Ravensblood Forest the seas did not forgive, and they did not welcome their wayward children home

“Why is she staring at me?” he snapped suddenly and threw his head to the left, talking to a figure that was no there. Of course, he saw Sandpiper beside him, and he believed she would give him whatever answers he might need. His sister remained silent, though, and peered back at the pale stranger with a lightless look in her eyes. Smokestep snarled, his lip curling over the rotted yellow of his teeth. He did not want to hear whatever answer his golden sibling would provide, anyway.
 
’What has happened to you?’
 
Sharply, the ghost turned his head back to the stranger and latched his sights on her soft features. She had backed away from him a step or two. Smokestep did not like this and shuddered as he took several steps closer to her. Did she know him? What right did she have to ask him such things? When she never knew him before… never knew what he used to be.
 
“She’s claimed me soul… the beast of the trench,” his raspy voice replied to her, but it seemed then that his gaze was staring beyond her – into the forest.