„Today is so beautiful," Samaya thought while watching the sculpture of the trees'branches, skillfully etched in their secular crowns. And, of course, she was so amazed, for she was seeing that beauty for the first time in her life that day, just as it was the first time she dared to enter the Southern part of the woods. So, she could see how neatly nature knits its coat around.
After watching left and right, at all that glinting beauty, Samaya stopped and looked up at the sunrays that were piercing that etched vault of the trees: „huh, even more, beautiful than before," she said, in her head, amazed by the dance of the light with the leaves. „I don't understand why papa never allowed us to see this splendor," she thought, completely immersing in thoughts. Then, without being aware that she was advancing and not staying in place, step by step, Samaya deeply entered the innermost of the woods.
And, with each step that she was taking in front, Samaya saw how the forest became thicker, how the sun started to hide its golden rays somewhere, and how the shadow snuck into that part of the woods, making everything around be painted with black stains. Then, she took another step, one more and, so suddenly, the forest has been completely sunken into the weird embracement of the night, which still had some shades of blind light around.
„Huh? Where the light has gone?" Samaya thought, looking amazed around.
But the amazement started to give space to the fear, in her heart, while something was whispering into her inner ear to be on guard and be afraid. And her body slowly shook, taken over by the breath of the dread felt when she saw into what the forest transformed and she understood that those were places she didn't know at all. More, with those beautiful secular trees that were so amazing before, but which looked so savage now, supported in their single, wooden leg, like the wild ogres, from the stories she heard from other children while staying around the pyre in the beautiful starry nights.
But, very soon, the little girl understood that what she was living at that moment wasn't just a scary part of a chiller. She understood that it was as real as it gets, that everything around her was lurking on her, with hundreds or thousands of unseen eyes at first as if the devil himself opened his eyes everywhere and he was just waiting for the right moment to attack her.
However, even if her heart sunk into her boots, Samaya decided not to stay in place. So, she took a few steps back instead of taking them in front. But even so, she didn't stop to look afraid around. And what she has been so afraid of has appeared in that scary glade: the demon from the chillers, that she hated so much to listen to, told by the boys to the girls to scare them while they were left alone next to the pyre when the night was still young - leafed snakes, crawling on the ground.
Samaya shuddered: „nature is moving!" She whispered in a trembling voice in her head while her wide-open eyes were staring at the lianas, that were crawling not only on the ground but were also showing up, here and there, from the bushes, from the trees'crowns, windingly advancing on the green moss or under the aerial roots of the trees, looking as if they were alive snakes, sneaking around on the cold soil.
Soon, very soon, a powerful sigh had been heard around as if it came out from the depths of the ground, and nature around the girl has been surrounded by a milky, grey fog.
The fog, however, into the girl's eyes, looked like something never seen before, like something devilish, for she had always lived where was sunny, where nature was friendly, while in that part of the forest the trees and everything that could be seen there wore an unfriendly coat.
„Mama,” Samaya shouted in her head when she felt, with all her being, two huge wings hitting off each other while their devilish master, a wingy monster, rose above the forest. And, because of that, because she felt something rising in the air, Samaya looked up.
What she saw while looking up was something mystical: a huge, black bird, with big, black wings was rising in the air from the very heart of the earth. Yet, what Samaya couldn't see instead, even if she later looked around, has been the den which that scary bird rose up from.
More than that, the earth still had its normal shape, as she saw it before. Even so, Samaya was sure that that bird didn't appear from anywhere, but it had to have appeared somewhere from underground.
That's why, convinced that the bird isn't something earthly, Samaya looked again up and saw that huge bird floating above the forest. However, even if she narrowed her eyes to see who that bird could be, as her brother taught her to do, telling her that normal wolves are doing this to understand the world, Samaya didn't know who that bird might be, nor did she know its name.
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Then, so suddenly, among the green thicket of the trees'branches, she saw two big, rounded eyes. „What's that?" Samaya thought. „They can't be the eyes of a squirrel, for they are too big. Nor they can be the eyes of that bird: they are too small for that." So, with questions spinning in her head, Samaya had forgotten about fear, whose place, in her chest, took the curiosity. That's why she took a few steps toward the tree, among whose branches Samaya saw the eyes. But getting next to the trunk, she understood that she can see whose eyes those might be only if she climbs into the tree.
„I don't think you want to face that monster," Samaya heard someone's voice behind her when she was about to climb on the trunk and, amazed to find out that in that glade could live someone, she looked back.
„A mirror?” She thought when she saw herself behind her. But even if she looked left and right she couldn't see any mirror. More, her reflection was weird: it had red hair, and cunning eyes, something she has never seen at her before, even if she loved so much to mirror her face on the water's surface lately.
„No, it's probably my imagination," Samaya told herself, still staring at that second she from in front of her. Then when the other girl took a step in front, Samaya did the same and when they were only two steps from each other, cunningly staring into each other's eyes, both girls stopped.
„It's weird,” both said at the same time, each in her way, amazed to see how alike they were. „Who are you?" Both asked again at the same time.
Hearing no answer, the real Samaya stretched her arm, intending to touch her double, thinking: „if I touch her, then she'll vanish. Just as it always happens with my reflection when I touch the water's surface with my finger while I mirror my face on it and it will also run in circles as the water after that."
„In what world did you live till now?” Samaya's double asked and, in that girl's voice, Samaya heard some trace of big amazement. „You are definitely stupid if you think that I'm only a reflection."
The intruder's words of mockery drove Samaya crazy, who started to growl at first, showing her human fangs, to later yell, in her head: „you're the stupid one! And... I'll teach now not to insult others when you see them. Even if you aren't more than my imagination, you have no right to depreciate me."
These words made the other Samaya laugh, for the innocence of her double was something that provoked her, awakening the asleep evil in her soul, an evil she kept in her heart for long, and that evil told her to kill her rival.
„Try if you can,” the fox provoked Samaya while walking toward her and forcing Samaya to crawl back as the crabs do.
„You are real,” Samaya eventually murmured. „But… who are you and why are you so similar to me?” The little she-wolf asked.
„Because I am who I am,” the little fox answered „And... because I hate fakes, I must destroy you, for I can't allow to be two me into this world, and the one who must vanish from earth's surface should be you," the fox hissed through her teeth, showing her fangs. Samaya's reaction, however, made her jerk back.
And this happened by the real Samaya took her wolf shape, forcing the double to take her fox shape too. Thus, two children: a little fox and a wolf cub were standing face to face at that moment, having one single thought in their heads - to destroy the other one. And that was something never seen before: like a two-faced mirror, which was standing right in the middle of the glade, reflecting on each of its surfaces the image of the trees. However, each image was different, as the two rivals were, who looked alike while being humans, but who were totally different while changing into beasts.
But the frozen image started to change at the moment the little fox and the she-wolf started to move in circles, lurking on for the opportunity to see the other one's falling.
Yet, there can't be any mistake between two alike personalities. That's why, one question was still spinning above the forest: can a fake win in front of the original? And, at that moment, none of the two Samaya realized who was the fake and who was the original, for it was a kind of game between them while moving in circles, as if day was trying to imitate the night, or as if the shadow was trying to take the light's place on earth - an impossible.
„You didn't tell me yet who you are and why you follow me?" Samaya asked the fox.
The fox instead cunningly smiled: „besides you are stupid, you're also blind. Well, if there's no other way to make you understand, I'll answer then: I'm Samaya. The red fox from Inmar's tribe. And... as far as I see, you must be the Rophions'child," and she loudly laughed.
This answer instead didn't satisfy Samaya but made her angry. So, she growled again: „you not only copied my face, but you also dared to steal my name. This is already profanation. Something that you can't do even to your enemy. That's why you must be punished."
A thunder of power pierced the air between the two children while they were staring with hatred at the other one. Then, a wild growl had been heard coming out from the she-wolf's throat while the little fox was ironically grinning. And, in one instant, the two showed each other their fangs, to deeply bit the other's neck one second later.