Hushed Willows Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism?

@Breakitt <3

As time went on, Mae required less and less care; the girl had taken to bringing small meals to Reverie, and she suspected that this was meant to be a way of thanking her. She had yet to hear it aloud, but she didn't mind. Reverie had started to give gifts of her own in return; the sorts of flowers and pretty shells she also brought to her daughter when she found them.

On this particular morning, Reverie was out by the eastern border, marking the outskirts where the scents of their claim were weakest. She kept an eye out for any lingering autumn flowers. Her healing leg still hindered her, and so her progress was slow but steady. The early sun cast a cool light over the willows, tempering the brilliant colors cast by the forest as it prepared itself for winter. Soon the vibrancy would fade into grey and white.

Soon, though she could not know the exact day, the day of her birth would pass. She would be two years old, she was fairly certain. Odd, to think that there had been a time when she'd been so certain she would not survive to adulthood. Now she was a wife, a mother — and the proud owner of a bunch of pretty trees, apparently!