"You know, I think there might be a better way to sort this problem out. Don't you?" 

There was nothing worse than having one's beach day be interrupted by a group of thugs. She watched as one of the thugs rummaged through her bag of items. He stole the money and the food. Attie knew that plant life was dying or being strange but she hadn't quite realized the effect that it would be on people. These thugs were seemingly natives of Onnen. One was a Chowke, two were Agaw, and one was a Makone. All creatures gathered together for a singular purpose. It was a pity that purpose happened to be robbing random people, otherwise Attie would be in awe. 

"Could you make those chains a little looser? It hurts." Attie complained. 

The Makone had been wrapping a chain around her arms and legs, clearly intent on dumping her into the sea to drown. Attie kept her hidden pick locks in her pocket. Luckily she had been playing with them when the group decided to rob her. 

"The point is to be tight. Besides yer gonna die anyway." The Makone responded. 

"Well, technically we are all going to die one day." She pointed out. 

"Just throw her in already!" The impatient Chowke shouted, "We got the food and coin from her bag. Everything else is useless!"

"Hey! I take offense to that. Ink is a very useful item even if you can't eat it-"

She had been tossed into the ocean before she could finish her sentence. Her arms and legs had been chained up tightly but she still had a tiny bit of wiggle room. As she sank deeper and deeper into the cold water, she struggled furiously to reach her lock picks. Her fingers just about touched the picks. Attie began the process of using the tips of her fingers to pull out one of the lock picks. Hope flew in her mind that she wouldn't run out of air before she was able to pick the locks. 

While most thought the sea was a giant watery pit of death, to Mira it was a big moving water-bed. She floated on her back, long curly hair drifting around like buoyant seaweed with her precious orb on her stomach like an otter. The cries of seabirds were the same no matter what part of the ocean you were in, the waves still rolled gently rocking her to sleep. The weather was sunny; it was a beautiful day. A loud splash was heard, it sounded like something big. Opening her eyes she saw the surface froth as whatever fell sank quickly. Curiosity said she should go look and see, so that was what Mira did. Diving beneath the water she kicked her little legs as she sank down like an expert pearl diver. Unlike most people, she didn't have to worry about drowning. The water was her home.

Moving underwater is trickier than what you expect. Things don't behave in the same way as on land, as the currents move and the water bears its own particular density. Light things would begin to float upward and away while denser objects would drift down if you didn't grab them fast enough. And once it fell out of your hands, it was gone forever. Swimming closer the little girl's purple-blue eyes widened as she saw a girl whose arms were stuck. She couldn't swim, and bubbles were coming from her mouth. Kicking with your legs wasn't enough to stay afloat, and the things around her arms were heavy looking too. Mira didn't know how to take the metal things off, but she knew what she could do. Holding her orb above her head, a light began to shine from within. A swirl of water surged from below, rushing to the surface carrying both girls and any unfortunate sea creatures in its wake. A sudden tidal wave arose from the sea and flooded onto the land, flinging everyone much farther than the land below the cliffs. In fact, they were sent so far that they fell right into the hidden beach itself, landing in the pristine clear water. 

Shaking the water off her hair, she used the water nearby to push the older girl into the shallows. When the danger of drowning was over, she stood over the stranger with her crystal orb in her hands. "¡Hola! ¿Estas bien?" Mira carefully poked the other's leg with her foot, checking if she would respond. "¿Puedes escucharme?" Lowering her ear to the side of the girl's head, she furrowed her little eyebrows as she listened for sounds of breathing.

Despite the difficulty of movement underwater Attie refused to surrender to the watery depths. She swore a long time ago to never enter that sweet goodnight peacefully. Rage filled her heart as she continued to try to get at her lock picks. Small bubbles inside her ears popped as the pressure began to build. Yet, just as she'd thought she'd sink to the bottom, a light shone brightly from above. A surge of water pushed Attie up to the surface. The second her head reached above water she took a large breath. The swirling and power of the tidal wave resulted in her head becoming dizzy. She couldn't get up right away since the world was still spinning. At the sound of the girl's voice, she pushed herself upwards to a proper sitting position. A strange girl with dark curly hair and a pretty orb stood before Attie. 

"Hello!" Attie greeted the young girl, "First off, thank you for saving my life. Most try to kill me. Its a nice change. Now let me see what I can do about these chains." 

Attie felt her pocket for the lock picks. Fortunately, all her tools survived the tide tornado. Her hands reached into her pocket and pulled out the lock picks. She proceeded to use the lock picks first on her wrists and then on her legs. Once her arms were free, the process became incredibly easier. Attie pulled the chains off her and placed them neatly in a pile next to the shore of the ocean. A thought popped into Attie's mind. 

"My stuff!" She exclaimed, "I hope they didn't tear absolutely everything apart!"

But the majority of her items survived. Things had been scattered about yet everything remained but her coins and food. Those were replaceable. The one thing that nobody could replace was memories. Plucking out her journal, she skimmed through it to see if anything had been damaged. The pages remained in perfect condition. A small sigh of relief escaped her lips as she walked back to the child and sat down next to her. 

"My name is Attie. Though, I suppose you can't speak the same language as I, can you?"

Mira watched as the older girl used some metal sticks to make the things around her arms fall off, then collected some items scattered on the ground. While she was busy, the child went to look at the shackles that had been removed. With one hand she tried to lift it up only to make a grunt when it was heavy. The older girl came back and introduced herself, and it was noticeable that she didn't understand what Mira had said to her. Shifting her treasure orb in one arm, she pointed at Attie. "Ati-" She said with a nod as if to confirm who she was speaking to. Then she pointed at herself. "Soy Mira." Mira put down her orb to place her little hands on her hips, then stood up on her toes and puffed out her cheeks in a pout. "No debes nadar con los brazos atados. ¡No hagas eso más!" The little girl pointed at the chains, then at Attie with a look of disapproval. Though she didn't speak in the common tongue, she did understand what the other was saying. 

Her scolding done, Mira looked around them and saw the curved earthen walls of Zobisika, a beach nestled inside an overgrown crater. The fine white sand gave way to gentle shallows filled with colorful fish the size of a finger. Small crabs scuttled back into their sandy holes and lizards dashed about in the sun. Though the area was pretty, there was no way to climb out. The sides were too steep and curved inward the closer you came to the crater's edges. Holding her orb again, her lower lip curled upward as she thought of how to get out. Turning to Attie again, Mira's purple-blue eyes shone as she asked: "¿Quieres salir?" She pointed at the sky. The child then pointed at the beach's walls, showing there was no path leading out. "No podemos subir." If Attie did want to leave, that wouldn't be too difficult for Mira to pull off. Fortunately there was water nearby in the rippling shallows for her to use.

Was this little girl…scolding her? The behavior and facial expression proved that was the case. Attie nodded her head and did her best to keep herself from giggling. The child didn't realize that wasn't her doing which Attie found hilarious. Who would just tie themselves up and throw themselves into the ocean? After the terrible scolding she got from the child, Mira began to look around them. Fluttering her eyes close, Attie listened to the sounds of the waves pulling at the shore. She dug her feet into the golden sand and used her hands to find smooth stones hidden underneath the grainy sand.

Her eyes gazed above her towards the sky as she absorbed her surroundings. Sunlight warmed the sands making them comfortable to burrow under. Someone else had the same idea as Attie. When she pulled out her arm she found a tiny green lizard wrapped around her finger. It was terrified. The scaly fiend refused to release her finger. She plucked up a tiny smooth stone and slid it underneath the lizard to pry the tiny creature off. The little lizard fell into the sand as Attie pushed herself to her feet and wandered over to where Mira had run off to. The sky above was a bright blue but the walls to get to freedom were far too smooth to climb. Mira was clearly saying something about hard climb. 

"Hmm. It would be hard to climb that." Attie mumbled as she began to walk towards her bag, "But I bet we can make our way out." 

She opened the brown sack to rummage through it until she found what she needed. Pulling out a coil of rope and a grey grappling hook, she realized that she would have exactly what she needed to escape the beautiful beach bastille. Attie tugged the rope to confirm the toughness of it and observed the length of the rope. The rope was extremely long but would not be enough to reach the top of the sides. A realization hit her. This kid had the ability to command water. That way would be significantly easier than trying to escape via grappling hook. And Attie wasn't keen on wasting all her energy on something rather silly if there was an alternative. She let out a chuckle and tossed the grappling hook into her brown bag. 

"Hey, you have water magic right? Think you can get us out of here?" She asked. 

Sometimes the best way was the easy way. 

Mira watched Attie take out her rope and grappling hook patiently, observing what she was going to do. Despite her earlier scolding, she still was a child and was curious about new things. After giving the walls another look, Attie admitted the grappling hook might not be enough to climb out. Then, it seemed she had an idea. "Hey, you have water magic right? Think you can get us out of here?" Mira nodded, then smiled as if she was proud that she could be helpful. Squeezing her purple-blue orb tight, she began to fly up into the air. While levitating, the water in the beach began to gather beneath Attie to form a gently rising column. Like a big platform, Mira made the water rise higher and higher until the older girl was close enough to the ground's surface to hop to safety. When she saw Attie was gone, she would fly up higher to join her. The geyser of water fell back down, filling where it should be.

Above the hidden beach was a lush dense jungle, or what should have been one. The canopy had seen better days and the trunks were looking a bit bare making the beach-crater less hidden than usual. It was much quieter too, as animals who lived in the branches had to move elsewhere. That said, there was still humidity. A steady breeze blew by, bringing the smell of brine and wet soil. Compared to how it should be, there wasn't much to see. "Los árboles son muy delgados. Son como los polos." The little girl frowned, disappointed at the current state of vegetation. She poked a nearly-bare tree and looked at what little foliage it had left. "¿Ya es otoño?" Tilting her head to the side she thought it was strange, since leaves should not be falling when it was so warm. Maybe they didn't have enough water. She summoned some water into her hands and splashed it onto the tree's roots. Looking at her new friend, she went over. "Ati, Ati. ¿A dónde vamos?" The girl looked around as if asking where they would go next or what they were going to do. 

Mira's lavender-blue orb appeared to power her as water gathered from the waves onto the beach to create a column to lift Attie up. Expecting the rushing seawater from earlier, she was pleasantly surprised when the water was gentle and calm. As she bent over to touch the water, she relaxed and listened to the sound of the rushing liquid. Had water always been this sweet? It held power yet it was gentle, perfectly matching the manner of Mira. Once she was high enough to reach the ground, her legs pushed off the water column with all of her might. Attie's knees slammed into the grass-covered dirt while her hands held out to break her landing. Not wanting the child to see that her landing was a little rough, she sprang to her feet and dusted the dirt off her trousers. Once Mira flew to the top, Attie focused her attentions on the rain forest before them. Few of the canopy's leaves remained and the ones that did were rotting away. Without the leaves, the land below was visible and the animals who hid beneath the trees had moved away as a result. 

Plucking one of the sticks from the ground, she began to sniff and feel the twig. Instead of feeling a stick devoid of water, the twig only seemed to be decaying. There wasn't a scent of disease on it which led Attie to believe that the cause of the decaying rain forest was unnatural. Perhaps a magic of some sort? Yet this had been happening in a variety of places, including regular forests and plains. Attie knew that it was impossible to cast a spell that wide. This all meant that there was little someone as weak as herself could do about it. Mari might seeing how strong the child was but even then, if all the land needed was strong people then the issue would be solved already. The sound of the little girl's voice drew Attie from her thoughts. 

"We could go anywhere i…Isn't that wonderful?" She said with a small smile before turning to Mira, "I was wondering….could you show me how to use water magic like yours?"

Always wondering if regular people could use magic, Attie was ready to jump at the chance to learn it even if it meant endless training. She wanted to know magic and understand everything about it.

What Attie asked was a question Mira didn't really understand. For Mira, water magic wasn't something she learned, it was something she just knew how to do. Maybe it was due to unconscious memories of her past before her 'awakening', or due to the magical nature of her existence. It was like a cat asking a fish how to breathe in water. The little girl puffed out her lower lip and rested her chin on her orb, deep in thought. The child didn't really know how to teach something to someone else, but she decided to try. Reaching into her hair, she pulled out a pretty pearl hair pin. "Dar." Holding it up she handed it to Attie. This was no ordinary accessory–it was a special piece of jewelry that enhanced water magic, not that Mira really needed it. The girl motioned with her hands. "Cierra tus ojos." She shut her own to demonstrate. Then she held up her orb and pressed it against Attie's forehead. 

In the silence, all that could be heard were the crashing of the waves and the faraway caws of seagulls. The gentle lapping of water from the hidden beach below them added to the layers of sound. Then after a few moments, Mira pulled her orb back down. Squatting close to the ground, she pulled up some water from the crater beach and pooled it in a puddle. "Ati, mírame." She pointed at herself. Resting her orb on the ground so her hands were empty, she held her arms out as if to reach for something invisible. As she did so, the puddle of water moved. Mira pulled her arms back slowly so Attie could see. Following her motion, the puddle was drawn back towards the child. Push, pull. Push, pull. Her purple-blue eyes looked up at the older girl. "Al igual que las olas del mar." Picking up her orb she dusted it off and stood to her feet, motioning for Attie to try.

Attie held in a giggle when the little girl puffed out her bottom lip. Mira reminded her of a monkey that was trying to think out a puzzle. Suddenly, the child pulled out a pearled hair pin and handed it to Attie. Assuming this was to borrow, as nobody would dare give something that valuable away, she placed it in her hair. Why she needed an accessory still confused her but Mira was the teacher so whatever she decided had to have been wise, even if she was a little girl. Attie closed her eyes as instructed and felt the cold orb being pushed to her forehead. Confusion ran through Attie's mind as she tried to understand why Mira was doing this. Perhaps there was a secret within the orb or some sort of feeling she was supposed to receive due to the orb? Or maybe the girl was trying to press magic into her through the orb? When the orb was removed from her temple, she opened her eyes to see Mira squatting near the ground. Sitting next to the girl, Attie watched as Mira held out her hands and began moving the water. 

Was it really that simple? The water moved with a calming rhythm which made her wonder if Mira was trying to match the waves. After the child finished with her demonstration, Attie moved to the spot that Mira had been in. Holding out her hands, she began the push and pull motion that Mira had performed earlier. The water in the puddle was as still as a rock. Her arms fell as she began to wonder what she had done wrong. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She held out her hands once more and closed her eyes. Instead of jumping into the motions, she focused on the element of water. The waves in the distance became the main sound she focused on as her thoughts became entirely dedicated to the water inside the puddle. A little drop of water began to rise up above the puddle but dropped back the second that Attie opened her eyes. 

"Maybe there's something that I'm missing." She said to herself. 

Towards the small drop of water that moved on its own, Mira looked pleased. She gave an approving nod to Attie while crossing her arms. Her orb was levitating by itself, slowly rotating while it stayed in place. "Si, esta bien. Repites." She pointed at the water and made waving motions with her hands. "Cierra los ojos e imagina que estás nadando." The child pantomimed the action of swimming. It seemed she was telling Attie to focus on water-related imagery to grasp that feeling she had for a brief moment, then find a way to keep it going. Unbeknownst to the older girl, the pearl hairpin was actually helping more than it appeared to be. Amplifying one's aptitude for water magic would allow the learner to visually see their own progress and better gauge what to do. Squatting back down to the puddle, Mira took her hands and pushed them at the water's surface. At once the water seemed to spread away from them, like an invisible force was causing it to be repelled. She then slowly pulled her hands up, and the water ballooned upwards. The girl played with the water like this for a few minutes, then stepped away to let Attie try again. 

The best way to learn was to experience the curious properties of water for themselves. You could grab it, and it would slowly move around your fingers to run through the cracks. When you poured it, it would move down the path that was easiest for it to flow. When you dropped some into a larger puddle, the impact would make it ripple and spread. And when you had enough of it in one place, it could lift bulky objects like boats or people. Unlike the wind, you could see it–not just feel it. The essence of water was flowing movement. Her purple-blue orb drifting back into her arms, she held onto it as she gently floated into the air and began to slowly spin around. Holding her orb at arm's length, Mira twirled with it like a dance partner. "Bailar Ati, bailar con el agua." She called. "El agua es tu amiga, bailar con esa."