white teeth. She didn’t really like animals, and avoided them when she could.

Belle had a fairly easy personality. She often liked to lie around outside, watching birds and clouds and trees. She had short red hair, and thoughtful brown eyes. She had a somewhat light complexion, but if there was a lot of sunny days in a row, because she was outside so often, she would get a golden-brown tan, like a marshmallow roasted to perfection, and freckles on her nose and shoulders. She was thin and limber, very flexible and athletic, with a runner’s build and her hair was shaggy and uneven at the ends, because she cut it herself. Her clothes were comfort clothes, things like old jeans, T-shirts, and sweatshirts. She didn’t much like animals, like Gwendolyn, though didn’t go out of her way to avoid them.

Ron was loud and funny and nice. He made friends with everyone. He was not too tall, and not too short, and had dark brown, almost black, skin. His hair was short and curly, cut close to the head, and was black. He was strong, and never in too much of a hurry or too slow. He was like the in-between of Belle and Gwendolyn. He was fairly intelligent, and not very pushy, and all of these things together made him very easy to get along with. He had just moved in to town, but was already very popular. Autumn was sure he would grow up to be an actor or a shopkeeper. He was born on October 31st, so he was just a day younger than Amber, and like her, would have been a witch. But he was a guy. They could relate to each other with their mild witch-envy. He wore jeans and layered, slightly baggy shirts.

They were not a particularly stand-out bunch, or a teacher’s pet bunch. They fought often, they were sometimes immature, and they weren’t best-friends-forever. But they were good friends, and would certainly keep in touch for years to come, under normal circumstances at least.

Autumn climbed into the tree. She sat in her spot, the spot that was like it was made for her. No one else could ever fit into her spot, though others had tried. It was like she was the tree’s favorite. She reached out and plucked a lemon, cupping it in her palms and inhaling it’s scent.  Her eyes mirrored the clouds and leaf patterns, as she went into a dreamlike state. She thought about nothing, suspended in time, at one with the tree and the earth and the sun and the air and the sky and the clouds, a part of all of the elements, and all the living things, it felt like.

“HEY!”

And with that, she fell out of the tree on to the bare dirt surrounding it. “Oww-owwww....” She groaned. Ron and Belle were laughing, Belle wiping tears out of the corner of her eyes. “Hey! What was THAT about?! And where’s Gwendolyn?” She said, quickly forgetting her predicament as she looked around. She did not hold on to anger very long at all.

“Ahh... she’s out sick. She had to leave during class to go home because of a cold, I think.” Ron said. He was in the same class as Gwendolyn.

“Oh.” Autumn looked disappointed, her eyes dulling.

“Hey?! What, we aren’t good enough?!” Belle yelled in mock anger. They may not have been a stand-out bunch, but they were very loud. Belle was just trying to bring Autumn out of the depths, before she got stuck that way.  Autumn did not hang on to anger, like Gwendolyn, but she could get stuck in a depression for a while. Not very often, but she hadn’t seen Gwendolyn for a while, so this was depressing news.

Autumn laughed, but they knew it wasn’t the same. Gwendolyn was a witch, like her sister, so she would be leaving soon. Autumn felt like she was losing everything sometimes, though she never explained that this was why she got so depressed so often recently.

“So... you wanna hang out at the new cafe still, or should we wait ‘till Gwen can come with us?” asked Belle. Gwendolyn hated when people didn’t call her by her full first name, but it was like a thing for Belle to shorten it anyway.  Belle and Ron looked to Autumn for her answer.

“Uhm... I DUNNO...” said Autumn, confused at being put in the spotlight. “Maybe... I dunno... uh... well, Gwendolyn might get angry, so... maybe... we should just go... to the... woods? I guess? Yeah, we should go to the woods. It’s a pretty day.”



Some of the trees, the ones that weren’t fruit-bearing, especially, (though there weren’t so many of those because of all of the deer) had begun to turn. A few bunches of flaming magenta, some bouquets of yellow, some pillows of orange, but mostly the varying shades of green. They came to the area of the Birch forest, where grass grew under the sparse shading of the trees, and a small, crystalline pond with a rocky bottom. The pond was fed by a small and cliffy waterfall, and because of the lack of mud at the bottom, the stream ended here, traveling underground, through the pebbles, to an underground river somewhere.

They sat down around the pond in the grass. Autumn took her boots off, grabbed hold of her socks, and made them throw up her clammy feet. She dipped them into the water and sighed. Belle did the same, but accidentally cut her foot on a particularly sharp stone as she waded around in the pebbly pond, her pants rolled up. She sat down beside Autumn and watched the sky. Autumn stared at the tiny whiff of blood streaming from Belle’s foot, until it stopped. Then she listened to the trees saying goodbye.

Ron looked fidgety. He would sit down, and stand up, and wade through the water, but he couldn’t stay still. Finally he tripped on a rock and fell into the pond. A huge splash of water enveloped him. He came up gasping for air. Autumn stared for a second, then burst out laughing. Belle and Ron stared and Belle began to laugh, too.
Ron took hold of Autumn’s leg and dragged her in as well, as she scooped her wallet out of her pocket and threw it to Belle, desperately trying to save it from getting wet.

Autumn came up still laughing, clutching her stomach and gasping.

“You look insane” Belle said, uncharacteristically giggling and clutching to the wallet. Ron nodded in agreement, as he dragged himself out of the water, soggy and dripping. He helped pull Autumn out of the water, unable to get out herself because she was still half-laughing, half-crying.

Belle and Ron looked concerned.

“Don’t-Don’t mind me-hehe....” Autumn finally lay silently on the ground, watching the clouds. She looked thoughtful.

“Uhm... well, that was fun and all (in a really freaky way...) but I don’t wanna get a cold like Gwendolyn. I’m heading home. See you guys tomorrow.” Ron said, dragging his soggy feet through the grass and leaves.

“Kay. Seeya tomorrow. Gwen should be fine by then, so we’ll meet at the plaza tree again.” Belle put her shoes back on, and looked down at Autumn. After a silence, she asked, with a concerned yet bemused expression, “You aren’t dead or something, are you?”

After a silence, Autumn got up, shook herself off, and put on her shoes. She stretched and exclaimed “Nope! I needed that!” She grinned, and took the wallet back from Belle.  “At least my shoes and wallet are still dry. Poor Ron!” she laughed.  They stood silently looking at the woods around them. “Things are... things are really gonna change, huh?” Autumn blinked back real tears, eyes turned glassy.

“...Yeah. Yeah, they are.”

They parted ways thoughtfully, and without saying goodbye.