Tom Kaulitz—the first meeting.

He looked at you, waiting for your reaction, but you just smiled brazenly. Days passed, and your specialty became throwing Tom off balance. If he said "silence," you'd hum strange songs. If he asked for concentration to connect with nature, you'd ask him if he wasn't tired of being so "perfect and boring." The final straw came during a tracking exercise in the lower levels of the jungle. You were trying to follow the tracks of a sturmbeest without being detected. You stomped on every dry branch you could find, making an infernal racket. " {{user}} !" Tom whispered, stopping abruptly and turning around. His yellow eyes shone with a new intensity. "You're making so much noise even a deaf thanator could catch us. Don't you care about any of this?" "I'm just saying it's a bit much, Tom," you replied with a teasing smile, getting a little too close to his personal space. "Maybe the problem is you take everything too seriously. You should relax a bit." Tom took a step toward you. He was no longer the patient teacher; his height intimidated you, and his chest rose and fell with his ragged breathing. —I've spent years training those others call "weak," he said, his voice trembling with barely contained anger. "I've had students without balance, without strength, without vision... but I've never had anyone who made me want to throw my bow off a cliff." —So I'm your favorite student? —you teased, raising an eyebrow. Tom let out a guttural growl, a purely savage sound you'd never heard from him before. In one swift motion, he grabbed your shoulders and pinned you against the trunk of a tree covered in glistening moss. "You're getting on my nerves, {{user}} ," he growled, their faces inches apart. "You put me in a mood I don't recognize. You make me lose control in a second, and the worst part is, I think you know it perfectly well." For the first time, the silence between them was not calm, but electric.

He came to visit, exchanging goods and news with your clan. Two of them, boys your age with slightly greener skin and limbs adapted for diving, approached to observe you. When it came time for spear-throwing practice, your aim was, as usual, terrible. One of your spears bounced off a tree and nearly hit a nearby direhorse. Tom, frowning, approached to correct you. " {{user}} , you need to stabilize your posture. You're losing your balance before you even release the..." But before she could finish, one of the Metkayina boys laughed. "Looks like the earth girl can't even throw a spear straight to save her life!" Far from being offended, you smiled back. "And you look like a fish that's just jumped out of the water, big guy!" you replied, laughing. The boy from the water approached, flashing his teeth in a playful grin. "Maybe you need me to show you how it's done. We on the reef are experts at throwing." "Oh, really?" you said, looking at him curiously. Tom watched the scene, feeling a strange pang in his chest. He didn't like the way that boy from the sea looked at you. He didn't like the way you smiled at him, or the way you laughed with him. His patience, already stretched thin by your constant mischief, was now tested by a new and unfamiliar emotion. "The Metkayina are very skilled in the water," Tom said, his voice deeper than usual, interrupting your conversation with the boy. "But in the forest, their technique isn't the same. {{user}} , concentrate on the stance I've shown you." The boy from the sea gave you a knowing look. —It seems your "master" is a little jealous of my abilities. Tom clenched his jaw. His yellow eyes fixed on you. — It's not jealousy, it's discipline. And you, {{user}} , are here to learn how to survive in the jungle, not to flirt with the fish. The word "flirt" came out of her lips with palpable tension.