Noctisardor Bypass in your lenses, digging your trenches

it was time to go.

for a long time ava stood at the rendezvous and listened to the shrieks and cackles within. the children settled well into sequoia’s site; life was gradually adjusting. 

everyone was well fed. there were no crises to address anymore. much as dust was apt to do, things in rivenwood were settling into place.  

ava became increasingly aware the space here did not include her. it was not the fault of her loving mama, or druid or fiona. by all accounts they were lovely people, and did what they could with the life they’d been given. 

but that space was thinning, with ava alongside it. 

a drumbeat pulsed the edges of her temple. how could this be all that was left of her beautiful, bountiful family?

john did not return. dinah did not return. the lives at heda’s breast grew bigger, while the memories of her siblings and father diminished. time was fracturing them. 

time was disintegrating them piece by piece. 

@Heda was asleep when ava slipped past the hollow. under a thinning moon, ava left a small hare for the mother who now faced losing yet another child. 

i’m sorry, mama, ava thought through the wisps of a storming headache. 

she nosed @Anathema awake. 

it is time to go.