The Heartwood the stone remembers

I realized too late that I sent you a redundant tag, lol.

The stranger looked her way, their eyes meeting through the tangles of new growth. Towhee blinked when the woman’s lips formed her name, her ears tilting backward. They slicked fully to her head as the stranger rushed toward her, her turquoise eyes dancing in the twilight while Towhee’s only scrunched.

She tried to place her, though even when two words she hadn’t spoken in years—“Asterism Grove”—emerged from the woman’s lips, Towhee drew a blank. Her lips parted, orange eyes scanning back and forth across those pale features, and she could’ve sworn she’d never met this lady in her life. Was she going senile?

I haven’t even thought of that place in… literally years, Towhee breathed, her lips twisting as she remembered what had brought about its end. You’ll have to forgive me, as a lot of rocks fell on me back then. One must’ve knocked you right out of my head because… She paused, giving Aneira one more long, searching look. I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.