Ally stared, her chest heaving with the physical and magical efforts of the past several minutes. The tension of her skirt against her legs told her it was hopelessly entangled in the thorn bushes, and freezing muddy water was running down one side of her face, her hair sticking to her cheek. One of her [...]

It didn’t take long for Ally and Takia to decide they were best friends. Ally suggested it, and Takia agreed wholeheartedly. After all, why wouldn’t they be? They played every day, visited each others' houses, and planned grand schemes together. Together they built a swing that hung from a branch just outside Takia’s treehouse. Together [...]

From Vista Cove, Ally’s Treetop Village was straight north through the Tanglewood, which at least made keeping track of the direction easy enough. All she had to do was follow the needle of her compass. But knowing which direction to go, and actually going in that direction were two very different things in the depths [...]

When Ally met Takia for the first time, they were both seven years old. Takia’s family had just moved to the treehouse village where Ally had lived all her life. It was spring. April. The air was still cold, but if you ran and leapt and whooped and shouted, as all the village children did, [...]