Firefly Glen these broken walls

gone.

gone. gone. gone?

she wondered if that was the great fate of everything in the end. a father she did not know, gone. a homeland that had not been such, gone. now a brother, gone.

their camp would be gone too.

friendships she made would be gone.

it was a terrible lesson to have to be handed with so young. someday she might look back and say better now than later. someday she might question if she ever needed to learn it.

---

after consoling, after holding, came her mother's voice again. a declaration of leaving behind everything. what if she started to wonder. what if he was not gone, but lost. what if this was the last place he remembered and when he returned, none were here.

what would he think then? that they had not loved him enough?

maybe if she had loved a bit harder, he would not have been gone without a trace in the first place.

i — she croaked and her ears swept. uncertain. scared of change and what it meant.

where?