Blackfeather Woods home, home again

She was right. He knew it, but resisted all the same. It wasn't a life that he wanted; but the ghost would eventually come to haunt these woods from the darkness of beneath, a beast of the void as Sithis desired. Perhaps it was always meant to be. The night would come and he would lurk among the trees in safety, but in the daylight -- like some sort of cryptid - Mou would be lost among the caverns. He remembered the darkness of the tunnels that brought him here - the teeth laying in wait, the hot breath of his pursuer - but it only hardened him. He was prepared to do what he must, if it meant he could be with her.

—I love you, Maegi sighed.
I love you too, Mou replied; but he turned from her, and in silence he slipped deeper in to the dark.