40
Indeed, the girl was as beautiful as it was told but the rest… It was a legend nothing more. The girl herself wasn't sure of why the forest became home to her. At first it was a hideaway from everything what hurt her. As the time passed she found herself more and more attached to the place. And one day she never came back from her hideaway. As unusual as it sounds, no one missed her. It never came to her mind that someone could. Surrounded by thousands of trees, a flowing river, wild animals who became her family and friends, wind and even sometimes rain she didn't need anything else.
An earthquake arose in the middle of Africa. No, it wasn’t the strongest tectonic occurrence in history - it was the strangest one. There was no real harm done, but the gap that split the dry earth appeared to be seamlessly cut out from the dirt.
During this occurrence the girl was playing with little stone. She would throw a pebble as high in the air as she could and would watch it fall back down, fascinated by the force it hit the gravel, and the perfect shape it left in it. As the eighth pebble fell, she smiled, remembering that she had played that game centuries before...