So, he remembered how she used to come here when she wanted to be alone, did he? How many other things did he remember? Melissa felt herself helplessly blushing.

"It hasn't really changed all that much here, has it?" Melissa asked, giving a sweeping motion of one hand to encompass the small area surrounded by trees on three sides and a dribbling waterfall on the other. "Oh, the trees have gotten a little bigger, the bushes have sprouted a little thicker, but nothing is too far removed from how I remember it."

Melissa sat down on the same dead log she had recently jumped up from when she had realized there was someone in the shadows. Now that she realized it was her brother, her original fear hadn't completely dissipated. And, why exactly was that?

Creagon kept to the tree trunk but walked around it so that he could capture a bit of the slashing of sunlight that penetrated through the thick canopy of interlocking tree limbs above them. He leaned back against the trunk, folding his arms across his chest and eyeing his sister with a look Melissa wasn't quite able to decipher.

Melissa quit looking at her brother-not sure just why she preferred the trickling water over the rocks to the superbly handsome form her brother cut, his blond hair made almost white by the ray of sunlight that struck it. Creagon's highlighted hair gave his head a kind of nimbus effect that made Melissa think of those holy pictures that portrayed some angel or religious personage.

But, wasn't that a deceptive trick of lighting! Because, Creagon was no more an angel or holy personage than Melissa was the Virgin Mary.

"I thought we might talk," Creagon said finally, deciding his sister had been made prettier over the years. She had filled out, taking on a woman's voluptuousness without losing a certain little-girl quality. "It has been a long time since we both talked alone, hasn't it?"