The same warmth that her touch invoked me with so many times before surged through me when she grabbed my hand and ran like her life depended on it.

I wasn't paying much attention to anything in particular around me. Like before, my entire awareness was grasped by the warmness spreading through me. It was like she was radiating heat waves from her entire frame and they were streaming from her through my veins.

The feeling, was not something uncomfortable. Not something that could break me. Rather, her hand was really soft and skinny. It was like something had crawled upto my stomach and was wiggling in there, and then crawling upto my chest and doing little flip flops there. Finally it creeped upto my cheeks and was squirming there, making it quite prickly and gushy all the same.

After running a few blocks, we stopped. Mostly to catch a breath. Oh no, not me. It was Norah who seemed to be quite unathletic.

After about a minute, she heaved a heavy sigh and said, "Thank goodness we lost them."

"Who were they?" I asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of my voice.

She was startled out of her wits and started stammering all of a sudden, "Err...j-just some acquaintances. None to be concerned about." I raised my brows suspiciously but seeing her fidget around so much, decided to drop the topic. I didn't want to press her into telling me things that she didn't want to open up about. After all , we met just a while back.

"Hey, Look!" I pointed out to a shiny big moving wheel few distance away. "I've seen people get inside those small boxes attached to the wheel. I heard it is fun,want to try it?" I asked her, while she was dazing at the giant wheel.

"You mean the Ferris wheel? Of course, it's one of the major attractions of fairs. I didn't know there was a fair going on nearby. Come on, let race till there." She sprung in excitement. As if she had any more strength left to race me. "Erm...let's just walk." I offered and she reluctantly gave in.

*******

"Woah! It's so pretty." Norah cooed as we walked through the flickering lights. The Norah right in front of me, was a little girl in her happiest moment. All jumpy and maudlin with anticipation and excitement. I chuckled beside her and when she suddenly turned around to look at me, frowning; she stumbled on the flat ground(I wonder how anyone could stumble on an even surface) and was about to fall on her butt if I hadn't promptly took her hand and pulled her to me.

She was caught off-guarded and hence smashed into me with a considerable amount of force, tumbling me off my balance and lo and behold! I was on the ground with Norah on top of me. People around us stopped to stare at us, and I do not know what they were actually staring at. Was it too odd for someone to fall on their back?

Maybe it was in the twenty first century.

I could see the pink blush decorating her pale cheeks as she abruptly got up and hung her head low and muttered an inaudible apology. But I was too engrossed in observing her flushed face to notice anything else.

********

I never imagined Norah to be the utterly cheerful one at smallest of events. But here she was, in front of me squilling and squeaking about how pretty the view was from up here, one of the boxes of the giant wheel.

Personally speaking, she looked so cute, like an adorable little puppy running around wagging it's tail in excitement. It was an amusing view, but I fear she'd snap if ever she found out about my inner thoughts. But still, I couldn't help sniggling a little to myself. And as I anticipated, she frowned at me in an instant.

"What is it?" She asked.

"What? No! Nothing." I shook my head quickly.

She eyed me suspiciously but didn't say anything. And after a while, she was back to cooing over the night view once again.

"I would never have imagined that the cruel timid humans who feared anything that's remotely different from them could be so compassionate and fervent at the same time." I smiled to myself.

"What! You think humans are cruel and timid?" She suddenly neared me and sat just a few inches away from me. I couldn't believe I just said that out loud. I didn't know I think out loud too.

"...They seem that way." I shrugged after thinking about it for a while.

"What! What do you mean by that? Do I look like a timid vile alien to you?" She frowned angrily.

"No, of course not. I didn't mean you." I hastily mended.

"Then what do you mean? Why would you think such a thing Rhiam?" She questioned me in wariness. And I, on the other hand, didn't know what to think of this development. How was I supposed to respond to such a question? I was quite for awhile, and Norah sat beside me, patiently waiting for a reply.

"Are you planning on making me wait for the whole night Rhiam?" She sighed quite exhaustedly shortly after.

"I...that's not the impression I was planning on giving." I muttered inside my mouth.

"Then what cue did you want to pass? Please do tell. If you don't, then how else am I gonna know what you are trying to mean Rhiam?" She looked at me with the same kind eyes she did, the day she first met me.

"It's...it's just that I don't want to corrupt your concept of paradigm humanity."

"Don't be stupid." She almost yelled. "You think I think of all humans to be righteous and kind and honest? Don't joke with me. I know what people can be like. How nasty and animalistic they can be if they wanted to. And how some of them grow up to be like monsters. You don't need to tell me such worldly things. Now please, stop beating around the bushes and spit the reason for your menace for the supposed human kind."

"...Wow! Didn't see that one coming." I muttered but I was very sure she heard me since she grinned at me like a chasire cat. "(Sigh) Okay! I'll tell you why my opinion about humans is so bitter, only if you tell me the secret behind your visits to the old oak tree and your weird staring contests with it."

"...Okay, done!" She said after thinking for a minute and thus, I began my tale of woe.

"When I was young, my elders always warned me to stay away from the mortals. But I never listened. I used to go to the village near our mountain and look at the mortal children my age playing and giggling amongst them. I wanted to join the fun. And so I did. But I was unaware of the consequences of my childish actions." All the while I was busy looking out of the round glass window, I didn't know why, but I just couldn't face Norah. Maybe because I was ashamed, ashamed of my actions in the past because it was my fault to begin with that I lost someone precious to me. That I had been able to live with myself just because I was able to pin it down on the humans all the while. All the forgotten and forbidden emotions were coming back to me. Like a tsunami twirling my world around.

Norah suddenly held my chin and turned my face to look her in the eye. "What happened Rhiam? Tell me." She encouraged and this time, I let myself out, bare. A thousand emotion enveloping my very existence.

"I used to have a sister. She wasn't my real sister, but she was the only sprite I remember having around me when I was young. She was the kindest soul ever. And she loved me. The fact that I was different from the humans could not be long hidden once I started mingling with their children. When they found out that I was different, it didn't matter whether I was a child or an adult. They decided to end me taking me for a threat. But I was a vital fraction of nature. I couldn't be allowed to be destroyed, so my sister stepped in. And in the struggle to save me, she was burnt down on a stake. And was labelled to be a wicked witch." I ended with a long heavy sigh. And all the while, I didn't dare to look at Norah once. "I know that all of what happened was my fault alone. And I could never look myself into the eye for not being able to do anything to save her. She burnt down to a crisp while I just stood there, helpless. Screaming and crying out her name. I felt so very helpless then, like a bird with broken wings. So I decided to blame it all on the mortals. That is why I always prejudiced the mortals and their rabid ways. And I'm sorry for that."

It was all quite and cold for a while and I was too much of a coward to look at Norah, but I also was the curious one. So I decided to sneak a quick peek at her reaction and looked at her from the corner of my eyes, and was suddenly baffled to look at her bawling her eyes out with tears, like someone had just died.

"Wha-Wha...Why are you crying?" I asked, suddenly panicked with such an unsought situation.

"(Sniff)B-Because...I... (Sniff) I feel so...sad. Wh-When I think about... (sniff) your sister...I...I'm so sorry!" She broke down like an avalanche.

I seriously did not get the internal workings of this girl. Where I thought that she would probably scorn me, or maybe even pity me for my lapse and my circumstances, but no! Here she was, crying her eyes out for my dead sister. Oh and mind you, she was the one who was seeking soothe of me at the moment. How much more weirder could this get?

Shortly after her tears dried, she looked at me and said, "Rhiam, it wasn't your fault at all. None of it was. You were but just a child. You didn't have the capability, nor the knowledge of what might have happen if you played along with kids your age. No one wants to be alone Rhiam. Not even a winter sprite, and you cannot deny that. So, you have every right to despise us humans for it. I wouldn't mind. And I'm as hell sure, your sister would've said the same if she were here among us." She gave me that ever dazzling smile of hers. "But you must also understand this, Rhiam; All humans are not killers. There is still enough humanity left on this earth."

"Thanks to you, now I know that." I smiled at her and she widened her eyes all of a sudden, going all pink in the face, again.

"What's the matter?" I asked, and she promptly turned her face away.

I bent a bit low to look at her and she unexpectedly muttered, "Please don't look at me. It's embarrassing."

"Why? Why are you embarrassed?" I frowned and she was quite for awhile. And when I thought she wasn't going to answer she said, "I'm not very accustomed to looking at your smiling face so closely. I...might get a bit flustered now and then."

"O-Oh! Is that so?" I mumbled mostly to myself, a bit gauche myself.

"Erm...thanks...for consoling me by the way." And she garbled a small 'hmm' and kept looking out of the night still window.