With the wind howling in her ears, Chris grabbed a branch and swung herself to the next tree. It was with surprising strength that she hung onto the next branch and heaved herself up. Her long blond hair flew around her head, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the moment of peace.

"CHRIS!" someone called from below. "Ain't you coming down soon?" Chris looked down at the elf. Vega was standing below, playing with her long, brown hair, her emerald eyes shining in the night.

"I'm coming!" she called back, then jumped.

As her feet touched solid ground, she took a deep breath and staggered a second before gaining balance again.
Vega smiled, looking shocked, but pleased. "You scared the hell out of me!" She laughed, a pleasing, soothing laugh. Because she was an elf, Chris' eyes were much stronger than humans', and she looked divine in the moonlight. Still, she was an average elf, while Vega was prettier than most, and her personality made her perfect. Chris envied her often. She was always seen as Vega's shadow, nothing of importance.

Though they were best friends, and Vega treated Chris as an equal, everyone thought that Vega was way above her, and it was irritating to hear "Oh, aren't you friends with that wonderful Vega? Aren't you Trixy, or something?" or, "Hello, friend-of-Vega's!", but Chris put up with it - it was worth it.

"What are you two up to?" A voice interrupted her thinking, and she looked up.

"Nothing much," Vega answered brightly, grinning at Fa'ryed, while Chris gave him a deadly stare. "Going home. You?"

He shrugged, and smiled slightly. "I'm going to the practice field." He rolled his eyes. "You know how Re'cho is..." He laughed, then left. Chris glared after him darkly as he disappeared from view.

"You coming, or what?" Vega laughed and tugged at her arm. Chris shook her head, but turned and walked next to Vega. "You hate him, don't you," she stated after a moment of silence.

Chris shrugged. "Yeah, I do. Kind of." She closed her eyes to stop the flow of tears. "He killed my entire family." She closed her mouth and inhaled deeply, then continued, "And now he expects things to go back to normal." She looked down at her feet, then took off running, stopping only when Vega reached out with her mind.

"He didn't mean it," Vega told her calmly.

"He killed my family! Just because he was the only one who respected me back then, it doesn't mean he will be forgiven now when it's done!"

Chris could feel Vega sighing. "Learn from what he did. Learn that pain and murder never solves anything," she answered finally. "Learn to never do the same as he did. Remember how it hurt."

Chris blocked her mind and ran. She hated how Vega embraced everything so calmly, she hated how Vega was always so wise. But it helped. When she had finally calmed down, she lay down on the ground, underneath an old tree. She reached out for it.

"Your mind is confused. Clear it," was the first thing the tree sang in her mind. "Then try again."

Chris did as she was told, then transferred everything on her mind into the tree, relieved to share her feelings with something living. "Olamory tr'soce," she whispered, locking the information inside the tree. Now, whoever wanted to see what she had confided in the tree would need a password and permission from herself.

"You have much anger and sorrow in your mind," the tree concluded. "Much is troubling you. You felt you could trust, but you now feel you cannot. You feel it's betrayal. You may be right, but right may be wrong, while wrong is never right."