The woods were peaceful today, and as Sammi approached the waterfalls she sensed that she was the only person for miles around. The sounds of the falls drew her in, a whisper in the distance, a grumble, and then a roar as she entered the narrow ravine and negotiated the wet rocky path along the side of the stream. The falls were maybe ten metres high, a series of tumbles and splashes rather than a straight drop. Sometimes she was lucky enough to catch a smear of rainbow colours in the mist, but today the sun had yet to penetrate the ravine. The water fell in shadow, and if she listened hard enough, she thought she could hear ancient voices of the wild whispering lost secrets beneath its roar.

Sammi sat on a rock she knew well, far enough above the stream and pool to avoid getting wet, close enough to feel the cool kiss of mist against her skin. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, smelling the innocent tang of forest water. Deeper down were scents of older things. She could not identify them, but she knew that they were secrets. She felt a tingle of excitement and fear at their smells, as if she’d been offered a brief glimpse behind the veil of reality.

They are reality, she thought. As am I, whatever I’m becoming.

Such thoughts frightened her. Becoming something more was drawing her away from the life she knew, even though that life had changed so much over the past couple of years. She feared the idea of her mom and dad fading in her memory, part of the story of someone so different from her that they became strangers. That frightened her so much. Yet she was also aware that she had little choice in the change, and the excitement was too much to ignore.

Sammi held out one hand and opened her eyes. Her fingers tingled, and the quicks of her fingernails sizzled and glowed. Arcs of electricity danced between her fingertips. Across her left forearm and bicep she saw the fernlike trail of subtle scars from the lightning strikes two years before begin to emerge once again. Back then they might have been a map, but now she knew that they were more a guide to her emerging self than a particular place.

As the electricity danced and spat, she raised her hand and urged it to form together. The resultant lightning ball fell from her hand and bounced from the rock at her feet, drifting slowly towards the pool, throwing up a hiss of steam as it struck the surface, and then disappearing below.