Emberwood I got years of livin' by and how I choose

✹☾❂

 

He was never far behind her, including now — always keeping her at arm’s length. Eleuthera was nothing if not a flirt and a tease, but if she was being honest, it was an entirely new thing for her. Her entire life was spent with her brother, which allowed for few (if at all) romantic relationships in her life. Séamus had been her sun, and he totally eclipsed anything else the road had to offer her. Almost everything in her life was always changing, but he had always been the same.

Now, Séamus was gone and Eleuthera was figuring out what it meant to be only half of her normal whole. and honestly? It wasn’t all bad. Eleuthera had spent the better part of half a year mourning her parents, and several months mourning her brother. There had been so much death, so quickly. Now she was back amongst her willows, vowing to protect it with her life. It was getting to the part of her story where she wasn’t only sad — no, she was even beginning to enjoy herself.

Eleuthera resumed her slow, languid pace. Gently, with a bump of a lilac should, she steered themselves slightly to the right and up a rocky path, worn down from use over time but wild with green overgrowth from the summer rains. “Well," she answered, racking her brain momentarily, but the answer came a second later. “You must come see my home, the willows, one day." Eleuthera turned to look up at him, for she was a tiny thing, and even thought Kincaid was no giant, he certainly towered over her.

She turned her eyes back to the path in front of them, placing her feet carefully. Now, they were beginning to climb. “There’s nothing like it in the world. It’s very unique, and dazzlingly beautiful. It was good to me, when I was young." She licked her lips, ears flicking backwards. Eleuthera hadn’t been home in several days and — you know, that made her feel a little guilty.

She fanned her tail behind her fondly, despite herself. “Do you have a favorite place?" she asked — not of these wilds to the north, east, west and south; but the lands beyond. What had he seen out there, traveling for many years more than she?