On the soft quilted leaves beside me, Ama was still. Her breathing was soft, yellow shone through her eyelids and tendrils of dark hair curled around her. Shards of coloured light hit her skin through the distorted crystal windows. I sighed. This was the last time we would share a room together just as best friends with no politics involved. It was completely quiet in the Crystal houses; everybody was asleep – apart from me. Normally, people took turns to sleep – there was never enough light to distinguish between night and day so we worked throughout both. But tomorrow was an important day, and everyone would be needed.
Silently I rolled my leaf away from me feeling the sting of the cool air and checked that nobody had stirred before climbing down the ladder, out of the Crystal house and on to the mossy forest floor. The noise instantly engulfed me, chirps, squeals, rustling, roars, echoes, wails, creaking, buzzing. Careful not to step on the plants that slept on the ground, I made my way to the Biggest Lake – the one which marked the edge of Naidis. Across that lake were the rocks which nobody dared venture close to; we often heard the cracks and rumbles of them tumbling down.
