we heal with love

As far as Aly was concerned, Birdsong couldn’t come fast enough. She was tired of the snow, tired of the cold and the sleep that had settled on the earth.

She wanted the sun to warm the earth again and maybe her heart would thaw in the process as well.

Fortunately, the Edge being the type of land it was meant that not everything was grey and white and brown during Frostfall. There was still green, the soft needles of the firs and spruces that created this forest breaking up the dreary chill of the season. It wasn’t much but it gave her something to hold onto as she waited for that shift in the seasons - when she would wake up one morning and there would be something different about the wind, new smells surrounding her.

The emergence of the buds on the trees, the beginning of growth in the grasses. Small beginnings every year, but they never failed to bring a sense of rejuvenation to Alysanne as well.

And she sorely needed it now.

The sun had not yet fully risen, the forest around her murky in the pre-dawn, but she could not pretend to sleep any longer. It was avoiding her so she would avoid it (that made sense, right?). With a sigh she moved from the nest of long grass that was her bed and walked quietly through the trees. She was heading for the cliffs - not where Tembovu had called them all to a meeting (any memories with their King wasn’t likely to improve her mood) but where the neglected garden lay. Untouched since the invasion, since Resplendence had left and Alysanne had first learned what it was to feel empty and useless.

She lowered her head to brush the dormant plants, herbs and weeds alike, with her muzzle as Hemlock joined her - hooting a soft hello as he landed in the shallow snow nearby, his black eyes watching her carefully. Alysanne hadn’t come here often in the last year, wishing to avoid the memories that it held. But now she was avoiding the present and wishing she could crawl into the past when everything was warm and she was happy.  

As the sense of hopelessness grew in her (would it all be warm and happy again?) she snorted and blindly started to rip up the dried and dead plants, throwing them around and screaming at the ones who were too frozen, too rooted, to do as she wished.

alysanne & hemlock