A/N 8/18/2020: had to fix a temporal inconsistency here.

A New Friend

"Viera!" her father shouted as he crossed the field. She jumped in place, sitting next to the stream, and her doll house splashed apart as she did. By the time he reached her, his tone had softened. "Vivi, you mustn't. You mustn't!" he said.

She hung her head. "I'm sorry Daddy," she muttered.

"Do you understand, sweetie?" he said with earnestness. "If anyone ever sees you, they'll never understand!"

"No one is going to see me Daddy," she said sadly. "I don't have any friends. Except Vixen, and Twitch, and Star, and -" she began naming off Vixen's progeny.

Her father drew a sympathetic breath as he sat down on the grass next to her. "You do have friends, Vivi. You have William, and Signe, and Linnea -"

"That's because they don't have any friends either," she huffed.

He sighed. "Vivi, I cannot deny that I would like better for you. But you're young - eight now, remember? - and your friends will mature too. If the Lord accepts them, you should accept them too. We are all works in progress. And you need to be a good friend to them, too."

"Does the Lord accept me?" she asked quietly.

"Of course he does, Vivi. Of course he does."

"Then why did he give me this ... this ..."

"I don't know, sweetie. But I'm sure we'll understand in His time. There were people in the Bible - prophets and prophetesses - who could do wondrous things."

She gave a small smile. "Look, Daddy," she whispered, "I can do Moses." She placed her hand on the stream and the waters parted, leaving a small dry path across.

He pulled her into a hug. "No, Vivi," he whispered in her ear. "You mustn't."

She mustn't, and yet, there was an irresistible call that seemed to grow stronger each day she didn't play. The stream was out of the question now, at least where it was closest to the house. She would have to venture farther afield. And her father's admonition not to be seen was a valid one.

The obvious next step was to follow the stream upstream or down, but she was old enough to assist on the farm now, and being an only child, there was much to do. She had no free time to entertain the thought of exploring. Except on Sunday. On Sunday, only the necessary things were done: milking the cows and goats, collecting eggs, and making sure the animals and chickens had food and water - particularly water. Things got really hot this time of year. These chores were all done before breakfast. There was a long church service at the communal hall, of course, but after this the afternoon was hers. So that very Sunday, after she had changed her church clothes for her outside clothes and grabbed her hat, she picked her way into the standing corn, and when she could no longer see the house behind her, she veered to the right and intercepted the stream. There were actually trees here - sabal palms and coconut palms mostly, but the occasional flamboyant tree. It was enough so she could push her had off her head and let it dangle by its string around her neck and enjoy a bit more air. She followed the stream upstream (downstream just had bad vibes associated with it now) for fifteen minutes or more. This was land Brienne's family used to own, but they had moved away from the community a few months after her death. William's family owned it now. There, she came upon a place where the stream widened out into a pond about twenty feet across. There was debris clogging the side of the pond from which her stream emanated, thus causing the pond. She smiled happily.

She looked about carefully. The pond was nestled between areas of higher ground, so she climbed to the top of each to see what was there. She had a clear view of open empty fields dotted only by cacti and succulents. She walked the entire periphery of the pond this way, looking out as far as she could see in every direction. It was while she was doing this that she heard a small splash behind her. She gasped. Her first thought was that someone had thrown a stone into the pond, or that her father had come looking for her already (he always did). She could see the widening ripples in the calm water. There was another splash at the edge of her vision.

"Fish!" she exclaimed to the empty hills. There were tiny minnows in the stream by the house, but they didn't jump, and they certainly didn't splash. She watched in delight, but the fish had an uncanny way of jumping just where she wasn't looking. "Come on!" she remarked with frustration. But then she had an idea. She knelt down with a mischievous grin and placed her hand on the water. She waited. Splash! She immediately made the water form up into a heap where the splash had happened, and sure enough, there was a good sized silver and brown fish, maybe seven inches long, swimming in circles in the mound of water. She giggled in delight and without thinking took her hand from the water. The heap, and the fish, immediately fell back down into the pond. What a delightful game! She did it over and over, giggling each time she managed to raise a fish. William was always talking about fishing. He would be able to tell her exactly what kind this was, and a whole bunch of other boring stuff. If he could do this, it would sure make the job easy!

Her eyes suddenly darted to a twinkle of movement to her left, where a heap of water collapsed into the pond. She drew her hand back in surprise. She hadn't made that one. At least, she didn't think she had. She stood up and turned a full circle, looking around. "I guess it was an accident," she said to herself. So she knelt back down and continued the game for several minutes. Movement to the right! She turned to look, but all she saw was a falling heap of water. She drew her hand back again, with a gasp. Then she slowly reached out again. This time she concentrated on what she was doing, ignoring the fish.

Heap...

Heap...

Heap...

Heap - there! It couldn't be hers! She bolted to her feet and called into the hills. "Hello? Who's doing that?" There was no answer. "Hello?"

When she returned her eyes to the water, she stumbled back in shock and fell on her bottom. There, standing on the surface of the pond, was a small horse - barely larger than Vixen - made of water. It dropped into the pond. Viera sat staring, not convinced of what she had just seen. After she had caught her breath, she slowly advanced back toward the pond and placed her hand on the water. "Hello?" she said timidly. The small horse jumped from the pond and stood there on its surface, looking back at her. She withdrew her hand from the water and held it out in fascination. The little horse slowly walked over and touched her hand with its wet nose. She laughed, and it pranced away at the sound. "What are you?" she said. It turned to look at her, swished its dripping tail, and then dove back into the water. All that remained was the ripples. Viera stood with a grin of wonderment on her face. Part of her wanted to tell someone, but she knew she couldn't. That was OK. As an only-child, she was already used to keeping things to herself.

She skipped along the side of the stream back towards her house, and then remembered: she was supposed to be playing in the field. She could play in the water and return home clean and dry, but she couldn't play in the field without getting dusty or even a bit muddy. It would be a dead give-away. Veering back the way she had come, she arrived back in the standing corn, where she raced back and forth, still grinning ear-to-ear about the new playmate she had found. Once she was out of breath - and suitably dusty - she headed back to the house.

Her mother met her at the door. "There you are!" she said. "Lennea came looking for you. I told her you were playing in the corn field, but she couldn't find you."

Viera's eyes were wide. "I'm sorry Mama - I was making a maze in the corn - near the back - Daddy said I could - and I must not have heard her." The latter part was true, at least. She made a mental note to make a maze when she had time.

"Well, she only left a few minutes ago. If you run, you can probably catch her."

"Okay," Viera said cheerfully, and bolted out the door. Her mother looked quizzically after her.

"Lennea!" Viera called when she was close enough for her voice to carry. The older girl turned, and then began walking back in her direction. Viera met her breathlessly a few seconds later. "Come see my corn maze!" she exclaimed, and grabbed Lennea by the hand.

Lennea immediately yanked her hand back. "I'm coming! Goodness! Did you find gold, or something?" Lennea was nine, and had been getting quite proud of the fact lately.

"No. No gold. Unless you count the corn."

They turned into the field when they were still far from Viera's house, and Viera led her to the back. "Hmm..." she said. "It was back here somewhere."

Lennea rolled her eyes. "You've lost an entire corn maze?" she deadpanned.

"Well we'll just have to make a new one. And if we find the old one we can join them up!"

"That sounds like fun enough, I guess," Lennea answered. "But aren't you supposed to leave these be?"

"Daddy says since it's nearly time to harvest everything that we can knock the stalks over as long as we don't walk on the ears." The two worked at it awhile, sometimes within sight of each other, sometimes not. Occasionally they met unexpectedly, which Viera found quite funny and Lennea enjoyed too, although she tried not to show it.

"OK, now where's the start and finish?" Viera asked. They picked two spots, and then enjoyed walking the maze together. "We'll have to show this to Signe and William!" Viera gushed.

"You're certainly in an excitable mood today," Lennea remarked with a note of curiosity.

"I'll fetch William and you fetch Signe!" she yelled as she ran off down the path.

"Oh, thanks - leave the long trip for me!" Lennea called after her.

Part way to William's house, Viera realized what she had done. She stopped where she stood. She hadn't been down this path since Brienne's death. She began to feel sick to her stomach. "Maybe I'll just tell Lennea that he wasn't home," she thought out loud. She turned to leave. But Lennea would call her silly, and she was already telling enough lies today. She turned again, and took another step. Then another. As each step brought something else familiar into view, the urge to turn and leave grew stronger, but she was determined to make this work. The house came into view. It seemed smaller than she remembered it, but it looked just the same. How her heart yearned to see Breezy poke her head out that front door. Once again, it was hard to believe she was gone. Viera stopped a few steps away and swallowed hard, waiting for her hammering heart to calm. Then she knocked. She peeked out from under her sun hat as Mrs. Wallin answered the door. Mrs. Wallin was taller than her mom, and a bit plump with greying hair. She was still wearing her Sunday clothes. "Hello, Mrs. Wallin," Viera said timidly. "Is William home?"

Mrs. Wallin took her measure. "You're the Josefsson's girl, aren't you?" she asked with a slightly disapproving frown.

"Yes Ma'am."

"Stay here. I'll send him out."

Viera was old enough to recognize rudeness when it was this obvious, but right now she found it a relief. There could only be more hard memories to face inside the house. She folded her hands behind her and poked at the dirt with her shoe. A minute later, William appeared at the door. She was pleased to see that he was a little more dressed for outdoors than his mom had been.

"William, come do our corn maze!" Viera brightened.

"Whoa. You're wound up. It must be quite a maze." William slipped on his shoes and grabbed his hat. "Mom, I'm going over to Vivi's," he called. Before she could answer he had shut the door.

Viera set a fast pace from their property. The sooner out of there, the better. "Let's wait for the others before we do it," Viera said once they had reached the edge of the corn field.

"Who else is coming?"

"Lennea and Signe."

"Oh, OK." They stood waiting quietly as the sun beat down.

"So what did you do today," Viera asked.

"I invited a couple boys to go fishing, but none of us had our equipment ready. So I spent my time doing that. Hopefully so did they. Then maybe we'll be ready next time."

Viera couldn't suppress a smile. "I can fish too," she declared.

"Oh? I didn't know that," he said with surprise.

"What do you do with the fish?"

"That's a funny question from someone who knows how to fish. Well if they're big enough we take them back home and eat them."

Viera thought about asking if he'd ever seen anything besides fish, but before she could decide, Lennea and Signe arrived. "Come on everyone!" she cheered. They all followed her into the corn. They spent a quarter hour or so exploring the maze, and afterward met again on the path. "So what did you think?" Viera proudly asked.

"It's a corn maze," said William. That's the closest he ever got to a complement. "Seriously, Vivi, what's got you so wound up?"

Viera was disappointed and somewhat taken aback. She looked at all their unexcited faces and then turned and looked into the corn. "I ... I guess it's not that special. I just thought it was something different and I thought you would like it too.."

"I should get going," Signe said. "Thanks for inviting me, Lennea."

"Yeah, thanks Vivi. I should go too," said Lennea. She began to walk down the path with Signe.

William was standing there with a wry grin. "What's different is you," he said.

"It's been a fun day," Viera smiled sleepily as her mother tucked her into bed.

"I'm so glad to hear that. I haven't seen you this happy since -" She paused. "I haven't seen you this happy in years."

Alone in her bed, Viera asked God to forgive her for the lies she had told that day, and thanked him for the new friend.

A/N: Yes, obvious analog to the Frozen sequel, but my conception of them is different as you will see. Also, I had this story idea in mind long before the sequel... :D