Lost Creek Hollow The moonlight's a path we can travel down

someone else who left and didn’t come back, her thoughts answered silently. ”she is like a sister to me. we lived in bearclaw valley together for a while before we came here.” before ashlar, before the hollow. before gannet. had things been easier then? simpler? mona no longer knew.
the world was beginning to close in upon the firebrand as the enormity of potentially losing gannet began to dawn on her. a sudden, swift anger dulled her eyes and she looked down at the rich loam of the earth beneath them. 
it would be better if he had simply told her he was leaving, given her no room to consider. perhaps in the ripping of a wound she could heal more cleanly in his absence, rather than have the pain of his departure prolonged.
it was with the frustrated sheen of tears in her eyes that mona lifted her gaze back to the man who had come to mean so much to ashlar, and so much more to her. ”i don’t want us to be the reason you wake up one morning and realize you lost the future you wanted.”