Maru and Sari: A Delicate Dance of Magic and Mayhem

The sun had just begun its descent which left a streak of vibrant red in the sky. Maru stood in the clearing and breathed the evening air deeply. A warm breeze brushed his face, rustling the leaves and twigs around him. He closed his eyes and smiled as he felt the gentle caress of the wind on his skin.

He opened his eyes but he did not see the forest anymore. Instead there was a city, bathed in sunlight, with white stone buildings on steep hills and calm streets winding between them. The city was so familiar to him yet so distant in time that he could not place it.

A girl appeared on one of the hills, wearing a tunic and a belt, with hair that shone like gold and skin tanned by the sun. She walked up to the top of the hill and began to dance under the afternoon sun, singing a song of love and lost loves.

Maru froze as he watched her dance. She seemed familiar too but why? He looked around and saw that they were alone in this strange forest. The girl continued her dance, oblivious to him watching her. His gaze shifted back to her as she twirled around, arms thrown out to each side, singing into the wind as if it was her lover's embrace.

She suddenly stopped singing and turned around, her face flushed from dancing. As their eyes met she gasped, clasped her hands over her mouth and ran towards him, stumbling over fallen tree trunks along the way. When she reached him she stopped abruptly and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked softly after she had recovered from her surprise at finding a stranger in this isolated spot. "You are not from here."

"My name is Maru," he answered with a stiff bow. Her question made him feel uneasy but he wasn't sure why exactly. "Are you alright?" he asked before he could stop himself. "Did I scare you?" He didn't know why but an image of Sari being pursued by some thugs flashed through his mind but he told himself that this was impossible because it hadn't happened yet. Yet? He frowned at himself for thinking like this but couldn't seem to stop it from happening either. It was more like someone else was thinking in his head who had no idea what was going on either but who thought that Sari needed help right now!

"I-I'm fine," Sari stammered nervously when she saw his expression change slightly as if he was looking at something behind her shoulder, something that made him afraid or angry or both! "You startled me," she added quickly when she saw that whatever it was, it had passed and Maru seemed to relax again although still looking vaguely distracted even while talking to her now instead of staring into space while frowning like he wanted to say something to someone but couldn't quite manage it somehow or didn't dare try to do it even though it might be important!

"I'm sorry." Maru bowed again stiffly, hiding his confusion behind his manners because they always worked well enough when dealing with people who weren't used to magic users or wanted magic users dead because they feared them or simply hated them for no reason other than their magical capabilities not understanding why such powers would make someone dangerous when usually they only made people want to use their magical skills for good! "I didn't mean to startle you." That's why I started babbling about how nice your hair looks! Not that I meant that either! I just said whatever came into my head until I noticed how surprised you looked when our eyes met! Then my thoughts went all weird for some reason I can't explain even though I know what's causing them because I've been reading about mind links recently so I know how they work even though this isn't supposed to happen! Did you do it? Is this what happens when you do it? Please tell me that you don't do this because I don't think we have time for me to learn to control my thoughts well enough before bad things happen if we get caught together here at night by those guys who have been stalking me lately! And yes I know about them even though we haven't met yet! Can you tell? Are you doing this? What are you doing? Why are you doing this? No wait don't answer any of these questions just leave please leave now before we get into trouble together! Go home now if anything bad happens here tonight then at least your parents won't blame me for getting you involved especially since they hate magic users anyway because your father thinks they're evil incarnate or something like that so please just go now while there's still time otherwise things might get very complicated indeed! Stop looking at me like that or we really will get into trouble together especially if those men decide that tonight is a good night for killing someone because I know they've been planning something bad ever since their leader got out of prison last month! They've been watching me ever since then and they're getting impatient too which means they might be willing to kill anyone tonight if only so that they can finally catch me by surprise without warning so please just go now before it's too late! Please...