/"There has to be more than this," Stephanie complained, "Please tell me that there's more than what I see."/

 I was sixteen when I chose to leave home.  Where I was going and what I was looking for was nearly unknown.  There had been a simple need within me to see more than the surface: to learn to see more in depth. 

The voids beckoned me, calling and asking me to find the human soul through them.  An airplane ended up taking me towards what I felt necessary to seek.  My tale of discovery begins in the forests of Ireland: among the mystic beauty of the Celts.

 The paths I walked on were intertwined, and confused.  As if I were trapped within a nature based labrith.  The Ivy shining gloriously among the elderly trees.  Still, though it was a lovely view, the void beckoned once more.  She had be driven, she had to find what it was that she was looking for.  There had to be more.

 "What is it you're doin' here, then?"  A voice sounded all of a sudden.  The accent was most definitely Irish, and the person behind it sounded like a young adult.  Not much older than I.  When I turned around, I was met with the most breathtaking hazel eyes that I'd ever seen.  From head to toe, it was easy to see that he was some sort of country boy and yet, there seemed to be more too him.  Perhaps it was those eyes that had caught me.  His manner was simple, yet had a charming air that no one else could ever possess.

 When I had finally found my voice again, I answered that I was on a search.  That I was exploring this land to see beyond the average reality.  The young adult looked at me, feeling some confusion.  Search?  Beyond reality?  Finally, he smiled with some understanding though it was clear that not the entire concept was grasped.

"What is it specifically that your lookin' fer, then?"  He asked, in a curious nature.  "Some other view?"

 "She's on a quest, it seems, Logan," a woman interrupts from behind them. She smiled briefly at me, taking off the light brown hood of her robe.  "Perhaps we could offer the nomad a place to stay for the night?" she asked, looking in my direction.

I looked at her hesitantly, not sure whether or not I wanted to trust this towns-person, after all, there weren't many people in my life that I'd considered trusting much less a complete stranger.  Yet, logically I knew that I would have been in even more danger roaming the darkened paths when the sun set.

"I own an INN by the town, right there," the woman said, gesturing toward a group of small cobble stone cottages.  "I can let you rest there for free today.  Wandering at night would be dangerous anyway.  Please come; rest up."

 What was supposed to have been one day turned into a month, as I had no provisions to keep going.  I ended up working there and saving so that I would have enough to pay fees and buy food to go on for part of my journey. I had told Logan before that I was looking for something beneath the surface: beyond reality.  Yet his adopted mother had simply said that I was on a quest. Still, the exact explanation for what I was looking for could not be conjured. All I knew was that I wanted experience, and I wanted to see.  I wished to know the answers.  I wished to find the answers to the questions that everyone ponders on cold rainy nights.  Why do certain things happen?  Who am I? Where do I belong?  How do I fit within the puzzle that is life?  Where do I begin?  I simply wished that the confused state that I was in would be cleared up.

 "Steph?"  Logan's voice called out, breaking me out of my reverie.  "Are you alright?"

 Smiling slightly, I nodded, "I'm fine.  Just a little lost in thought."  Logan always had a true concern for others.  Despite the fact that he seemed plain at first glance, he was a very warm person.  He had lived on the banks of the pure Itomi River with his adopted mother, renting out places to stay for the travelers and poorer people within the small town.  Not many actually knew about their establishment, but those who did benefited from it.

 "Steph, I know a lot of things have been on your mind lately.  Please, tell me what's bothering you.  Why did you leave your home?"

 Sighing, I sat back in my chair.  He had asked me this question many times before, and still a direct answer couldn't be found other than I felt like I needed to get away.  "Logan, I don't understand the people in my home town.  Every where that I went are there all that I saw were superficial people obsessed with 'real life'.  None of them understood, and none of them could have told me the answers to these questions. Please accept these views.  I just need time."

 "Time for what?"

 "To look." I stated simply, turning my back to indicate that the discussion was over.  He didn't leave however.  Instead he stared at me, his eyes growing more determined and wondering at the same time.

 "When you leave," Logan stated, "I'm coming with you."  With that he left and I was certain then that there was something on his mind as well.

 What had been on his mind remained a mystery to me for a while, not understanding why he would ever want to leave his life.  Why would he feel this way?  He had a wonderful adopted mother, had nice surroundings, and got to help people.  He was provided for very well.  So what was it?  Was he going to try and find his birth parents?  Could it have been that he was on a journey as well?

 And so here we are.  Journeying along the dirt trials and country roads.  The Ivy still clinging to the old engraved trees, though the river seemed more and more cloudy with each passing hour.  Still, where we are going is unknown, but the object at least is more clear. It has simply come down to, we need to find a sense for who we are: find our spiritual identities.

Logan's adopted mother had let him leave with out a single word.  Saying that he may go and find the truths of his destiny.  The things that I had just found out about his past then, is that he was abandoned as a child as has no recollection of who he is.  It seems as though we are both in the same boat almost: wondering who we are.  I wonder what is behind this man with stunning hazel eyes.  What is truly in his past?  Certainly his identity is more clouded than my own.  The only possession that he has from the past is a small crystal ball held within a dragon claw.  It now hung from his chest; crystal shining in the light.  This man has become so mysterious to me, as some of the boyish characteristics take the back trail in his personality.  Now, he is more serious.  Now, he seems more like a warrior than a farm boy.

 Finally, the silence nags at me, and I ask, "So Logan, I suppose now I have to return the question: why have you left your home?"

 Logan smiles slightly at the return of his ever-common question, then grows more serious.  "Ya' know, I'd actually been thinkin' 'bout doing this before you came along, I had just never done anything.  When you came, I realized that others have similar questions about themselves. I suppose it gave me a little motivation.  I feel this need..I want to know who I am."

 I looked at him steadily as he began to break down.  His words became more choked as the feeling of desperateness consumed him.  As tears poured down his beautiful face, I stopped walking, catching him in a caring embrace.  I had to let him know that he was not alone.  I now vow that I will help him find himself as well.  That I will help him in whatever search he may conduct.

 "I'm sorry," he states softly, pulling himself away and kneeling to rummage through his pack.  Looking up, his eyes seemed emotional, but not quite as wounded as before.  The Ivy nearby sways with the breeze, once in a while coming to rest on Logan's shoulder.  Quietly, he took out his map and removed the crystal charm from around his neck.

"My adopted mother told me that the crystal would show me the way when the time came, though I'm still not quite sure how.  I suppose this is as good a guess as any."

With that, he swung his charm over the map, concentrating as best as he could on the small object.  Suddenly, the charm began to glow, and it moved to a place in the woods...it pointed to...right where we were.

I looked at Logan in surprise, as he did to me.  "We will find identities here?  How, though?  There is nothing but nature." Logan begins inspecting the area more closely: scanning carefully with his hazel eyes.

A laugh is heard from behind us.  Not an unfriendly one: a cackle.  But one full of an elder's enlightened humor.  "Nothing but nature, eh?  There are a lot of things held in your surroundings, young one."

"Who might you be, then?"  Logan asked, staring at the being with wonder.  He edged closer to the old deity, cautious but curious.  Essentially positioning himself in front of me without a single thought.

Smiling, he stated, "I am of the trees.  Of wisdom.  I have been called to give you both a lesson." The deity stopped to study them both.  "Come," he finished, "a test awaits you."

As I look at the retreating figure, I can't help but wonder what this person is smoking, however such thoughts were pushed away when Logan started following through the newly-created mist.  Raising an eyebrow, I approached it carefully.  "I hope you know what you're doing, my friend," I whispered softly, as I began to step through.

What greets me on the other side of the mist is even more surprising than deity appearing in the first place: Logan is fighting a demon of some kind, and his crystal charm had become some sort of weapon.

"Logan!" I cry, running towards him only to find myself right where I was before I had started running.  It was obviously some sort of sorcery.  My heart beat as I watched the battle rage on. Logan receiving a severe blow.  I tried to fight towards him as the dragon's nail pierced his skin, but all movement was done in vain.

"Retched old man!  Do something!  Logan's dying!"

The deity turned towards me, shaking his head.  "Logan is much stronger than you think.  What happens here now will alter the fate of this world."

My eyes widened, and clouded soon after with disbelief.  "What are you talking about?  Fate of the world? Logan?  You must be delusional."

"Foolish," he whispered, and before I knew what was happening, I was sent sprawling across the area into a cage high above ground.

"The world dies more and more every day because your kind can not see.  Inconsideration and ignorance plaques everything.  No longer do humans stay attuned to their live surroundings.  The clean rivers will be gone, the trees will be gone, and then the Ivy.  If Logan is strong, he can change these ways.  He can influence people.  But if he is not, he will only add to the destruction."

I grew silent after his words, beginning to focus more on the battle beneath me.  "Who is he?" I asked solemnly.

The deity looked up at me with all seeing eyes.  So in depth did he look that his gaze seemed as if it would go straight through me.  Finally, he spoke with wise tones.  "He, like all humans, is from the earth.  Of the trees, of the water, of the wind, of the Ivy.  He is a child of each of these."

I was tempted to ask more questions on this, but found that I had no voice with which to speak.  The scene beneath me had gotten fierce, and through concern for Logan, I found it laboring to simply breathe.

"You, my child, are of nature just as he is.  You are a human: of ivy, bark, and water.  That is all you ever need know.  Though you change throughout your years, so does everything else.  So is the cycle." The deity paused as he watched Logan get up from the battle drenched with blood.  "For the cycle to keep going, strong people with pure hearts are needed.  For they hold the truth of what is really important."

After learning that grave lesson, I have come home once more.  To California where things were seen much differently than they had earlier appeared.  The Ivy here clung to the trees and instead of being bored or frustrated with my surroundings, I reveled in the beauty that was earth.  I have changed, and have found what I'd needed to find about myself.  What became of that beautiful man with hazel eyes, I'm not sure of. However I know that wherever he may be, he is making a difference.  Changes happen around us much of the time, but it is all part of the cycle.  We live together, we change together, and we pass on together.  The insecurity and confusion that I once felt is now gone because of that revelation. We are children of the earth, and that's all that matters.