The boy walked a few steps, taking a look at Aria.
His eyes widened a little before he restored his expression. The boy took off his coat and fling it in the ground. He said, "How did you find this place?"
Somehow, looking at his expression, Aria did not want to tell him the truth. She came up with a random excuse, "Umm..... actually, I just happened to stumble across the stream by chance."
The boy walked upto the stream as he took off his shirt too. He said, "Some luck you must have then. And look, you got me all wet."
Aria immediately defended herself, "It's your own fault for sneaking around like that."
The boy sat down and said, "Sneaking around? Huh. It's not everyday that a girl accuses me of sneaking around."
Aria did not know how to respond to this, so she kept quiet. Instead, she closely looked at the boy and found him to be quite handsome.
He had platinum blonde hair and deep, navy blue eyes. This told Aria that he should be immensely powerful. As Aria was looking at his face, the boy said, "It's rude to stare, you know."
Aria immediately realised that she was caught and her face turned red. She said, walking away, "I.....I should go."
The boy said nonchalantly, "It's a confusing forest. You won't be able to find your way back."
Aria: "I think I can. Thank you very much."
The boy stared deep into her eyes and said slowly, word for word, "Let me rephrase that. If you really did stumbled across this stream by chance, it will be next to impossible for you to find your way back."
Aria immediately understood what he was trying to imply. That there was no way she could find her way back if she really did come here by chance, and if she could find her way back, it was no chance.
Aria could very well find her way back. But then she would risk this boy finding out that she could sense spirits of elements.
As Aria was contemplating, the boy spoke again, "Anyway, I would love company. And I'm sure you would like to talk to someone who goes to the academy."
This made Aria decide. She went and sat down beside the boy and began combing her hair with her hands.
The boy laughed and said, "I'm Joseph Scott."
Aria's hands stopped for a second upon hearing the name before she continued fussing about her hair. "This name....." she thought as she gave a bow and said, "Aria."
The boy seemed to be a little taken aback as he said, "You don't know who I am?"
Aria gave him a puzzled look and asked, "Am I supposed to?"
The boy looked towards the stream and murmured, "Hmm interesting."
Aria chose to ignore this weird comment as she flipped back her hair and twirled her fingers and began to play with water.
Joseph said, "So, you are a water bendor."
Aria: "Of course. What else do you think I was going to do at the academy? Dance?"
Joseph stifled a laugh and said, "No. I have just never seen such a pretty bendor."