Is there a path back?
Koala
01-08-2022, 07:57 PM
Riva buried herself in her work. Carefully cultivating the herbs in her greenhouse, slowly building back what had died in the long night. She pruned away the dead, to give room and energy for those still living to grow. Knowing, as she did so, that she could not do so for the living. She could not chase away the ghosts that plagued herself and what was left of her family.
She hadn’t left her den in days, and the little healer girl was skin and bones. Having wasted away in her sickness during the long night, and not found the wherewithal to care for herself now that it was over. Not that it was over, and her little girl was dead.
She likely would have remained in her den for days, a newly-turned recluse, afraid of the world beyond her doors. But the day had something different in store for her. The scent of Dante drifted past the open door. Impossible, tantalising, and heartbreaking. She gasped, dropping her pruning tools and looking to the door. Somehow, despise everything, almost expecting the face of her daughter to appear. Was it a side effect of her illness? She had not seen things since daylight appeared. Tentatively, she approached the door, breathing in deeply. The fading scent led away, and so she followed it. Chased it to the trees to the West of the lake, head to the ground she didn’t look up until something spiked at her senses. Head shooting upwards, she found a pair of glowing, ethereal eyes watching her from the trees. Just like the eyes at the start of the long night. Just like what had started this nightmare.
01-08-2022, 08:33 PM