The Enchanted Pond

The child had stumbled upon the shimmering pond. It was different from the one by the gazebo, it seemed to be glowing. It could be their eyes deceiving them, but it looked like blue sparkles rose from the water. This captivated the young child as they dashed forward, almost tripping on the way. The brown eyes widened upon closed inspection of the pond.

He sat down near the beach, taking a deep breath. The real hard decision here was would he go into the water or would he just play on the outside? He could swim, so that was not an issue, but did he want to get wet again? His tan cargo shorts had just dried from his previous venture into the water, so he wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to wait for them to dry once more. The boy frowned, seemingly stuck with this predicament.

"Aaahh!" Iseul stumbled from the invisible hill she was standing on till, skidding on dirt and grass, rolled down to the pond's side. Iseul perked forwards quickly, her cheeks filling up with heat and trying desperately to rub off the dirt that stuck to her sleeve.

The child turned to see what all the commotion they were hearing was. Upon looking, they were just in time to see the young girl rolling down the slight incline, where she came to a stop near them. They were surprised for a moment, but pleasantly surprised upon realizing that it was another child like them, a bit older though.

“Are you okay?” MJ asked, a worried tinge to his tone. He stood up, walking over and helping the girl up. Her sudden and almost startling appearance did little to deter the small boy as he introduced himself after asking if she were alright. “I was looking at the sparkles!” He added cheerfully, smiling. Although not obviously evident at the moment, he was glad to have found another child. He was starting to get increasingly uneasy about the pure lack of kids his age in the facility, which prompted him to start questioning where he really was and where his friends and family were. It was not a pleasant thought to dwell on, so he was relieved for this distraction.

"Yeah! I'm fine!" she chirped, her voice quiet but gaining confidence as his friendly personality rubbed off her, growing a lopsided smile. She crawled on her knees to peer at the pond now, a hand tentatively reaching down and a smile shone from her eyes. "Iseul, I'm Iseul," she responded at his own introduction.

The child nodded, watching the girl peer into the water. They were younger by a couple years compared to Iseul, big brown eyes and ruffled hair. They smiled, a grin with gaps due to them being in the age range of losing and growing adult teeth. The splatter of freckles across their cheeks gave off an even younger impression.

“I’m MJ,” the boy said, kneeling down next to the girl. He looked at where she gazed, then back at the girl. “Does water usually sparkle like this? It doesn’t, right?” There was the real question. He had never seen such magical looking water, perhaps only hearing it in fairytales.