Kai's grandmother was considered the wisest person in Yoran by everyone in the village. I loved listening to her tell stories. Kai and I sat at her feet and she rocked in her chair by the fire. They were the most wonderful tales and she swore they were all true. My favorite was the tale of the roses. I looked out the window at the empty window box each spring as she told the tale and sure enough each summer the roses bloomed.

When a rose seed is planted the dirt knows right away what it is. The dirt knows that if it grows it will become a flower tall and strong.

"How does it know?" Kai asked.

"It can feel it."

"But how." Kai was unsatisfied with that answer.

"Are you dirt?" Grandmother asked. Kai shook his head. "Then you can't tell me about dirt." Kai never asked if she was dirt. Despite his pestering Kai loved his grandmother. He never could quite believe the stories, but he wanted to.

The dirt know that if the seed grows it will be taller and more beautiful than the dirt ever could. So the dirt decides not to let the flower grow. It pulls all the water away from the seed, so the seed sends out roots. It hides the seed from the sunlight, so the seed shoots up a stem. It then pushes the crawleys to the surface so the birds will come. The stem grows thorns to protect itself. Then the dirt can do no more and the bud blooms into a vibrant flower.

Kai would always wait for one of us to break the still silence after a story. As much as he struggled with his grandmother's tales he knew they were magic to me. We sat in silence, Kai fidgeting. Grandmother rocking and me watching the fire dance until it was time to go to my own home. I knew Kai didn't like it but I couldn't bring myself to part with the magic of Grandmother's stories and the dance of the fire. That night Kai gave me a thorough study and decided it was too much.

"It's not spring Grandmother. Why did you tell the rose story?"

"Because it's been too long since I last told it. Nadzia needed to hear it. She's my dreamer. I have to water her imagination." Kai sighed. He didn't like her abstract answers. I smiled. I thought it was beautiful. " I suppose you want a different story."

"Please, Grandmother. Tell…" Kai stopped. His face flushed red and he looked into the flames.

"Tell about Soren and Maia, Grandmother." I asked. Kai smiled at me gratefully.

"What about them?" Grandmother asked, looking as mysterious as a woman her age could.

"Anything." Kai said softly.

"Your favorite story" I prompted.

"Alright. You both know Maia was the most beautiful girl in town." Kai nodded seriously. I smiled. Grandmother loved to brag about her daughter in law's beauty, her sons bravery and her husband's many adventures.

Every boy in Yoran would of married her. Many offered dowries of pigs and cows. Many brought flower, sent poems, sung songs. Oh, one fool even painted her portrait in an attempt to woo her. But Maia.

Grandmother laughed.

She would have none of it. Maia sai the next boy to ask for her hand would receive it—in the form of a slap across the face.

Kai listened with somber attention. This was the only glimpse of her mother he ever got.

Oh, but you father didn't believe her. 'you're going to have to marry somebody' he told her. That puzzled our Maia for a moment. Then she figured it out. 'Whoever is brave enough to ask me anyways will be worthy of me.'

"Grandmother, didn't she want to fall in love?" I asked. Ever since my thirteenth year began I had been very interested in the idea of love. I didn't see it in my own life. My own father had died in an accident before I had lived three years and Kai's parents were both dead. Grandmother's husband had died before Kai and I were born.

"My rosy-cheeked dreamer," grandmother answered. "Maia did love Soren. She just didn't know it yet."

"How do you not know you love somebody?" Kai asked.

"True love is not like friendship, Kai. It takes a special kind of person to know when friendship is true love." She looked at me while she said, "I'm not sure you will know Kai. Make sure you think about it."

"I will grandmother. Did… Father know?" Kai found it hard to think of Soren and Maia as his mother and father.

"Yes. I think he did."

"Why didn't he tell her?" I asked.

"Because, Nadzia, Maia was like our Kai. She didn't want anybody to know how she felt. Soren knew it would only make her angry."

"Finish the story please," Kai asked softly.

"Where was I?"

"Worthy of her." Kai recited.

"Yes, thank you Kai."

'But any number of men would let you slap him if that was all it took to get a yes out of you,' Soren protested. Maia laughed. She promised she would ask them and if in a week she still hadn't found one man she would deem the threat a perfect boundary and make it official. Otherwise, Soren was right and he had gloating rights and the responsibility for finding a new method. Maia asked every boy that talked to her that week. Some said no. Some asked if it was a deal breaker. Some apologized and asked if they could make it up to her, unsure how they had offended her. Not one of them said yes. At the end of the week Maia came to our home. She stood on that very doorstep and told me not to go get Soren. 'Just tell him I've changed my mind.' And she walked away. Of course Soren went running out the door as soon as I told him. He had loved Maia for years but knew she didn't want to marry yet. 'I'm going to ask her. I'm not worried about a black eye'

Kai grabbed my hand. He didn't like the idea of his father getting bruised.

Now don't you get any ideas. I was not peeping. I merely picked a window sill as a seat while I read my recipes and tried to decide what to make for dinner. They just happened to be in sight. So I happened to see Soren grab her hand, get on one knee and ask. I saw Maia think about it say yes, and pretend to slap him.

I imagined Maia yanking Soren to his feet and saying "Took you long enough. I hope you'll get used to keeping up with me. Yes I'll marry you. You know that." I imagined her tone sharp and quick but her face soft and smiling. I imagined her having Kai's eyes, blue and deep, contrasting his sturdy face. I imagined she did that too. Said one thing and felt another. I imagined Soren being as proud as Grandmother that he'd won her over. I imagined he deserved the slap.

"It's late," Grandmother said, what seemed like moments later. "Watch her, Kai. Make sure she's safe. I bet her mother fell asleep again." When we were little I could just step through the windows. Now we had to walk through the snow to get to each other's houses. Kai would usually stand in the door way and talk to me while I walked the three steps to my door. Sometime we would just stay out there and talk for a while. Mostly in the summer, though. It was a miserable place to stand when it was snowing.

I climbed carefully into the covers and quickly fell asleep to dreams about tiny warriors and dancing flowers.