LIGHT THROUGH THE LEAVES

Kanibora was still wondering how he was able to put out her touch.

"Let's sit somewhere and talk.",he said out of the blue.

"What?!", She was surprised. Not only he thought that she was a ghost but he even wanted a ghost to sit with him! Kanibora couldn't figure out if he was naive or just curious or if he was lonely to death to make that absurd request.

"Do-you -want-to -sit-with-me??", he repeated and even made hand gestures this time.

"I do understand what you're saying.Fine, What do you want to say?What makes you want to chat with a ghost? If you want to know your future then I must tell you ghosts don't have the ability to that.You should go to a priest instead.",she said in a single breath.

"Hey,easy. I just wanted to talk to you. It's not everyday that I come across beautiful ghosts wandering around in the mountains.",He replied.

Kanibora was wondering and decided to ask him,"What makes you think that I am a ghost anyway?I thought people around here believed in the "fairy and woodcutter" story rather than a ghost wandering in the mountains?"

He scratched his head and said"Forget it.It was the first thing that came to my mind so I blurted it out. But on second thoughts,you might not be a ghost, considering how you're constantly being offended to the fact that I'm calling you a ghost .I rather think you're the fairy from the woodcutter story. JUST LIKE YOU SAID!!",he smiled like an idiot.

"Thank you for repeating EXACTLY what I said.But let's just stick to me being a ghost.",she wanted this conversation to end.

"Now there's even more reason why I think you're a fairy."he raised his eyebrows.

"You're really naive." , Wanting to change the topic,she said,"People seldom come here to hunt.But as far as I know they don't even need to hunt.Why were you here anyway?",she asked.It's true that there weren't many people coming to Tirana.

"My name's Danachi. I'm a fisherman at the village near. You're right we don't need to hunt. We generally have enough food on our table. But recently we aren't getting any fish in the river.Even a couple of days ago there were plenty of fishes in the river. I don't know what happened but recently all the fishes have just vanished. Even for working day and night we're getting nothing. That's why I was here to hunt. But seems like were eating fruits for a few days.",he looked sad about it.

"No fish in the river?", Kanibora was surprised," Is the water poisonous there?"

"Honestly,we don't know. The villagers don't really use the river water because we don't want to spoil the water. We usually fetch water from the wells for drinking and other.",he replied.

"That's good",she was thinking about the occurrence.

"Let's talk about you now. Are you new here? Sorry, that came out wrong.I mean, how are you here?",he asked.

"Aah...seems like he really is lonely to death.",she thought.

"I'm Kanibora.I used to live in the village but then I came here and died hanging from one of the trees a couple of hundreds of years ago. The tree is probably still here somewhere. So now I'm wandering in Tirana.",she waited to see if this person was really naive to believe that.

"I could tell that you were lying. Fine,!Don't tell me. I'll figure it out eventually.",he said.

"Eventually? Does he think I'm always gonna wander around him?", She thought.

"Can you lead me to the river?",she asked him as she needed to figure out what was causing the fishes to leave the river.

"I thought you couldn't leave the mountain?",he asked.

"I said I was wandering in Tirana, never said that I couldn't leave it.",she replied.

"Fine, lets go.",he said while getting ready to leave.

There were two villages by the mountain.One was at front and the other was in the back side .Danachi lived in the Tahaku village, the one located at the front. The only waterfall from Tirana formed the Aya river which was the primary source of food for the villagers in Tahaku village. The Faraka village, located at the back of Tirana, mainly got the fruits and herbs of the mountain. The villagers got two equal shares and facilities from Tirana, thus lived in harmony.

Kanibora again,took the form of a man and started for the Tahaku village with Danachi. Danachi probably thought she was going to go there in her usual get up that was why he got shocked at first when suddenly a man started walking with him.

"Is Tahaku that far?It feels like I'm walking for an eternity.", well for her, it didn't really feel like that since she didn't get tired but she had to say something.

"Not really. We're almost there. But didn't you say you were a villager before? How come you don't know the distance?"

Kanibora had totally forgotten about what she said about her being a villager. And although it never required her to get out of Tirana, she could still get anywhere using her vision if she wanted.

"Umm....I told you it was hundreds of years ago and I don't even remember if I was from Tahaku or Faraka.",she replied.

"Still lying huh?But I must tell you that I prefer you being the beautiful ghost. Now I feel weird seeing you in this man form.",Danachi made a random comment.

"Don't even talk about it. And if we meet someone tell them that you met me while hunting.",she said.

"Can other people see you?"

"Why couldn't they?"

"Aren't you a ghost?",he tried to mock her.

"If you can see me then others can too."

"You're the weirdest ghost I've met in my life."

"I think I know that I'm the only ghost you've met in your life. Why am I even talking to you? Just do as I told you."

"It might be weird if I tell people that I went hunting while going home bare handed."

"You can tell them you couldn't find anything."

"That's even more weird. Everyone knows how Tirana is. It's difficult not to find anything, specially when there's two of us."

"*Sigh*...wait for me here."

Kanibora went behind the trees to see if she could find anything.There were some rabbit playing around. She sat there and tapped on the floor as she called a rabbit. The rabbit came and she touched its body to generalize its structure. Then she casted a spell and around five more of them were created.Now she could give them to Danachi without harming anything.

She came back with the rabbits and gave them to him.

"Weren't you against the idea of killing animals?".Danachi asked her.

"People need to kill animals to feed themselves. That's human nature. I was simply protecting what's mine. And for these rabbits,they were born dead. So I didn't kill them."

"So it's like killing something without even them,huh?"

"Right.", She honestly didn't know where he came up with these examples.

"You could've just said so. Why make it so serious for me to understand?"

"Let's just go. I need to get to the river and then come back."

"If it's late ,you can stay at my house."

"Nope. I reside in the Tirana. I can't stay anywhere else for long. Besides, I don't want to scare your parents."

"They won't be....I live alone."

"You can stay here. I can find my way to Aya myself.Otherwise we aren't getting there till tomorrow.",She started walking faster.