Phoenix Maplewood every tree a memory

dated for the 9th of March — @Sunny

he really ought not to have come here, but he couldn't resist. the borders were stale, the forest quiet. there were no sentries to greet him. no children playing near the old muddy pond. the snow was near-melted, the trees readying themselves for new life in spring. but as far as lupine life here, there was none. the maplewood might as well have been empty.

aditya strolled down paths more familiar to him than those within his soul. he took in sights he had expected never to see again. when he came across the border with the barren plains, he looked away, for all he saw there was the awful brightness of a young blaze. smelled the smoke again.

how long would it be, really, until he stumbled upon a ghost?

or, worse, a living, breathing figure from the past?

the moon was beginning to rise above the trees and the clouds; anything, it seemed, could be possible.