Jade Fern Grove I was wild, chasing stones.

His voice was so small at first and she nearly didn't hear him, but then he seemed to notice his shyness too, and made himself louder. The moon — Ibis' eyes went skyward and she tipped her head to look at it again, feeling somehow purer because of the light, thin as it was. The clouds soon obscured the moon entirely, the world going from a shining silver to a sad grey which she felt, powerfully, as she adjusted to focus again on the boy. He was a point of light which persisted in the gloom; pale and smooth, she drifted towards his diffused light.

Ibis did not want to converse with anyone right now, not really anyway, and she wasn't sure if company was the greatest asset in her current state; but it was better to be around someone friendly even if they were a stranger, at least better than sitting and dwelling in the moonlight over all the changes in her life. Her losses, her failures, the various paths she could take and no definitive answer for which path was the right path. So for now she'd bask in the company of the boy as long as he'd let her, even if she was preternaturally quiet.

She did try to break the stillness though; it was only fair.

It is a magical sight, she says. He'd already broken the ice with his floundering, and she would have been intrigued by him, charmed by him, if her mind wasn't already full to the brim with so many thoughts. Something trembled a ways deeper in to the forest and she turned her attention to it — maybe it was Okeanos blundering around in the dark — but nothing came of it, so she turned back to the stranger and smiled thinly, playing at the charade of contentedness.

Are you from around here? It sounded like a line, and she immediately felt flush with embarrassment for how awkward she felt, the corners of her lips curling as she lets out a giggle and looks away for a moment, feeling her cheeks warm.