The Awakening (First in the Dynasty Cycle)

Chapter Three

“You want me to do what?!” Starla hissed, taking the thin white sheet and glaring dangerously at Leah.

“Please! I really want it to look like you’re enshrouded in mist, and I need that sheet so that I can get a good visual! Pleeeeeease!” Leah pleaded, her palms pressed together and her bottom lip stuck out.

“You owe me big time for this!” She snapped, before dodging around the tree, so that she was out of sight.

They had an entire hour for their lunch period, but both Starla and Leah had a study hall for their class after so they had been able to extend the time they would have in the forest. Posing naked… on a tree branch. Sighing, Starla pulled her shirt off, followed by her bra and jeans. Wrapping the sheet tightly around her body, she was so glad that it was going into summer, instead of earlier in the year. She pulled her socks and shoes off once she was safely on the branch, dropping them down to the ground, where Walter and Leah were looking up at her.

“You’ll catch me if I fall, right?” She asked worriedly, stretching out on her back on the branch.

“Of course! That’s what best friends are for silly!” Walter laughed, leaning against the trunk of a nearby maple and watching her in amused interest.

“Okay, now, let the leg facing me dangle over the side, and have the other one so that your knee is sticking up in the air. And I need you to lift your arms, so that it looks like your reaching for something!” Leah called, hurriedly sketching the details of the tree.

Walter gazed in fascination at the paper, watching as the thick, gnarled trunk and broad branch took on form in startlingly clear detail. Then Leah began to sketch Starla, her legs at first, the areas exposed by the sheet in concise lines, and the parts of her body done in lighter, smokier pencil strokes. Above, on the tree branch, Starla waited patiently, her neck and back slightly arched as she held her hands up, the fingertips pointing slightly into the sky as her palms curved. It was as if she was holding her hands out for a butterfly or bird to land on. The sheet blew lightly in the breeze, uncovering her shoulders and part of her chest. Thankfully the breeze decided to keep this event PG, and nothing important was hanging out.

“Leah, hurry!” She growled, shivering slightly in the cool breeze.

Leah didn’t answer, absorbed in her drawing as she finished the hands. The next part was for her to actually draw on the mist, which was being portrayed by the sheet. Around the base of the tree, she made thin, hazy lines to represent fog, clinging to the forest floor. Then she worked on the area that was Starla’s body, making it so that the vapor was coming from the girl, and feeding the white haze on the ground. Finally, Leah drew in a small bird, perched in the palm of Starla’s hand. It was a thrush, tiny and cradled by the girl’s palms. They were both bathed in a ray of sunlight, and Leah smiled, before closing her sketchpad and sliding it into her book bag.

“Okay, I’m done!” She called, Starla immediately sitting up and pulling the sheet close around her.

“Excellent, I can come down now!” She grinned, placing one bare foot on the trunk as she slowly began her decent.

Walter, who knew his friend was much better at climbing up a tree than she was at climbing down, waited by the base, watching her carefully incase she slipped. And he was not disappointed, because once she hit about halfway down, Starla lost her holding on a mossy part of the trunk. Tipping backwards, she had the sensation of falling, eyes squeezed shut as she waited for the impact with the ground. It never came however, because just moments before she would come crashing to the earth, she landed safely in Walter’s arms, having to instead face that arrogant smirk of his.