It was a cold winter day. The trees howled like werewolves to the moon, and a little girl, around the age of four, was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Her eyes were like two bright aquamarines that held onlookers captive. Her hair glimmered, white as the snow that choked her. She was lying there, shivering, cold, and too far away from home to know how to get back.

            That was when fate happened, the fate that linked six friends together with an unbreakable bond. A boy of her age appeared in front of her, as if he had apparated from thin air. He had hair of the darkest black, shining in the snow like a jewel finally discovered. He knelt down before her, gently asking her what was wrong.

            Through her sobs, she managed to say, “I am lost. I don’t know where to go.”

            “Do you want me to help you go back?” he offered. She shook her head no.

            “No! I will be independent and rely on myself only,” she said with determination. “My mamma taught me that I will not be of the household one day. She told me to always do things that will prepare me for the later life.”

            The boy’s eyes, although the girl did not see, flashed, in the smallest specks of his iris, the color of white, a color lighter than snow. He said to her, “Then I will accompany you until you get home.”

            The girl looked at him suspiciously. She was old enough to know that accompanying her would almost be the same as helping her. But despite her thoughts of independence, she thought of her mother and father, worried that she might get hurt, and if she was to not accept this boy’s offer, she would die in the cold.

            She nodded her head, and they set forth on their journey to the little girl’s home. Not even knowing where she was, she felt the boy guiding her, like the offer that she had refused. But she had no way of proving it. He would probably give an innocent smile and called her accusations nonsense.

            The boy and the girl walked for one hour. However, the girl looked pale and slowly let her pace slow down. She clutched at her heart and throat. As she did so, the young boy of four knelt down to see if she was alright. She nodded, even though it wasn’t the truth.

            Studying her behavior, he knew what was wrong with her, “You have asthma.”

            The girl’s face flinched when he guessed correctly, “So what if I do? I’m going to be a good girl and walk home like mommy said.”

            The boy looked down at her with the same white pulsing in his eyes, “You will not prove to your mom that you are independent if you die.”

            She turned her head away from him, trying not to listen to his reason. His eyes then sparked yellow as if he had thought of something great. So he told her, “Once, my friend told me that being unable to do something doesn’t make you weak, it makes you work harder than anyone else. That means that you are stronger than most people. You have a stronger heart."

            The girl looked up at the boy with ebony black hair, her eyes wide and full of hope. Then she made a promise to herself that was eventually erased from her memory. With wide and hopeful eyes, she declared, “Then whoever your friend is, I’ll be in love with him and he will be my husband. Because he, even though unknowingly, has given me strength to go on and not give up faith.”

            Those words may sound foolish to you, but for the young and innocent four year old girl that was desperate to impress her mother, they were true words that she longed to keep. Until, of course, she had forgotten them.

            As for the way back, or the ride back, to be exact, anybody who might have seen her would question why she was galloping away on a pony.