Haunted Wood Brighter And Brighter

The young girl could appreciate the sentiment behind Skwol's first few words. He was not wrong, after all. The stars were one of the best parts of being enveloped in darkness. She had spent a great deal of time looking up at the night sky when she had been far from home. After her run-in with the humans, she had tried each night to count the number in the sky, but it seemed almost as though it had changed every night. Regardless, it was one of the few things that helped her through the night when she had been on her own. A small smile seemed to work its way onto her face as she looked to him, and the gentle tug of her tail was a light reminder that she was with good company.

“Fireflies... and the moon...”

Almost in an instant, the girl felt the smile slip from her face. Fireflies, she thought to herself with a creeping sadness that seemed to nestle itself right into the pit of her stomach. She thought back and recalled a time when she and Rannoch had chased fireflies through the wood. She remembered the light on his face and the sweet feeling of safety that she had when she had been around him. Lucy thought of Cypress and the piercing gold of his eyes – a sharp glint that did not match the warm drawl of his voice. She revisited memories of them and was wracked with grief. While Skwol darted to and fro, she cast him a halfhearted smile as they continued on through the dismal wood.