Gemma, right?

Gemma couldn't believe her ears. He knew her name. Or maybe she simply misheard him? They had never met, so there was no way he knew her. Only if he followed her on Insta? Then there was a small chance, sure. But meeting one of her followers in the-forgotten-by-the-whole-world corner of the park was very unlikely. Gemma knew that because they had had theory of relativity classes not that long ago. And let's just say she did relatively well. She was proud that no one could relate to her almost perfect skills in estimating the probability of someone guessing the number correctly. She was indeed the ace of the school. Even if she was great at maths (or she thought so), this didn't explain why the strange boy was calling her by her actual name and not her profile one. What if he...? Well, this escalated quickly.

'Gemma?', the boy pulled Gemma out of her thoughts.

'Er...I am not Gemma', said the girl firmly, estimating the probable routs to escape the place .

'Yes, you are!' the stranger showered Gemma with a familian grin. 'Otherwise you wouldn't have heard the melody!'

'Did you play it?', asked Gemma cautiously.

'Yes! Look! This is Dorothy - my violin!' the strange boy waved the yellow instrument in the air.

The violin has a name. It must be my lucky day.

'Nice to meet you...Dorothy,' mumbled Gemma and waved back at the boy. 'How did I hear the melody if you were so far away?'

'You can call it magic I guess,' smiled the boy. 'So, Gemma...'

'No, I am not Gemma. I am Emma. E-M-M-A. Got it?' There was no way Gemma would give up the act. Like Rumpelstiltskin, she cheriched her name dearly.

'Hmm,' the boy twirled the bow in the air as if he were playing and pointed at Gemma. 'But Mr. Noch has brought your here. He never fails.'

Mr. Noch? But Gemma didn't see any mister. In fact she was follo... If Mr. Noch was indeed who she was thinking about, then that was a straght-out-of-a-fantasy-novel situation. However, Gemma didn't want to give that weirdo in the tree the satisfaction of even a slight possibily of being right, so she decided to play dumb.

'Who is this so-called Mr. No...what? I'm sorry but I didn't follow anyone here. I was playing with my neighbours' son. We were running around and then somehow I ended up in this weird corner of the park.' Gemma turned around and looked at the unfamiliar place. It felt like she wasn't in the park anymore. It was calm. No chatting, no shouting, no chirping. The only sound one could hear was the one of the leaves being caressed by the calm wind. It was strangely warm. The sun was blazing. It had turned all the leaves into gold. At night these golden leaves would be the only reminder of the passing sunlit days. And even then no one would see the absorbed bright light. Just like everything else around they would be swallowed by the abyss and only when the new day would come, they would be able to shine on and comfort those who had been losing the light themselves.

There was something strange about the trees too. As you may have noticed, they were bearing golden leaves. All except for one. The Giant - the one where the strange boy was enjoying the company of his beloved friend - was bearing leaves of all autumn colours imaginable. Gemma couldn't help but wonder how it was possible. Unfortunately, the theory of relativity classes were of no help.

'Where am I? Gemma whispered the question to the boy who was wiping the violin with a colourful cloth.

'Where you should be, I guess? I don't know exactly how these things work.' mumbled the boy.

'What things? You know your answers don't make anything clearer. Who are you anyway?' Gemma and threw an intense glance at the stranger who was now wiping the bow with the same exact cloth. Why?

'I am someone who should meet you and....' said the strangest stranger in Gemma's life and jumped from the tree. He looked like a confident cat yet his landing was far from perfect. The boy, who instead of landing on his two human legs landed on his human knees and human hands, was brushing the dirt off his fashionable self.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

'Ah, this grass is so scratchy. Why are you like this to me? I haven't done anything to you. No, I've been doing good. I've been studying hard to play that violin. Do you have any idea how difficult it is? My neck! My neck gets stiff. And my arms! My arms hurt like crazy after hours of playing. Hours! And you dare to scratch me? But I don't give up. Why? Because I want to be greater than my dad. And if my mom got to learn that you scratched a good, kind-hearted and diligent person like me, she'll get mad. Why? Because she...' the boy suddenly stopped. He felt somebody's gaze at him.

He speaks with grass. Wow. I don't even know whom to call.

'Anyway, it's all in the past,' the boy patted the grass as if he were patting a kid on the shoulder after they had thrown a tantrum. 'Nile. My name is Nile. Nice to finally meet you Gemma,' the boy stood up and lended Gemma a hand.

Now when the boy was right in front of Gemma, she could finally have a good look at him. To her surprise, he wasn't as small as she thought. He was a little taller than her with blond hair that had been kissed by the sun and dark blue eyes that had swallowed the world's most severe thunderstorm. He was wearing yellow and brown check trousers with beloved black boots which made him look tall. A wrinkled blazing-white T-shirt and a crimson newsboy cap (is he the one to bring good news?) contributed to his mischievous smile. He seemed like a genuine lad yet you can never tell what was really hiding behind the smile.

There was no doubt the boy was of Gemma's age. Gemma shook Nile's hand and said, 'Nice to meet you, Nile.' After a long pause Gemma went on. 'I'm sorry, I don't think we've met yet you seem to know my name.'

Nile laughed. 'You are Gemma indeed! No, we haven't officially met. Mr Ghilt told me your name.'

'Mr...Guilt? Am I guilty of something or is he...?' Gemma paused.

'It's G-H-I-L-T. I know it may be confusing when you hear his name for the first time. He isn't guilty of anything severe, just of caring too much. He is our headmaster.'

'Headmaster from...?'

'My school of course.'

'How did he...?'

'He knows everyone from everywhere. He is like an archive. But he's not that old though. Just his knowledge is old but he is doing his best to keep up with the youngsters. He is a funny man. Quite quirky actually. Wait till you meet him. I swear...'

'Meet him?' Gemma was confused. She had no plans of changing schools.

'You don't know?'

'I don't think I do.'

'Oh, so you haven't got the news yet! Why am I here then? Did they mix things up again? Don't worry, I am not going to spoil anything. If I hate anything more than waking up early, it would be spoilers.'

'You know you have an annoying habit of expressing everything with a veil of fog', said Gemma and childishly stomped her right foot.

'It's not that I don't want to tell you. If I told you everything, Dorothy would be sentenced to a week of case arrest. And I can't afford to lose time for my practice,' Nile shook his head in protest.

'You love playing that much?' Gemma pointed at the tree branches.

'I do and don't at the same time. I don't really know whether it's the path I want to take. But for the time being it's all I have, so I have to push through,' said Nile and dazzled Gemma with a bright smile.

'I see. What were you playing up there?'Gemma was genuinely interested. It was the melody that brought her to the Giant.

'Ah, that was a classical melody 'A Dance of The Fallen Leaves'. My great-grandfather wrote it.'

'Can fallen leaves dance? And your great-grandfather was a composer?' Gemma's head was overflowing with questions. Somehow she seemed to have forgotten that strange Mr Noch aka a cat had led her to the place of golden leaves and that she should be cautious of the weird boy in a crimson hat.

'Firstly, I guess they can. Why not? You can do anything you set your mind to. Secondly, he wrote a lot of melodies that ranked high in the charts. I feel proud whenever I play them.' Nile seemed pleased to mention his family's legacy.

'What's his name? Maybe I know him?'

'His name is Veegale Stark. Have you really heard of him?'

'Sorry, I haven't.'

'It's ok. You'll love his music.'

'I'll look him up later! He must be on wiki and maybe on spotify,' Gemma sounded extremely enthusiastic.

'Why not,' chuckled Nile.

A gust of chill wind hit Gemma's face. Autumn's slap on the face brought Gemma back to reality. It was time she went home. There were a lot of assignments to be completed and some episodes of some shows to be reviewed. Instead of rushing on all two's from the unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar boy, Gemma found herself deeply engrossed into the conversion. Not even the cold autumn air could stay in the way of Gemma's curiosity.

'I'm sorry, I shall go home. It's getting late,' said Gemma through a bitter smile on her red-cheeked face.

'I think you're right. Look!' said Nile and pointed at the sky.

Except there was nothing to look at. The sky turned into a colourful layered cake. This would usually amuze Gemma. She could spend a long time gazing at the clouds and dreaming of knights, princesses and evil witches. But today the sky was no longer a canvas for daydreaming. It was a mere background for the chit-chat between two no-longer strangers.

Gemma looked back at Nile. There was no Nile. No Giant. No Gold. The girl was standing under the regular-sized tree in a regular park with regular people around. Was it all a dream? Did she make it all up?

'Gemma! Gemma! Let's make fireworks!' a familiar voice of a little boy pulled Gemma out of her thoughts. Well, I guess I have to help with fireworks now.