Louise led the way back to their blanket under the window. Once she and Hans sat down, the little fairy settled more comfortably in the girl's palm.

"I come from Terra Sonalis," she said, her tiny white fingers playing with the lacy hem of her long, red dress.

"And... where is that?" Louise asked her as they all heard another clap of thunder, sounding low and distant now. Even the patter of raindrops on the roof was slowly morphing into a whisper.

"On the other side of the lake, of course."

"Yes, of course. Since when?" Hans asked, glancing at the little winged thing sitting on his friend's palm reproachingly, convinced that she was fibbing.

Then he looked at Louise, explaining, "There are just more trees on the other side of the lake. I have been there many times, there is no fairy land..."

"Not there, silly." The fairy scowled at him. "Not your side of the lake, but mine. You have to swim through, not across, to get there."

"Do you mean... dive to the bottom and swim through?" Louise asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. Not even the ill-health could tame her adventurous spirit.

"Exactly!" Rosalind agreed, jumping to her feet. "You're the smarter one of the two, right?" she added, looking at Louise admiringly as Hans shook his head.

"No," he decided, having divined his friend's intentions. "You are not going to dive to the bottom of the lake."

"Why?" Louise asked, standing up.

"Yes, why?" Rosalind echoed, both the girl and the fairy now standing tall, their shoulders squared in challenge, towering over poor Hans.

He scrambled to his feet too and tried to argue. Honestly, he tried. But he already knew that if Louise decided to go, he would follow her. He just... could not refuse her anything, and she knew it.

"Because Louise is not feeling well," he told Rosalind.

"That's exactly why you should take her to my world!" she exclaimed, pacing across the girl's palm impatiently, her small, fisted hands flying in the air above her head in frustration. "Louise will feel better there. And I need your help... Please? See, there is this Butterfly Fairy boy I need to find... " she added, looking at Louise imploringly.

"And how do you know that? How do you know that she will feel better in your world?" Hans asked even as Louise started coughing again.

"Because I can see your future, if you must know."

"Is that true? That is amazing... " Louise breathed, her free hand pressed over her lungs as Hans ran both of his through his damp, chestnut hair. The two girls were exasperating.

Louise looked at him, a small smile playing on her lips. He cared so much for her; she knew it. She should not insist, but... she had not felt this excited and happy in a long time. Soon, the endless winter would come, and their parents would keep her closed inside their small house for months on end because she was always worse when the weather was cold and humid. Louise craved this adventure, needed it, she would help Rosalind whether Hans approved or not.

"I am sorry, Hans. I must go with her."

"Are you really sure that she will feel better in your land, Rosalind?" Hans called after them when they started to walk towards the door.

He looked around hastily, desperation clouding his thoughts. What was he supposed to do?! After a moment of thought, he decided to leave all their belongings in the old shed and follow the girls.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure. Oh, I nearly forgot, I mustn't leave this behind!" Rosalind exclaimed, spreading her silvery wings and flying a few steps back.

From the folds of her dress, she produced a tiny wand. After she whispered something that Hans and Louise could not comprehend, the shard of the mirror lying in the corner of the shed floated towards her. Once Hans opened the door, it preceded them, still floating, outside.

It had stopped raining in the meantime, and the sun struggled for dominance over the clouds, in the same way a smile struggled to overrule Louise's typically serious expression.

"Look!" Louise called, pointing at a huge rainbow forming a shimmering, iridescent arch above the lake.

She glanced back at Hans, and when he saw the joy and excitement lurking in her eyes, he decided to forget about all the possible perils of this unusual adventure. He would do whatever Louise wanted, hoping for the best.

Louise took his hand in hers, making him understand that she knew that he was only doing this to please her. Then they walked towards the water's edge in silence.

"You said that you can see our future. What else can you do?" the girl asked the fairy as they reached the lake's shore, the fragment of glass hovering above their heads like the evening star.

Louise wasn't quite sure what would happen now, and she was finally starting to feel a little uneasy about the whole reckless idea. The lake, from this close, looked cold. And deep. Very deep. She needed a few moments to collect her scattered courage.

"I can read your thoughts," Rosalind giggled, looking at Hans, who was so lost in observing Louise that he did not notice their exchange. He hadn't seen her cheeks so flushed and full of health in a long time...

"What was that?" he asked, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose when even Louise looked at him, as if the girls were waiting for his answer.

"I can read your thoughts," the fairy repeated, an annoyingly knowing smile playing on her tiny, rosy lips.
Suddenly, she turned to Louise. "Shall I tell your friend what you meant to ask of him when I interrupted you in that shed? I'm sure he'll never guess unless we tell him." She giggled again.

"No! Rosalind, please don't, not now!" Louise begged, her cheeks flushing even more.

"Maybe later?" the fairy proposed, the corners of her mouth sinking with disappointment.

"Yes, maybe later," Louise agreed, glancing shyly at Hans.

What are they talking about? Hans mused as Rosalind called, observing him, "Look, he's clueless!"

As she laughed, the tiny wand shook in her fist, threatening to make the piece of glass fall to the ground.

"Maybe I do not know what is so funny but I know that if you will not tell us what to do quickly, I will take Louise home," Hans said, frowning, feeling annoyed with the fairy again.

"Fine, fine, I'll behave," Rosalind promised. "So, we will dive to the bottom, and once we get out on the other side, we will be in Terra Sonalis. My home."

"But how can we breathe under the water? It's deep," Hans observed, and Louise nodded, wanting to know that too.

"No worries. As long as you are with me, there's no danger for you. You'll breathe... just like me. Come on," she urged, flying above the surface of the lake.

"Oh, there's no need to do that," she said as Hans walked into the shallows and started to unbutton his shirt. "You can come dressed as you are."

The boy looked at her uncertainly, then turned to his friend. "Louise?" he asked. "Are you sure about this?"

The girl, still standing on the bank, nodded silently. She lifted her dress a little and stepped into the water, shivering. Clutching Hans' arms with her shaking hands, she spoke to Rosalind, "What do we do now?"

"Watch me," the fairy said, pointing her wand at the piece of glass suspended in the air. She murmured another incomprehensible word, and the shard disappeared under the water's surface in a blur. "Follow me!" she called, vanishing underwater as fast as the glass, her long dress, and nearly equally long black hair, trailing behind her like a tail of a falling star.

"Let's go before we lose her. Ready?" Hans looked at Louise, letting her decide.

She closed her eyes, nodding again. Then, they followed Rosalind into the cool depths of the lake.

At first, it wasn't too bad, for Hans at least. He loved the lake, and the underwater world fascinated him. The boy had spent more than one summer afternoon when Louise was not feeling well enough to accompany him on a walk in the park, by swimming and diving.

For Louise, it was a completely new experience, though. She could not swim, let alone dive! The girl opened her eyes to the faded, washed-out colours of the murky waterworld, and as she watched the tiny bubbles of oxygen escaping from her nose and spiralling back to the surface, she panicked. She could not breathe. And she could not talk, either.

Louise reached out for Hans' foot, which she could hardly discern in the dark depths beneath her. As he turned around, she clasped her throat and shook her head desperately, sending her long hair floating around her face like water snakes, a gesture which she hoped he would understand as, 'Help, I cannot breathe!'

Hans nodded, disappearing momentarily in the opaque waters closer to the bottom. Soon, he returned, dragging Rosalind by her dress.

The fairy rolled her eyes impatiently when she noticed Louise's frightened expression. Her lips moved, and she pointed her wand first at the girl, then at Hans, who was just starting to struggle for air as well. As soon as Rosalind's words, warbled and distorted by the water surrounding them, reached their ears, they both started to breathe with ease, as if they were walking outside, and not swimming in the lake.

The fairy disappeared into the depths again immediately. Hans grabbed Louise's hand in his, and they followed in Rosalind's wake, smiling at each other.

Shortly, they reached the fairy, who was waiting for them at the lake's bottom. She touched the soft mud with the tip of her wand, murmuring a very long word they did not recognise and... it vanished, revealing more water.

But this side of the lake was different. It was teeming with life and colours. There was seaweed in all possible shades of green and yellow covered in tiny white flowers growing on the clear, sandy bottom. Shoals of colourful fish as big as themselves swam above them, the same way birds fly in the air.

Louise started as one of them approached her curiously, and so did Hans, when Rosalind, appearing out of nowhere suddenly, tapped his shoulder with her wand. The fairy was now as tall as themselves!

There seemed to be no end to surprises-- Hans and Louise's clothes were also changed! Rosalind giggled as she saw their stunned expressions. She pointed upwards, where they could see huge water lilies floating like clouds in the summer sky. They understood, following her to the top of the lake.

After their heads broke the water's surface, they swam the short distance separating them from the shore, then climbed onto the sandy bank clad in their new, amazingly dry clothes.

Hans wore a white shirt and a perfectly tailored green suit, its colour only a shade darker than his eyes. And there was a pair of black, well-fitting shoes on his feet. Louise donned a dress similar to Rosalind's, but white. It was tied in the waist with a long, red sash, and her new shoes were red as well.

She seemed to glow and shimmer in the sunshine, so happy and healthy she looked, Hans noticed, as he pushed the glasses slipping down his nose back in their place. Even those were improved somehow, he was sure that he could see better.

"Thank you, Rosalind. It is... beautiful here," he told the fairy as he stood up and looked around.

A large rose garden lay to his left, not far from the water. An infinite meadow stretched as far as he could see, and there was a forest far behind. Then, to the right, on the remote horizon, hills and snow-capped mountains stood as a silent guard of this precious world.

"Thank you for the dress, Rosalind," Louise said, still admiring her new attire. "And the shoes... I always wanted a pair of red shoes!"

"You are welcome. And I know that, of course," said Rosalind, grinning contentedly.

Of course she did, she could read their thoughts, Hans remembered. "Why are you suddenly so big?" he asked her.

She shook her head at him, smiling, "I'm the same as before. It is you, who is small now. Look," she said, pointing back to the lake where the boy finally noticed the water lilies properly. They were huge!

Hans looked towards the rose garden again, realising that it was so far away that the flowers only looked their usual size. What he had thought to be huge rocks lining the shore were... pebbles and the pebbles were... grains of a very fine sand... They really were as small as the fairy.

"How...?" he muttered, his feelings oscillating between curiousity and surprise. Even though he could see what she was telling him with his own eyes, he still found it hard to believe.

"Never mind that now. We have a bigger problem. I lost that piece of mirror on your side of the lake. It was eaten by a fish when you," she pointed her wand at Hans, "called me to save her." She pointed it at Louise. "What were you thinking?! You shouldn't have panicked, I told you that you could breathe underwater as long as we would stay together. You simply needed to trust me!"

"I'm sorry, Rosalind," Louise apologised. "I got scared. What will happen now, is the piece of glass really dangerous?" she asked the fairy who had already started walking across the sandy beach, as wide as a small desert, towards the faraway roses.

Hans glanced back at the lake, which looked like a sea. It was huge and restless... Just what kind of creatures lived in its waters? he wondered.

"Roo-sa-lind, Princess Roo-sa-lind!" an enormous, brown, dripping-wet toad croaked.

It jumped out from behind the reeds growing in the shallows so suddenly that it made Hans stumble backwards and fall onto the sandy bank.