Jade Fern Grove i follow waves of the ocean of my womb

witch's heart hammered in her chest as she followed the river around silencepine, further and further until she could suddenly say she was no longer within the borders of rivenwood. she had every intention of returning, but worripa's disappearance had made the child curious— and her conversation with druid some nights before, even curioser! their home was magickal, but was every other place in the world like it?

she knew that mother likely would have come with, had only she asked, but witch wanted this for herself. druid had bracelet. heda had her new name. worripa would return someday with tales of distant lands... but what did witch have?

the child looked in wonder at the ferns before her, some beginning to die away in the late-summer heat. the thin trees barely offered shade, a much different forest than she was used to within rivenwood. but there was no thrumming of the earth, here, and the cricketsong was unfamiliar. and beyond... there was so much of the world she could not see from behind the rocky walls that protected rivenwood.

she sat, suddenly, changing eyes hungrily looking towards the distant lands, committing their beauty to memory, inventing stories of what must go on out there.