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// I Back Away From the Trees 
// Story: Her Eyes Reflect The Stars 
// by Lynwood 
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I back away from the trees until I feel mud. The water laps at the edges of my hooves, but I keep my eyes locked on the treeline. My heart feels tight, flooded with a mix of terror and rage. How dare they? I know my cousins like to fool with me, but this? This is something cruel.

We didn't even walk that far. How'd we get all the way to the lake? It looked much farther from the air.

My wings are spread, ready to carry me away at the first sign of a jungle beast. I imagine some terrible chimera or manticore or hydra, stalking among the ferns and watching me from the shadows. I really should have looked over my shoulder.

"Who are you?"

"Gah!" I yelp, scrambling onto drier sand and doing my best to spin around at the same time. Only my shock keeps me from taking to the air. When I do manage to get my head on straight, I'm looking at... a pony? A filly, in fact, not much older than me.

Only her torso pokes out of the water, and she holds her legs close to her chest. Her mane, colored a soft pink that complements her sky-blue coat quite nicely, is sopping wet and doesn't seem to fall across her head and neck the way it should. She stares at me with wide eyes that match her mane. 

"Um, hello?" She tilts her head at me as water runs off her muzzle. "Are you mute?"

I blink and swallow away the dryness in my throat. "N-no," I say in what I hope is a brave voice, "who are you?"

The strange pony frowns. "I asked you first." Why didn't I hear her swim up? Was I too focused on the trees?

"Well, you snuck up and scared me, so that makes us even."

The filly scrunches her muzzle. "There's no need to be so standoffish, I'm not some sea monster." Then she raises an eyebrow. "You're not used to meeting new ponies, are you?"

I feel my face flush a little as I kick the sand. "Not really."

"Ugh." She tosses her odd-looking mane and swims in a little circle. "Let's start over. Hi!" she waves. "My name is Sea Spray. What's yours?" The strange filly still hasn't come out of the water. 

"Um... I'm Shines. Shines With the Wind."

She grins. "Wow! That's a cool name! Are you from the village? You don't seem like a villager, but then again I guess I've never seen one up close..."

Now that my heart isn't trying to leap out of my throat, I can let my wings close and sit down on the sand. "No, I'm not from the village, I'm just visiting."

"If you're just visiting, then what are you doing out here by the lake?"

"My dumb cousins tricked me," I say with a shrug, "what are you doing out here in the lake?"

"Where else would I be?" she says, tilting her head at me. "It's not like I can go anywhere."

"Huh?" I look at the frankly ridiculous amount of land around us. "You can't?"

She makes a knowing smile at me. "Oh, you've never seen a seapony, huh?" Before I can continue to make a fool of myself, the water near her splashes, broken by what looks to be the tail of a massive fish, except that its fin is the exact same color as her mane.

"Oh," I manage to say.