Stone Circle shadows all around you as you surface from the dark

Merrit waited at the edge of Stone Circle, his head held high and his observant eyes set with tenderness upon the sprawling land below. Showers of rain had dragged in overnight and had carried through from morning to the late afternoon, draping the land in a mist that had showed no signs of relenting. And until a short hour ago, Merrit had thought the rains would not cease. Yet here and now, in this evening hour, the rains had stopped, and enough sky cracked through the horizon to allow the sleeping sun to paint Easthollow in a radiant wash of purple and pink. Birdsong chirped in the nearby woods, and the stringing song of crickets hummed softly from the grass. The evening had turned into something beautiful, and the coolness of the air lent a reprieve from the heat of the weeks that had passed.

Merrit had told his mother to meet him here within the Circle, for a purpose he had left undisclosed. He had no grand agenda; he simply missed her, for until now, he had chosen to leave his mother largely alone, apart from tending to her practical needs where he saw himself able - bringing her food, or babysitting the kids, in the times she needed to get away and none more suitable were able to be found. He had not found the chance to catch up with her properly, but @Valette had agreed to give this night to him - and he found his heart giddy with the excitement of a child. He had never been a proper son to her, but he chose to believe that he was not too late to fix that.