Livia lead Solveis up to the cave, bounding all the way, happy in her new dress. Solveis followed in her wake. The whole group of youths was now together. Arlendr, Girselle, and En paused their game of tires to greet the newcomers.

Not losing a second, Girselle attacked Livia’s new favorite thing, “So the freak twins have got you dressing like them now. Oh. Good.” Girselle lifted one eyebrow at the little girl.

Livia’s joy sunk behind a cloud. She had been made anxious about being too stupid. She didn’t know anything about fashion like ZhiZhi did.

En tried to say something nice, “It reminds me of the one at the shops, in the fair.” He thought that implied that it was probably good. “Except it's more normal, er um… like looks comfortable, like something you could actually wear.” That also was meant to be a compliment. He sputtered out and looked small and unsure.

Just to disagree with Girselle, Arlendr added, “The grandparents said it was right. Right, so good then.”

“Right so good then?” Girselle repeated Arlendr at himself, implying that he had been stupid and spoken stupidly.

“Right. So. Good. Then.” Arlendr shouted as if he were furious, but really he was just trying on the emotion of fury. It pleased him. He went back to his game and rolled the tire at an unprepared En, who spazzed his hands all around, missing the tire.

Arlendr was pleased with himself.

Livia was left with an uncertainty about the dress, but it seemed as if she had permission to like it, so she, more hesitantly now, went back to loving her new outfit.

Solveis quickly lost interest in hanging out with the others. She got up and quietly exited. When she got half way up to the top of the edge of the plateau, she looked down to make sure that her little friend was happily engaged and doing ok without her. Livia was happily playing with the boys, who were teasing her and playing monkey in the middle with her. Girselle, on the other hand, was following Solveis out.

‘Why! Actual deity, seriously, why?! What possible reason can she have to approach me apart from the others?!’ Solveis thought to herself and to the sky. ‘Seriously though. Go away. Go very away,’ Solveis thought toward Girselle.

Feeling that a direct attack was imminent, Solveis braced herself, she stood very still and breathed deeply. She was just outside the cave mouth, still down in the rocks, not having climbed up to the plateau yet. She leaned back against the rock wall of the plateau and pressed her feet down, felling the stone beneath her. She prepared herself to look through Girselle and just wait until the verbal attack was done with.

“You forget how to walk? Or are you standing there on purpose?” Girselle began her attack.

Solveis thought to herself how funny it would be if she just leaned forward and hugged Girselle. What would her opponent do with that? She was genuinely curious. It pleased her and gave her a small fortitude and a laughing twist in the corner of her mouth.

“You didn’t even look at your new favorite tin. I added to it. Doesn’t it look nice?”

Solveis unintentionally turned to look into the cave, she hadn’t surveyed the insides while she’d been in there. What had Girselle done now? Girselle was in the way of where Solveis would need to lean in order to see into the cave. Solveis didn’t want to give Girselle the satisfaction of looking right then. But no – that was the wrong way of thinking about it. It was her cave. It wasn’t giving anyone satisfaction, it was just a completely normal thing to do. Not choosing to be afraid, she leaned into Girselle to look into her own cave.

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Upon looking, Solveis saw that Girselle had, not-so-cleverly, covered up the new display tin with a shawl. That was no threat and no win. Solveis also noticed that the three in the cave were watching her and Girselle with eyes peeled.

In order to prove that she would not be made uncomfortable, and in a genuine curiosity, Solveis leaned a little further in and looked all around. Nothing really seemed to be changed, just a couple tins shifted here and there, that was all. Then, she saw it. The little ring of stones, Arlendr’s ‘fire pit’. It had fresh ash in it. They hadn’t lit a fire in a while, it’d been too hot out. So, Girselle must have done it.

Solveis sensed that there was something devious in the change, so she climbed past her opponent, who stayed standing, and went to the cave mouth for a closer look at the fire pit. Before she got very close at all, she saw that there were written-on pages among the ash. She recognized them. They were her missing stories.

Fresh anger boiled up. One hot tear brimmed in each eye, but she held them back with a deep breath. Unsure of how to react, she froze in place, between Girselle and the cave mouth.

Girselle walked away, up to the top of the plateau, where she gained the high ground and continued her verbal attack from above. “I thought you liked fires,” Girselle taunted Solveis, “Was that too much change for you? Or is it that you don’t like ashhh.”

The allusion to Solveis’s precious little bits of destroyed paper made her eyes warm again. Her feet moved without her permission, up to the top of the plateau. She stood face to face, or face-to-neck, with Girselle. She realized though that she needed to get a hold of herself. So she dropped her weight into a sitting position, at Girselle’s feet. She twisted her legs up in her most comfortable position and looked through Girselle’s legs into the universe. She just had to control herself for this moment, then – well, who knew what would come next, but it must be easier to endure than this.

Girselle continued, “It’s just a little fire. Besides it Arlendr’s pit not yours. None of it is yours.”

Solveis breathed and looked up through Girselle’s head.

“It’s ok. I know it’s hard for you to talk about it. Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s nothing important anyway.” Girselle started pacing circles around the sitting Solveis. “I’m glad you’re ok with it. That way I don’t have to worry about it next time. Besides, I’m sure I can always find something around your mountain to burn. I’ll just take leaves from your trees.” Girselle saw that her last statement about leaves got a little reaction from Solveis. Girselle stood and leaned a little down in front of Solveis. She continued, “You don’t want me to take your leaves? They’re just leaves.”

‘They’re not just leaves!’ Solveis screamed, but only internally. She was sure that this was Girselle’s subtle way of saying that she was going to take papers from the tree stashes and burn them. Solveis’s resolve to do nothing was broken. One hot tear rolled from one of her eyes and she jumped to her feet and grabbed Girselle’s arm. It was like when Arlendr sometimes grabbed her arm, except that she wasn’t playing for effect like him, she was genuinely fueled by rage.

She stood perfectly still, her tiny hand still around Girselle’s arm, her eyes staring cold as ice and yet burning with a steady, unwavering flame, into Girselle’s eyes. Her whole body was leaned forward in an attack stance. Girselle’s eyes looked, surprisingly, a little scared. This cold rage wasn’t something she had expected. Girselle also looked perversely pleased. She didn’t back away, she just stood, locked in place by Solveis’s tiny hand. Solveis saw herself from the outside, in her angry stance. In her out of body experience, she realized that the other three children had emerged and were watching the exchange from a little ways down the rock.

With the help of some strength that came from outside of herself, Solveis snapped out of it, partially at least. She whipped her angry clenched hand off of the intruder, spun around, and sprinted away.