A meadowlark's call was heard loud and clear from a distance not too far away. Perhaps it was a lone male attempting to call forward a mate. Or perhaps a mother calling to her children, warning them to stay close. Crouching down in the tall grass as much as possible, the young girl kept her head low so that her dark brown hair was hidden by the thick, green grass. It had to be nearly dawn now, judging by the color of the sky. Just by taking a quick glance up, she could tell the sun was struggling to break across the sky and spread the light through this part of the world, yet it hadn't happened yet. It was still hiding behind the horizon, its rays not quite reaching over. Just a little bit long.

The twelve year old's thoughts wandered as she waited, her legs starting to hurt from crouching for so long. She had been waiting for nearly forty minutes now; even her arms were starting to get tired from hugging her knees to her chest. She wondered if he would even come. He had made a promise, but that didn't mean he remembered.. or would keep it. What if he forgot about her and the patrol officers found her? They had both been certain the guards didn't check this area since it was over growing with wildlife, but that didn't mean they didn't perform random checks. If they did, her life was over. They'd put her in the chamber, a place no child or adult wished to be.

She remembered the one time her older sister had to go to the chamber. Having stolen some bread from a local food stall, an officer had caught her red-handed and took her to the Mayor's house. It didn't take but a second for the man in charge to decide her fate, and off to the chamber she went. A dark room with no windows, only a small hole in the far corner where a desperate hostage had drilled through in hopes of receiving sunlight, the chamber was a scary place. Nobody except those who broke the law knew what it looked like, and every time they were released, not one person went back. Her sister, Jarley, had never gone back after her first time in there. The hostages weren't served proper food, just stale bread and cold soup that tended to have some kind of ingredient that wasn't healthy or edible. Or at least, that's what Jarley had told everybody. She hadn't gone into too much detail on that, or else she'd start gagging from the memory. The chamber was just a nightmare that nobody wanted to face.

A sudden snap of a twig nearby brought the girl back out of her thoughts. Slowly lifting her head up, she scanned the field with wide eyes for any sign of movement. His voice carried on the wind but it was no louder than a whisper. "Stachia." At the sound of her name, she slowly raised her hand into the air and held up two fingers, her index and middle finger, while the other three were down. Almost immediately, she heard something crawling through the grass as it made its way towards her. Before she knew it, the boy was sitting in front of her with a grin on his face. He lightly held his hand up in the air, palm facing her as he waited for her to do the same. Slowly returning the smile, Stachia pressed her hand against his. As the two stared at each other, the sun broke over the horizon and started shining light on everything it touched. Despite them being alone, she parted her lips to say just one word in a soft whisper.

"Kristoph"