Nabrima's Journey of the Heart

"Come on, I'll show you!" Nabrima said to her new friend, Samir.

Nabrima was a burly nomad girl who had recently moved to the city of Saray with her family. She was known for being tough, blunt, and never afraid to speak her mind. However, she had just met Samir at school, and they were both intrigued by each other's differences.

"Is it far? I'm supposed to be home soon." Samir said wearily. "I'm not supposed to leave the house when the sun sets. My parents are really strict."

The two had been friends for less than a week, and they were already breaking all of the rules. Nabrima pulled out a crumpled map from her backpack and pointed to an area outside the city limits marked "Harmony Forest".

"Well there's no sun here. We're past the city walls now. You can walk around if you like, but I have to warn you about some dangerous animals that live in the forest." Nabrima turned and began walking into the woods. Samir followed reluctantly behind. 'This is our first time outside of Saray together,' he thought excitedly, 'and our first time outside of Saray at all!'

"See that big tree over there?" Nabrima asked as she walked ahead of him, pointing towards a giant tree where several animals were perched on top of one another so they could look down at them. Samir nodded in acknowledgement. "That's called a Harmony Tree, because it connects this world with all other worlds."

"All other worlds?" Samir was surprised by how much information Nabrima knew about such things as Harmony Trees and Ents (the kind of creatures who live in Harmony Trees). He asked curiously "What do you mean by 'other worlds'?"

Nabrima laughed at him and replied sarcastically "Not like this world is all that great anyway! I mean *other* planes of existence! You know like heaven and hell!"

Samir stopped dead in his tracks, surprised by her sudden change in tone. He had heard stories about what happens when people die from his mother: their souls go off to live on another plane of existence where they will face judgement for their actions in life, but he didn't know anyone else who actually believed it. It sounded silly to him... but then again he did feel bad for saying such a thing about his mother's beliefs just now. Nabrima continued walking towards Harmony Tree as she spoke up once more "So anyway we're standing under a Harmony Tree right now because we need the help of those kinds of spirits if we want to get into hell tonight."

'Oh boy', he thought with dread, 'she isn't going to try and sneak me into hell without my parents knowing is she?' He considered telling Nabrima that it sounded dangerous but decided against it upon realizing how foolish he would sound saying so when they were already outside the city walls into forbidden territory with no adult supervision whatsoever! And besides, she clearly had no idea what she was doing either.... or maybe she did? She seemed confident enough as she approached the giant tree while pulling out a small bag from her backpack containing various herbs and candles from her pockets. Samir stayed silent as he watched her set up an altar in front of Harmony Tree populated with pentagrams drawn on rocks and candles lit on top of them facing outward towards each direction of the compass rose.