What happened to the girl ?
Ozma locks the door to the hut, she takes out a little flask from her pocket and pours a shining golden liquid all around the small hut. Inside the Witch is still sleeping. Ozma lights a firerock and holds it down to the golden liquid on the ground, it starts burning, soon it burns all around the hut and the wooden walls catches fire. She watches for a while and sees the yellow flames engulf her childhood home. She steps away, picks up her ((Pose duffelbag)) and walks down the path between the trees.
A couple of days later she reaches the rivers edge. There is a deadlike silence about the place and now that Ozma stands this close to the water it does not look as inviting as it did in the golden light she is used to seeing it in from far away. Instead it is black and still.. "Not so Wild today are we?" She asks out loud. Ozma pulls out her little book with spells and opens it to the page with the spell the fairy had pointed out to her. She reads it through in her head a couple of times before placing the book on a rock to get everything else ready that she needs for preforming the magic. Finally she is ready. Ozma picks up the book looks at the words and reads them out loud "Hear us cursed land of Oz. Where no one enters as no one leaves. Mirror Water Water Mirror. Let this one pass oh Others hear Her. Keepers keep Us. Let me pass" Ozma raises her eyes a little wearily, to look out on the water, nothing seems any different from a second ago, she pauses for a bit but then steps out from the shore and in to the shallow water, still nothing, she starts to walk across, her eyes fixed on the shore of the other side. When the water starts to get deep she stops for a bit to put the book in the ((duffelbag)) and she starts to swim across the river. Suddenly it feels as if her body is numbed, her movements stiffens she cannot move her arms and legs enough to stay above the water and her head sinks below the surface. Ozma tries to think.. if she can just keep her thoughts straight.. What in Medusas name just happened?.. What should she do? She needs air, just to breathe.. she panics. Though her body is now fully numbed, her mind races like wild-
The Water is black.. Ozma sees nothing.. then she feels nothing.
When Ozma awakes she is back on the shore, in the same spot she just took the first step from a couple of minutes ago. She opens her eyes and sees the blue sky. Her body feels like it's on fire and she thinks perhaps an army of a thousand ants is crawling about under her skin, they crawl inside her head and out her eyes, where they turn into little black dots on the blue sky. She needs to move and discovers she is not numb anymore. As she sits up, she puts her hand to her head, hoping to ease its throbbing pain, that's when she discovers another thing, something very peculiar, the skin on her hand and arm is completely and quite undeniably green, as green as was it the skin of a lime fruit.
Last we met her, Regina was just a girl, now she is a young woman of almost 18 years. She stands at a rivers edge waiting. Anyone that saw her now would say she was a beautiful young woman, full of life and strong looking. She has a certain kindness and deep thoughtfulness to her warm brown eyes. Anyone that saw her now would smile at her and tell her she had a lot to look forward to, with her whole life laying ahead of her just one step away… While she waits Regina holds a willow branch in her hand and twirls it around in the clear water, she can see a small fish underneath the surface. The silvery fish blinks in the light from the sun. Normally a fish would swim away from a twirling stick in its waters, but this one seems curious and trusting as it playfully swims around the willow branch. As Regina stands there waiting, she thinks about what happened earlier that day with her mother "Don't think that you are free to do what you want Regina, there are certain rules we must all abide to, you are my daughter , and so you must abide to my rules, remember I do this because I love you…" Sometimes with her mother she would feel like she was being suffocated. She needed air, just to breathe again. When her mother used her magic on her, it felt as if layers of a thick black cloak was being wrapped around her until she couldn't move. Her mothers magic was not good magic and she hated it. Regina holds her hand to her cheek, it feels burning hot from her mothers hand. She wanders what will happen if her mother finds out she is gone. But she doesn't want to think of that now. Finally Regina hears someone approaching. It is him.
"Daniel" she calls out "Hey, you made it" says the young man as he emerges from the forest scrubs. As he reaches her, she takes his hand and pulls him in to an embrace, she tugs her face in close by his neck, she likes the way he smells a bit of sweat in the warm summer air. He pulls back a bit and looks her in the eyes "What's that?" he asks as he gently touches the red side of her face with his fingers. She looks down at the ground as she answers "Just Mother. It's okay.. it doesn't hurt" Daniel removes his hand "It's quite red though" he says, and nudges her chin back up so her eyes can meet his again "But is looks like a flower" he says with a small attentive smile "Come on, let's take a swim in the river. The water will feel good on it" he says and pulls her towards the waters edge "But …I don't have my bathing clothes" she says.. he smiles at her again "Don't worry we can use our small clothes" They both take of the outer layer of their clothes and lays it on a big rock near the waters edge. They walk in to the water from the sandy place of the shore. The water feels great. It is shallow at first, close to the shore, but as they get further out it deepens enough that they can sit in it with just their heads above water. Regina dips her face below the surface, the cool water feels nice and eases the burning of the red mark her mothers hand left. As she emerges she sees Daniel smiling at her. Together they swim, following the shore for a bit. Daniel dives under and tries to grab her feet, she laughs and swims faster. She hears the water splash when his head comes back up to the surface. Now she knows she is far enough away that he can't catch her, so she swirls around to see where he is at "I think I just saw a mermaid" he says smiling at her. She smiles back and with her hand splashes water towards him "Mermaids don't live in rivers silly, but maybe it was a nymph" she swims back towards him and because the water is a bit shallower there she stands up beside him. "Come on.. Let's swim to the other side, last one is a green frog" she says and jumps forward past him to get a head start "Hey wait you cheater" he laughs and swims after her.
