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Green and Growing

"It's summer."

"Well, yes."

"I like summer and spring much better than winter," the girl who had spoken continued. Her arms were stretched to the sides as she jumped from stone to stone, her sandals making a clunking sound as she landed on each one. "Winter's too quiet. You can't hear the grass grow. I don't like that." She spoke in short sentences, one between each jump.

"Winter's quiet," one of the girl's companions agreed. "But it's not like you can hear the grass growing He was a boy, maybe a year or so older than her. He too was jumping from stone to stone in her wake, but his feet were bare so his jumps were much more quiet.

"Of course you can," the girl said.

There weren't any more stones close enough, so she jumped down and headed away from the river they'd been following, towards the edge of the forest instead. Both boys jumped down as well and followed her.

"Just listen," she said as they caught up.

They tried.

"See?" she said, sounding just a bit smug.

"There's... the river. And the wind in the trees, and the birds," the other boy said hesitantly. This one looked younger than the girl. "What's the grass supposed to sound like?"

"Like it's growing."

"But how does that sound?"

"Like it's growing," the girl repeated. She sounded impatient, as if explaining something very obvious to someone very obstinate.

The boys looked at her politely, and she frowned.

"They're mushi," a new voice interrupted. The children all turned. There was a man sitting under one of the trees nearby, smoke slowly curling from the cigarette he was holding. He was watching them with eyes almost completely hidden by his white bangs, an almost amused look on his face. He had probably been sitting there the whole time, but they'd all been too occupied by their own conversation to take any more note until now.

"Mushi?"

"Yes, mushi. Creatures only some people can see. And creatures only some people can hear, too"

"Really?" The girl looked intrigued.

"What have they got to do with the grass growing?" The older boy, on the other hand, sounded more suspicious than intrigued.

"In spring, when the grass starts growing, this kind of mushi attaches itself to it, and grows with in the other direction, like a shadow. And there it stays as long as the grass keeps growing. It's what's making that sound you're hearing. There are some people who can hear it."

The boy looked unconvinced. "But what are mushi?"

"What do you mean, in the other direction?" The girl spoke at the same time.

The stranger's lips curled into a small smile. "Here," he said, shifting to sit on his knees and then bending down to pull up a tuft of grass. He turned up his palm and pointed at the clump of roots and dirt with the two fingers of his other hand that were holding his cigarette. "See?"

"Oh!" the girl said, staring in fascination.

"They're roots," the younger boy said.

"And earth," the older one added.

"You can't see it, then?" the man asked.

The boys shook their heads in tandem.

"It's like... green shadows of all the straws!" The girl reached out her hand to towards the man's hand. "My hand goes right through them!"

The man grinned as she kept waving her hand through something only the two of them could see. "Have you been able to see things other people can't before?"

"Yes." She looked up from the grass shadows. "All the time."

The boys nodded. "It's weird," the younger one said.

"Those are mushi. Most of them are pretty harmless, but you should probably be careful anyway." The man put the tuft of grass in the girl's hand and stood up. "Is your village that way?" He pointed vaguely uprivers.

"Yeah, just follow the river for a bit, maybe ten minutes."

"Ah, maybe I could find somewhere to sleep tonight, then. Later, then." He raised a hand, turned and headed off.

The three children watched him walk off in silence for a few moments. Then the girl frowned, apparently dissatisfied, and seemed to arrived at a decision. "Hey!" she shouted, taking off at a run after the stranger. The tuft of grass was still in her hand. "What's your name? Tell me more about mushi! What are they really? Why can't everyone see them? Are we special somehow?"

The boys looked at each other, shrugged and then headed after them too.