When Sara turned seven, the dreams began.

She would see a pillar of light stretching on and on to the skies, up into the very heavens themselves. Amidst her a storm raged, turning the environment into a wasteland. Or maybe the place had always been like that; she didn't know.

She would walk towards the pillar, having this uncontrollabe urge to approach it. But, always before she could touch it, she would wake up.

She told this to her father and mother, but even them had no idea on what it meant.

"A pillar of light in a wasteland? Hmm... sorry dear, I have no idea. I do not know any place that fits with that description," her mother answered.

Sara then asked her teacher at school, a middle-aged scholar coming from the nearby city.

"Hmm, if you want a wasteland, there's the Akilon Wastes. It is said to be the remains of an ancient civilization that perished due to misuse of their magic," he explained. "No pillars of light or anything like that there though. If there was, there would already be hundreds of researchers and archeologists from various countries going there."

"Oh, and don't even think of going there, child. It's really far away from here."

Sara took note of his explanation. Maybe one day she would travel there.

Speaking of school, Sara entered the village school this year. Quickly, she gained the reputation of being the smartest and brightest student in the village. Combined with her personality that doesn't really tolerate nonsense, like talking about someone behind their back for example, she quickly ended up not really having friends at all.

Well, except Tom that is.

Tom would always greet her every morning. And he would always escort her from her home to the school and back. She didn't mind but she didn't really understand why he would do that.

Of course, to everyone else, it was obvious Tom had a crush on her. Even her parents were on it, with his mother winking at the boy at times and his father giving him advices on how to win a girl's heart. They had an opinion that Tom was a good boy, and they would approve of him if he eventually ended up marrying their daughter.

There was one person who didn't like Tom getting close to her though.

"Hmph, what could he possibly see on her? She's just a weird recluse," so she said.

The girl's name was Helena, the resident queen bee of the school. Even though she was just two years older than Sara, she already bossed everyone around. That was one reason why she couldn't stand her. She simply refused to be her lackey. And the other reason was because she beat her in class. She used to be resident honor student, until she came around.

But the biggest reason for the hate was that she actually liked Tom herself. She was fond of his meek nature and she thought she would be a perfect beau for her. And she thought he was really cute too, with his adorable little round face. She had dreamed many times to hug and smooch him.

She was quite the precocious nine-year old indeed.

She was the daughter of the local landowner, thus she could afford many pretty dresses unlike Sara who only wore her usual drab-looking garments. She also had a bright blonde hair that matched well with her colorful dresses.

And yet, even with all that, Tom only had eyes for Sara.

This little fact really bruised her huge ego.

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One aftertoon after class, Sara stayed behind for a little extra lesson from the teacher. Not because she had to, of course, but because she wanted to. The teacher happily obliged her lust for knowledge.

Helena saw this as her chance.

"Tom, let's go home together!" she said as she quickly approached Tom and grabbed his right arm.

"S-sorry Helena, I'm gonna wait for Sara," he responded while blushing. He was getting uncomfortable with how close Helena was getting.

"Aw, don't be such a spoilsport! She's not going to be out for at least an hour. Why don't we just spend time at my house first?"

"N-no! I'm going to wait for Sara!"

Tom then broke off from her clutch, inavertedly throwing her down to the ground before running away, leaving a livid-looking Helena fuming in anger.

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"...How dare he...how dare he treat me like this?! I, Helena, the prettiest girl on this village, thrown into the dirt like nothing? Damn you Sara! You must have use some kind of trick on the boy!"

"...That's right. I know there are charms and potions that can make men fall in love with you. That witch must have used them on my poor Tom!"

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The next week, when Sara stayed behind once more, Helena approached Tom, carrying with her a bag of candies she had purchased from the store. Of course, Tom didn't know it was laced with a sprinkle of dispel potion water, or at least what Helena thought it was. You see, her home had an entire library full of various books, one of them being an alchemist recipe book. There, she found the recipe for a dispel potion. Being intelligent, and proud, she didn't ask for help from her father or mother--not that she would ever disclose her crush of Tom to them--she ended up making the thing herself. She would sneak out and gather the required herbs and plants from the nearby forest and plains. At first, she was afraid to do so since she had never gone out of the village unsupervised. But she braced herself for the sake of saving her poor love from the clutch of the witch. Then, she would brew the potion in her room with tools she had from her cooking toyset.

Tom accepted it joyfully, being blissfully ignorant of her underlying motives.

She went home with a big grin on her face. Tomorrow, Sara's charm should've already been broken, and Tom would be hers at last.

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 The next morning, as usual, Tom came to Sara's house to walk with her to the school.

Sara immediately noticed there was something wrong with him, when he showed up with a big, almost crazed grin.

"Yo, Sara! It's me! Your dear boyfriend Tom! Now where's my morning kiss, hmmm?"

Tom came close to her and immediately leaned his face towards her.

"...Tom, did you eat something odd this morning?"

"No, not at all. It's the usual bread. Come on Sara give me a--"

"How about yesterday?"

"Just some candies I got from Helena. Now, don't be shy, girl, give me just a little puck here." He pointed at his lips.

Sara immediately understood what was going on.

"Wait here. I shall get mother."

However, before she could go back inside, Tom ran towards her from behind and flipped her dress so hard the hem flied off almost to her shoulders.

Her white panties were once again visible to Tom's eyes. This time she had a cute green bow instead of the blue one she had a year ago.

"Ah, what a beautiful sight. Your white panties are the best, Sara!" Tom gave two thumbs up.

Any other girl, and Sara would have slapped or punched him right away. But she knew he was not responsible, so she reigned her temper. She just ignored him while she entered her house, a blush enveloping her cheeks.

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"He should be alright now," Sara's mother said.

It was one hour afterwards. Tom was now sleeping nice and sound on Sara's bed, having being given a calming potion. Sara's mother was an alchemist in her youth. And she knew right away the cure to Tom's little personality change.

"Those sweets must have contained something, most likely a potion that increases your desire while negating your own self-restrain. You'll just have to cure it with a dispel potion. He'll be fine after a couple hours of sleep."

Hearing that, Sara decided to confront the culprit right away.

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When she arrived at school, it was already break time and the students were all scattered doing their own things. Sara found Helena sitting with her friends having a conversation with a cup of tea underneath a big tree.

"Helena, how could you?" she said bluntly when she stood in front of them, "How could you poison Tom like that?"

Of course, this earned her weird looks from Helena's friends who didn't know anything. Helena herself however started to sweat.

"What are you talking about, my dear Sara?" Helena answered, keeping her usual sweet yet mocking voice.

"I know you gave him candies yesterday. Now he's sleeping in my house, after being treated by my mother."

Helena's facade dropped. C-could it be that she had misbrewed the potion and created a poison instead?

She quickly jumped out from her position, knocking down her tea and spilling its contents, and then ran as fast as she could towards Sara's house.

"Wait, he's not... ah, she's gone."

Sara sighed before running after her, leaving Helena's friends dumbfounded.

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When Helena got to Sara's home, she rushed through the front door and then to Sara's room. She had been here once before and she still remembered the layout of the house well.

She nearly broke down the door to Sara's room before she got to the bedside.

"Oh Tom, don't die! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

She then cried like she never did, complete with a pair of snot running down her nose.

Sara's mother, who had been in the room all the time, quickly approached her, telling that his life was in no danger at all.

"W-what?" she sniffed, wiping off her tears with her hand. "B-but I thought he was poisoned."

"Indeed he was. But it was only a mental one. And I already gave him an antidote."

At this point, Sara had arrived to the scene. She saw her mother explaining everything to Helena, so she wouldn't have to explain anything else.

She still needed to ask her something though.

"Why did you do it?"

"I-I didn't intend to. I was just making a dispel potion to cure her of your love potion he had taken."

Sara raised an eyebrow at this while her mother sniffled a laugh, the latter already knowing what this was all about.

"Just so you know, I never made such a thing. Tom followed me around on his own will."

"Lies! I'm much prettier than you! So why won't Tom like me instead?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Sara simply answered her with such a straightlaced face that Helena stormed out of the room, feeling angry at how unfair everything was.

Meanwhile, Sara's mother still tried to hold back her laugh.

Ah, children really are cute.

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Thus, ever since that day, Helena would keep tagging along with Tom, even when he was waiting around for Sara. Sara didn't really mind, but Tom found her persistence pretty annoying, but was too polite to say it to her face.

I would not lose to Sara! My persistence will pay off at the end! 

Of course, this made her lose her status as the queen bee of the village, as the other girls found her odd for following around a boy like that.