Ravensblood Forest The last wish.

she was not usually the rebellious one; that description belonged to at least one of her littermates. but the nights away from the isle she had grown up on were filled with menacing shadows. vesper had never known fear at wheeling gull, and perhaps might have fended the experience for much longer had their goodbye not been so somber. no one had explained to her the reasons, and she had not dared to ask— mother and father had seemed so distressed already.

vesper didn't think about how distressed they would be to find her missing, at least not when she first set off.

it was about when she got herself turned around in an endless forest that she realized they might fear that the menacing shadows might have laid their teeth against her as if she were prey. guilt flooded the child, and with the same self-confidence that had led to this little adventure returned to tell her that she must return to her parents. panic came next, after she realized she couldn't make heads or tail of the forest and that tracking her own scent was a fruitless endeavor; it merely led her in circles, when she was able to discern her scent on the trail over, well, the scent on the body she inhabited.

eventually, miserable and exhausted, she wedged her tiny body in the safety between a tree's roots and slept. her dreams, which had always been content, had turned sour— filled with the same shadows as the land did, leaving her feeling exposed and hunted. she ran, feet twitching in the waking world, but did not jolt awake. a testament to her exhaustion.

"vesper." father's voice cut through her nightmares some time later, and the child opened bleary eyes. she felt no more rested than she had before, but she could hear mou continue to speak. not realizing he was searching for her or that she should call for him, vesper did her best to make her way to him instead, tripping through the brush towards his voice. it was only when she found herself stuck in a tangle of vines and roots that she loosed several panicked yelps.