The Heartwood the stone remembers

tag is for ref but would love to have them meet once more <3

The sun hung low in the sky, its light caught in the branches like gold in cobwebs, warming the frost-bitten bones of the forest. Afternoon leaned toward evening, though the hush in the trees made time feel stilled, as if the woods themselves were listening. Aneira moved like a shadow cast in silver, her steps soft over the roots and loam that blanketed the ground. She had wandered from the heart of Fornesjka’s claim, not out of restlessness, but something quieter, thoughtful. A need to walk beside her own memories for a while.
The scents here were foreign still, but not unwelcome. Her breath curled in the air as she came to a slow halt by an outcrop of moss-strewn stone. A vantage point, if nothing else. She stood there, turquoise eyes sweeping the horizon, though she wasn’t truly looking at what lay ahead. She was thinking of what lay behind: Asterism Grove.
The name was a whisper in her chest, like snow falling on old stones. Had it fallen, too? Scattered like so many others? Or had it endured without her—stronger, perhaps, for her absence? Her mind turned to familiar faces: @Towhee, Ruenna, Pippin. Their presence had once been steady beneath her paws, as certain as the stars they had looked to for meaning. But stars could vanish too, burn out, or drift from view.
The forstmaiden sat down slowly, letting the silence settle around her like a mantle. Her path had taken her elsewhere, to new stones, new names, new ghosts: Fornesjka, Solharr’s claim. It had not asked for the weight of her past, only the truth of her presence. But today, just for a little while, she let herself look back.