4/4/2025, 10:38 PM
She knew the tone before the words even came. That lashing, fast-spoken snap. Sharp like teeth. It didn’t make her flinch—not visibly. But her breath tightened in her chest, held just a little longer than it should’ve been.
How would you know ...?
She didn’t answer.
Not because she was defiant. Because she truly didn’t have an answer. She hadn’t meant anything by it; it was just a thought, a string of words that slipped through when her mouth forgot to stay shut.
He stood, all shadow and size and warning. The cold rolled in the space where his warmth had been, but it wasn’t relief. Just a different kind of dread.
Let’s go ...
Her ears pinned.
There was no pause, no weighing of the choice. Lithe rose to her feet the way she always did when ordered—quiet, immediate, head low. She stepped toward the trees without a word, paws pressing shallow prints into the wind-packed snow. The scent thickened as she walked: sweet, strange, like something left out too long in the sun.
It wasn’t a good smell. It was wrong. But she didn’t say that. She didn’t look back, either.
As she neared the path, the grass beneath her paws grew soft, damp with dew that had no business being there. The trees loomed taller now, more vibrant, their petals shifting like breath. They weren’t dead. They weren’t sleeping. And for a brief moment, she thought maybe they weren’t waiting for anyone at all.
How would you know ...?
She didn’t answer.
Not because she was defiant. Because she truly didn’t have an answer. She hadn’t meant anything by it; it was just a thought, a string of words that slipped through when her mouth forgot to stay shut.
He stood, all shadow and size and warning. The cold rolled in the space where his warmth had been, but it wasn’t relief. Just a different kind of dread.
Let’s go ...
Her ears pinned.
There was no pause, no weighing of the choice. Lithe rose to her feet the way she always did when ordered—quiet, immediate, head low. She stepped toward the trees without a word, paws pressing shallow prints into the wind-packed snow. The scent thickened as she walked: sweet, strange, like something left out too long in the sun.
It wasn’t a good smell. It was wrong. But she didn’t say that. She didn’t look back, either.
As she neared the path, the grass beneath her paws grew soft, damp with dew that had no business being there. The trees loomed taller now, more vibrant, their petals shifting like breath. They weren’t dead. They weren’t sleeping. And for a brief moment, she thought maybe they weren’t waiting for anyone at all.
![[Image: 3-by-nopeita-di8epxv.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/PfbwRdVq/3-by-nopeita-di8epxv.png)
