Broken Antler Fen there's no place like home

Skwol returned her remark on monsters in the form of a question and she winced at what followed. She liked to imagine that she was not quite as fragile as she was. Lucy daydreamed of being stronger than her past and sharper than the memories that terrorized her, but she knew that they were just as much a part of her as the ink in her cloak. The ghoul only wished that she knew how to overcome them. She had thought by leaving – but that had only ended in a fresh, new terror. For a fraction of a second, she wished she could tell Skwol. She wished that she could unburden herself of all the chaos that had ruled her young life and share it with the stalwart ghost; but she wouldn't.

It didn't take him long to retract the inquiry. A creeping smile moved the corners of her lips and she looked up at him with a studying expression. She almost did not want to respond, but she believed that she owed him at least that much. He was, after all, the only peace of mind that had found her in several long months.

“Yes... I have,” she breathed quietly. The fur along her neck pricked and she shuddered softly to lower the goosebumps that had formed on the pink of her flesh. “But some have been through more,” she added after a moment. Lucy had tried using this to ground herself for weeks, telling herself that it could always be worse. It worked well enough.

Realizing that she was getting lost in her own thoughts, the ghoul turned back to Skwol and offered a ghostly little smile. “Where are you staying? In the fen here?”