last lovely smile

Deluge tried to ignore the small brown burr that was stuck to her heels. How he’d managed to slip out with her without the grown ups catching wind she would never know. After catching scent of her mother near the alter down south she had raced home as quickly as she could. With little more than a knowing look, her mother, for once, had left well enough alone. The girl could hardly believe it.

But things were changing and her restless heart wouldn’t let her stay confined to the beach and the cavern for long, so under the cover of dawn, when her glow was the least conspicuous in the growing light, she had slipped out of the cavern and across the western border. There were bound to be other strange things happening, right? Most of the land looked like it should, but subtle changes kicked in at what she could only assume was the edge of the statues influence. There was a chill in the air that bit at the tip of her nose and everything seemed… well a little muted, a touch brown around the edges. That was probably why it took her so long to realise she had company.