"Yes Mother, I'll be back by sunset," Kari answered. She had recently requested that she be allowed some free time to relax on the grass in the meadow. It was summer after all so Kari thought it would be reasonable to enjoy the great weather. Her mother had refused at first, fearing for Kari's safety but seeing her daughter's persistence, she gave in. When Kari walked toward the meadow, the scarf around her head became loose as the wind tugged at it. Kari reached up to tie her scarf tighter but just before she touched the scarf with her slender fingers, the wind got hold of it and blew it off her head.

      Kari ran as fast as she could, chasing her soft blue-green silk scarf, a gift from her late father. Her legs were slim yet strong. Her long, black-brown hair trailed behind her. "I should have tied my hair back. It's getting tangled," she thought. Running barefoot over the lush green meadow, Kari felt a sense of freedom yet urgency as the wind carried her precious scarf further away. She skipped over a few smooth round stones and small bushes. The scent of a warm summer's night was all around her. The birds singing and chirping made Kari appreciate living in a village surrounded by animals.

      The wind was relentless; it seemed to be playing a game with her. When it brought the scarf down far enough for her to grab it, the wind would jerk it back up to the clear blue sky. "This time, I'm going to get it," she thought. With that, she jumped up and caught the light trailing scarf. Kari had not been watching where she had been going and as she landed, she smacked right into a boy.

      "Ouch!", They both cried out in surprise. "I'm sorry, I wasn't; looking at where I was going," Kari apologized.

      "Oh, well I wasn't exactly looking at where I was walking either" said the boy.

      Kari looked at him and wondered why she had never seen such a handsome face before. "What is your name?" Kari asked him.

      "Jonn," he answered "What's yours?"

      "Kari."

      "Kari, I don't think I've seen you before. Are you new here?" he asked as he helped her up.

      Up until that moment, Kari had concentrated on retrieving her scarf and talking to this boy with such nice brown hair. Now she realized that she wason the other side of the vast meadow, in a neighboring village. "If Mother finds out, she'll probably worry," Kari thought. Distracted, Kari forgot to answer Jonn's question. "Um, excuse me, I have to get back home," Kari called out. With that, she ran back without a backwards glance at Jonn.

      Jonn watched her run and then he realized why he had never seen her before. She must have been from another village. "Oh well. I'll probably never see her again," he thought. Jonn then continued walking towards the hidden stream beneath many  trees. Located behind a huge rock, it was a place where Jonn had privacy to think things over and relax. He was going there because his ceremony of manhood was to occur in just five months, when he would turn fifteen. The other boys were excited about this, but Jonn treasured his childhood and its freedom. He knew that the other boys could delay their ceremony until they felt ready but he could not since his mother was the daughter of the village chief so many girls wanted to marry him for status. However, he felt that he could not love any of them. As he pushed his wavy brown hair back he thought, "For once I'd like to be normal and do what I want instead of what's expected of me. Maybe if I was like the others, I can just not get married and become a wise old man."

      It was getting hard to think because the beauty of that girl, Kari, kept interrupting his thoughts. "She looked so pretty when she blushed," he thought. She looked even more beautiful when she smiled. Why she ran away so suddenly, he did not know. Was it because she recognized him as the grandson of the chief of Nori or was it because she thought he was too blunt? It was getting late anyway so he headed back toward the village for dinner.

      When Kari was back on her village's side of the meadow, she laid down to rest and thought about the boy she met. She wondered who he was. His brown eyes and strong arms when he helped her up stood so clearly in her mind. He looked to be about her age, almost fifteen. She couldn't help thinking that he was perhaps a boy of nobility or status. That was unlikely so she tried to put it out of her mind.