Emberwood fairytale revisionist

@Kukulkan - if/when you have time.

It had warmed up a little bit in the past few days, with the snow turning to slush and then to icy rain. The sky looked as if it had been bruised; it was streaked with cobalt and blushing purple-grey. The ground was layered in soft new powder, although none of this touched upon her little body. Ibis had been carefully placed beneath some aspen trees, her body protected by roots, and when the world chilled again and the snowfall began anew, someone had opted to dig out a small den for her; that was where she sat now, warm and safe and guarded by her beloved druids.

Sometimes they left gifts for her, or prayers. Someone had tucked a fresh animal skin against the earthen floor of the den. Bundles of flowers lined the entry and some were frozen, others a touch withered since their picking. The smells were rich despite the season and filled the den with a floral aroma - perhaps this permeated her sleep, perhaps not. The point was that Ibis was cared for and loved despite her sleep. Despite all of these offerings her body had begun to slim down - she had been asleep too long without food - so that the tiny bird of a girl appeared to become further diminished. This, no doubt, would worry her little self-made family.

Perhaps it was the flowers - perhaps it was the dire situation of her body, this tiny vessel being eaten away by time. Whatever the reason, the girl was drawn from her sleep gradually. On the first day there was no change in her except the increase in her heart rate and breathing; the next day, a twitch - but nobody was visiting then, and so it went without notice. It wasn't until twilight of the following night that Ibis woke with a start; her eyes flying open, crystalline blue but fogged by confusion and hampered further by a pounding ache to her head, neck, and eyes. The hunger was so strong within her belly that she felt nothing, having surpassed beyond it.

As she stared out of her hovel of dirt (her potential grave) she stared at the dark shapes of the trees, the reaching branches that crowned her periphery, and saw the glimmering of stars beginning to surface.