Lazy Summer Afternoon

Axel crouched behind a green bush, the leaves tickling his face. He could hear the crunching of footsteps in the yards colorful grass. He held his breath as they got louder, tensing up so that he wouldn't make any noise, then relaxed as they faded away, letting out a soft sigh.

The footsteps stopped, forcing up a sense of dread from Axel's chest. Suddenly, the footsteps returned, this time growing faster and faster. With his heart beating quicker than a racehorse, he peeked out over the greenery, then dashed through it. His hair flew out behind him as he ran past the vegetable garden, his bare feet padding against the soft lawn.

Suddenly, he changed direction, heading for the large oak tree near the back of the yard, a wide grin on his face. Just when he got to the tree, he moved to change direction again, but tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. He rolled as he fell in the grass with a loud laugh.

Ev only just managed to bite a giggle. She was too old for giggling, really; furthermore, it would betray her approach. Her friend was pretty good at hiding, considering; she may have failed to mention the fact that she could follow his trail. Try as she might, her sense of smell wasn't exactly something she could turn off.

None of that mattered, however. Today, she was playing hide and seek with her friend. Today, she was just like any other youth.

The girl paused in her pursuit, a small frown puckering her brow before being quickly replaced by a grin. She had somehow walked right past the boy and not even realized it. Tricky Axel - how had he managed that? Turning to look back over her shoulder, Ev surveyed the yard, still grinning at the boy's cleverness. Clearly, neither of them had forgotten about her little advantage.

Whirling about, she ran back the way she had just come, certain she had accurately pinpointed Axel's location, this time. Sure enough, the boy soon emerged from his hiding place and made a run for it. Ev picked up speed in response, no longer able to hold back her own laughter. As he tumbled in grass, she attempted to halt, slipping across the grass and nearly slowing to a stop, only to fall over him with a startled squeak as she slid into his recumbent form.

The girl rolled onto her back, laughing loudly. She nudged him playfully in the side with the heel of a bare foot, still giggling (although she would never confess to it). "I think we're tied, now," Ev declared a bit breathlessly. "You run real fast, y'know."

Axel laughed again when she thudded against him, forcing a pocket of air out of his lungs. His gaze flicked to the girl as she rolled into the grass beside him, then up to the sky, which was bright blue and full of big fluffy clouds.

"And you're a good tracker," He said, his eyes sparkling as they continued to follow the clouds in the sky, "We're evenly matched."

Suddenly, the boy sat up, breaking the peaceful stillness that came with so many summer days with the rustling of fabric against the turf. Looking around the yard, then down at Eva, his brow tensed ever so slightly, "I'm getting kind of bored of tag. You wanna do something else?"

Ev raised up on her elbows, the better to look at her friend. She hummed in thought as she considered the other activities they could participate in, head falling back as she did so, her gaze moving into the branches above them as a result. A grin pulled across her face.

"D'ya ever climb a tree, Axel?" Ev asked. "It's loads o' fun, climbin' trees." The girl rolled to her feet, head still craned back as she plotted the quickest path to the highest branches.

Eyes sparking with mischief, she turned golden eyes upon the boy. "I'll race ya up," she challenged.

Axel shook his head hesitantly. He didn't really want to admit that he'd never done anything as simple as climbing trees, but there were a lot of simple things he'd never done. He had read about people climbing trees, though. He tilted his head up at the patchwork of branches and leaves, and grew slightly dizzy as he did so.

He bit his lip as he returned his attention to Evelina, then broke into a small smile, "All right. As long as you don't get too sore when I beat you." He laughed as he ran over to the base of the tree, then stopped, placing his hand on the bark and looking back up at the branches, this time his gaze more calculating. "Ready?"

Ev grinned, tossing her head in a show of false arrogance. "Bring it," she returned. Moving to the opposite side of the trunk, the girl rested her palms against the rough bark, golden eyes calculating the best route up. It was an older tree, with lots of knots and branches to serve as handholds. She had climbed harder, but it should be simple enough for her friend to manage, especially since he had never climbed a tree before. The girl felt it was her responsibility to teach him these sorts of things.

Tensing to jump for the nearest grip, Ev looked back at her friend. "Ready?" she said. "Set... GO!" And up they went.

Axel watched the other girl for a few moments to watch how she climbed before jumping up himself, catching his foot on a knot in the trunk and grabbing hold of a branch at the same time. He continued up the tree, occasionally glancing back at Eve to watch her progress. Halfway up the tree, a branch creaked under his weight, and he scurried away from it as quickly as possible.

Suddenly he wasn't so sure that this was the safest thing for them to be doing. The boy shook his head and returned his attention to the towering oak, slightly revising his path to the top.

Hearing the ominous creaking at the opposite side of the tree, Ev issued a somewhat belated warning. "Y'got t' be careful. Some 'f the branches might be rotten, so y' gotta make sure t' hold onto th' sturdy ones." Throughout this, the girl continued her upward climb, maneuvering around a branch like the one in question.

Another couple of branches up, she found herself at a bit of a standstill. The branch she tried to step on to the right was clearly a safety hazard and the one to her left was too far away. The next branch above her was several inches out of reach. If she could only get a hold on it, though, she could lever herself up between it and the limb she held with her right hand.

She couldn't see Axel, but from the sound of it, he had just passed her. There was nothing for it; she would have to jump to grab the branch. Bracing herself, she did just that, fingers wrapping around the limb only for the bark to peel away in her palm.

Ev let out a startled cry as she dropped back, right hand tightening reflexively on its hold. There was a split second of relief as her weight came to rest on a branch lower down. In the next second, however, the crack of rotted wood rent the air as the unhealthy branch gave way and gravity seized the girl once more.

The force of her abruptly continued fall tearing her grip from the branch she'd been holding, Ev gave a loud shriek as she became victim to the very misfortune she had just warned her friend about. There was a pained exclamation as she hit a branch on her descent and a second later, the girl grew suddenly silent. There was another crack that did not come from a tree branch and then finally, the sound of a small body impacting unyielding ground.

And then, everything was horrifically still.

Axel grabbed another branch, his eyes gleaming. The boy was starting to see the appeal of this. It was a fun mix of strategy and agility, and he could tell he was starting to get good at it. He could see the leaves starting to thin, and, breaking into a grin, he knew the top of the tree couldn't be far away.

He pushed down on his foot to start up again when he heard a soft rustling noise pushing it's way through the air. His heart skipped a beat as his eyes flicked to the wood under his hand, then he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw its surface undamaged. An instant later, a shout reached his ears, sending a shiver of dread through his spine. "Eva!!!"

Without hesitation, he started climbing back down again, his hands moving so fast that the bark began to rub away at his skin. About five feet from the ground, he caught sight of his best friend's body, motionless. He forgot entirely that he was supposed to be grabbing on to something, and he fell to the ground with a dull thud. He took a few shaking breaths, then stood up, ignoring the sore feeling in his chest and legs. He ran over to the girl, "Ev!"

She wasn't moving. What else did he expect? The girl had just fallen from a tree. Axel looked around frantically, his mind searching for what he was supposed to do. The answer came to his mind in the form of a whimpered plea, help... Help. He needed help.

The boy sprinted up to the back door, "MRS. PATTERSON!!!" He pounded his fists on the door, only to realize that they were covered in little red specks. Not that it mattered. "MRS. PATTERSON!!!!"

Kallie had heard some awful things in her life. She had seen her mother cry more times than any child should have to - there was something truly terrifyingly heart-wrenching about trying to comfort your own parent. As a child, you only know that everything will be alright, when you can look at your parent and they don't look that upset. The feeling of watching either of your parents break down, let alone both of them, left one with a completely disorienting feeling. She had dealt with countless underhanded people, not to mention her father's rapid alcoholism.

But not a single sound had ever been more awful, than the yell that reached her ears that afternoon, while she knew the children were in the backyard. The only thing that could possibly have been considered worse was the silence that followed.

The glass that she had been holding, slipped from her hand, and for once in her life Kallie didn't feel the need at all, to fix the mess, the disorder that she had made. By the time that Axel had gotten to the back door, Kallie already had her hand on the door knob, swinging it open before he could call for a third time.

"What is it? Axel, where is Ev-" she caught sight of the girl's form on the ground below the tree before she finished and was already taking off, running across the yard and trying her absolute best to swallow the fear that was trying to bubble up through her. What was she supposed to do if-

Dropping beside the girl's form Kallie reached out a hand to stroke her hair softly, allowing herself that moment, before she was all business again, her wand was out promptly muttering a string of spells to tell her to find out both what is wrong and fix as many things as she knew how to fix.

"Axel, can you tell me what happened? Did you see exactly what happened?" Kallie had a pretty good idea, but the more information she could get the better. And besides, if she got the boy to focus on something besides just sitting there, feel like maybe he was useful, then perhaps she wouldn't have to deal with his own panic while she was trying to keep her own at bay as well.

Axel took a step back as the door swung open in front of him, his mouth half open as he was about to call out to her again. As he watched her run over, he was able to swallow down some of his panic seeing as someone seemed to know what they were doing. He followed her over, his head swarming so quickly he was beginning to feel slightly numb.

He watched her work over Ev, his hands crossed over his stomach. It wasn't as if he hadn't lost people before- he knew loss only too well. But Ev couldn't... He needed her. Right now, she was the only person who really knew him, who he could actually talk to. He wasn't sure what he would do without her.

The boy shook his head, his voice coming out softer than he expected, "No- I mean I didn't see her, but... We were climbing trees, and I guess she must've slipped or something."