Spring 1 Monday 7:10 Sunny --- Soon, Eli's hands were pink. On her lap was a swirling picture of the tree above her head, bright pinks and browns and pale greens collided and formed an image of beauty and almost realism. The tree trunk was a strange, abstract concoction of Eli's mind, though, for within the multiple shades of brown were a few, thin gashes that resembled lightning scored the piece, zipping from the middle of the tree down into the roots where it vanished all together in the pale green of the grass. Words could be seen lightly scribbled in the grass and new leaves, millions of small letters that seemed incoherent at first but actually formed sentences, like 'gone' and 'dark and 'light. 'The final memory of this morning. She glared at the cuts in the trunk and the many mistakes in the picture and the words, then let out a small sigh and tugged the paper from the sketchbook. "Trash." she muttered, disgust dripping from her voice. She held the paper forward, staring at it with angry eyes, and before she could crumble it into a ball of nothing a small gust of wind pulled it from her fingertips. At first, she just watched it tumble onto the grass a few feet away from her, half-ready to just get up and leave it to the forest, but the idea of littering such a pretty land made her feel rather sick. Eli slowly rose to her feet and wandered over to grab it, but once again a gust of wind picked it up before her and pushed it through the forest. A curse escaped her already open mouth and she turned back to gather her things before she followed it, ignoring the thorns and bushes and branches that tugged at her legs. The paper glided gracefully, despite it's heaviness and the added weight of oil pastels, and always seemed just too far ahead to grab. In the distance Eli could make out the faint roar of Flora Falls, but she was too focused on the paper that was just out of reach to actually realize how close it was... Until the forest opened up into a spray of white water and air. Eli flinched back against the cold, her hand moving automatically over to protect the sketchbook beneath her arm, and watched with a face of bleak sadness as the paper blew right into the falls, disappearing beneath the white waters and crushing breeze. A sigh filled her chest and the feeling of absolute disgust in herself took over the feeling of serenity she had before, and with the last of her motivation to stop this dumb piece of art from tainting the land she glared into the water and river below. The slim white of the paper was floating quickly down the rapids, looking as though it would never stop, but as if the stars had finally aligned in Eli's favor, it snagged up against a stone and stuck. A whoop of victory echoed from her throat, and with her head buzzing with cheerfulness. Perhaps, she could climb down and snatch it up before it begins to break apart, the exercise would do her good and plus, maybe they'll be something inspiring down there. Her eyes glanced downwards at the ledge, and from where she stood it was much too steep and smooth to scale, so she began to walk along the cliff side, looking for a safe place to begin her descent. Eventually, Eli found a suitable spot to begin climbing down, a bumpy, not as steep edge that was only a yard or more away from the rock that had captured the picture. The large sketchbook under her arm was shoved between her teeth along with the plastic bag of pastels and pencils, while her camera dangled around her neck loosely. The drop wasn't that bad, she could easily just throw everything down there, but Eli found that she couldn't risk dropping anything as most of the stuff would shatter upon impact on the wet stone below, and with that final thought, she swung her legs over the edge and slowly scaled her way down the cliff side. There were plenty stones to cling to, but their slickness was rather disconcerting, and at times Eli could swear that she was about to fall back and break her neck. It would be a lie, though, if she said that she wasn't enjoying herself at the moment. It felt like a mini adventure, running through the woods, scaling rocky ledges, and it was all caused by a piece of crap art blowing away. Fate works in strange ways. Soon, the ledge ran out and Eli was standing (rather unsteadily) on the slick, river carved stone. She removed the objects from her mouth and stretched upwards towards the sky, finally feeling a bit more relaxed and cheerful, despite her now aching muscles and multiple stubbed toes. The paper was still splattered against a rock in the middle of the river, but Eli found that her gaze was being drawn pass the stone, towards a rather breathtaking scene. The river curved, gently, along a well molded path, and the white spray from behind allowed the light to magnify and bounce around. The way was crystal clear and practically gleaming in the morning light gave Eli such a shock of inspiration that she simply dropped to her knees, flipped open to a clean page, and started sketching, eyes wide with awe. --- "Oops." After countless minutes of drawing, Eli finally snapped herself out of the trance of inspiration, and drew her sight to the rock again. She slowly placed the half-finished drawing at her feet, along with her pastels, camera, and boots. Stepping stones dotted the water's surface, leading to the stone that held the paper, and with small, nimble steps she slowly made her way across the freezing river to the larger rock. After getting into a rather comfortable squat on the top, she reached into the cold water and finally wrapped her fingers around the dreaded picture. It practically split in her grasp and when she pulled it up to examine it there was hardly any picture left. Good. She finally crumbled up the stupid thing and shoved it, still dripping wet, into her pocket, ignoring the sudden uncomfortable feeling of wetness on her leg, and turned to return to the shoreline, collapsing onto the ground with sudden laziness as soon as she made it back. She half-crawled half-dragged her body over to her pile of art stuffs and then flipped onto her back, staring up at the clear sky with a look of thoughtlessness. And then she flipped the sketchbook into view and stared for awhile at her picture, lips drawn into a straight line. It wasn't bad, no, in fact it was kind of pretty. The blues and greens and grays went together nicely, though a bit of contrasting could be in order, and the river did look like it was moving. However, there was something... Off about the whole picture. As if there as something that shouldn't be there. Looking closer, she noticed a dash of pure black, along with gray highlights and a bit of flesh color... A body? Instantly, Eli sat up and stared down the river, her mind quickly rushing to conclusions that perhaps it was someone deceased, dumped and left behind. Her eyes, too focused on drawing the scene, must not have been comprehending it. Eli felt her hands tighten around the edge of the book and with sudden curiosity she stood once more and crept down the stone river shoreline, bare feet smacking against the slick stone, until she saw, again, the shock of black hair, just behind an outcropping of stone. The body, some unknown boy, was floating down the river gently, still breathing (gladly), and it seemed to be completely nu- Oh. Eli felt her head slowly turn the other way, and she crept backwards until she was completely hidden behind the outcropping, her face a bright red. Her right hand was slapped tightly over her mouth, holding in a mixture of shouts and laughter, while her head slowly lowered into her knees. Somethings were not easily forgotten. That would be one of them.