Broken Antler Fen Cause your whole heart's a village

I do this to myself! Story time :D this has been in drafts forever, oops

A romance!!  Okay then,  Maia replied, her smile growing as she thought about which story to tell.  Her mind went to a story she'd mentioned telling Weejay a long time ago, but instead, she knew the perfect characters.  One of them she'd loved a long time and had told stories about before... the other hadn't gotten a story yet, which was honestly just ridiculous.

Once upon a time there was a traveling bard.  Her name was Starchaser and she was known, far and wide, for the stories she told!  She was welcome almost anywhere and could trade news, or a performance, for a meal.  She figured her life had to be pretty much perfect, but for some reason, something was missing. 

One day, she was traveling through a really thick forest.  The branches blocked nearly all of the sun, making it feel like dusk, even though the sun was high in the sky.  Maia let her voice get a little lower, a hint that something was coming.  Starchaser had traveled a lot of places on her own, but she still began to feel nervous.  Something about that forest felt so quiet.  There weren't even birds singing in the trees.

She hated the silence more than she was afraid, so she began to sing to make herself feel braver. It worked and, as she sang, she spotted a shadow that seemed to be following her. It wasn't getting closer, and it didn't feel like it was a threat. When she turned to see it, it would hide. But as she began to sing again, it drew closer.

'Do you like the song?' She didn't expect a reply. But a few moments later, a voice did answer.

'How does it end?'

Maia paused here, both for effect and to subtly gauge Hymnal's interest in the story. This was entirely new, a story she was crafting on the spot, and those were always both the most fun and the most difficult. This was the point where she would need to begin to bring it around. Who was this mysterious shadow and how did this unfold into a romance? She had a vague idea, a thread that she could build upon.