3. The Shrouded Village
The Shrouded Village
Word had spread quickly about the day before.
“Lucky for this one, our Noec has no respect for our rules,” the old man, called Old Zet, had scolded Noec.
He had lived in the village longer than anyone, and he seemed to be the reluctant owner of the only store in town.
Flora’s eyes twinkled as she saw a tiny kitten perched on the man’s shoulder.
“No one lasts a long time alone out there, especially not this little one,” he said, patting Flora’s head teasingly. “How small she is.”
“Marco!” he groaned as the black and white ball of fur and claws leapt onto Flora’s head. The cat settled comfortably and began to knead his paws. Zet sighed. “He can be a bit overly adventurous as well.”
Noec giggled, and there was never a more infectious sound.
Today, at least, Flora was in no rush to wake up.
Most villagers refused to set foot in Night Sky Forest. Few cared to try, deterred by stories of dark creatures and woodland sirens. Though, Noec assured her, no one here had gone missing since the husband of the red-haired woman a few years back.
Noec knocked a fist excitedly on the door of one of the smaller, older looking homes. After a few seconds, it flung open.
“Hey, Noec!” a boy Flora’s age greeted them. He had dark curly hair and deep brown eyes. His bold grin was, much like Sona’s, accented by a charming assortment of freckles. “Who’s this?” He gestured toward Flora with a glowing smile. “Don’t tell me..."
Noec nodded with a grin. “Her name is Florabelle,” he said.
“The disappearing girl!” the freckled boy exclaimed, giddy. “She reappeared?”
“So it seems,” Heron replied. “Are your parents home?”
“No. They went to take care of the goats. I think one got out, and now they all suddenly have places to be.”
“You have goats?” Flora beamed.
“Yeah,” the boy said proudly. “I’m Perri. I have a sister, but she’s uh... in there.” He pointed to Sona’s hut, wearing the same bold, brilliantly youthful grin as the cleric inside. Perri added, “She can tell you all sorts of things you never wanna know.”
Past Sona’s hut and up the hill was the sullen shadow of Night Sky Forest. It was like a black hole, a void that swallowed the daylight. There—that was the threshold, the place where dream became nightmare.
“Hey, wanna be friends?” Perri asked. His stark friendliness was a comfort, a warmth enough to shake her from her fearful stupor.
“Uh…” Flora uttered, surprised, though a slow smile met her eyes. “Okay!”
“Hello everyone,” chimed a regal and familiar voice. They turned to see Aonia skipping along the path from the city. She wore a new, elegant and starkly out-of-place dress.
“Hi, Nia,” the boys said in unison.
Flora added, a little late, “Hi.”
“Oh hello, young girl who I have never met,” the girl said, bowing to Flora. “My name is Aonia, daughter of?—”
“He knows, Nia,” Noec said shamefully. “Sorry.”
Aonia froze as she slowly looked up at Heron, laughing nervously.
He bent over steeply and whispered, “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” He straightened himself and added, “This time. And I guarantee Noec won’t dare cause you trouble again.”
Aonia and Noec exchanged a glance and nodded obediently.
“Now, why don’t you kids go enjoy the daylight.” Heron paused, adding, “Nearby, ideally.”
“I found this one on the way here!” Nia showed off a new pretty rock she had found along the road, leading the group to the edge of the rocky stream, just beside the bridge at the center of the village.
“I bet I could make that one skip more than three times in a row,” Noec goaded eagerly.
“You stay away from my baby,” Aonia hissed. “Or I’ll have you court martialed.”
Aonia paused, her eyes glittering at the sight of another pretty rock. Across the way, Marco was batting lazily at a shiny white stone. “It’s beautiful,” Aonia whispered.
“OH NO! A SCYTHE!”
“Perri,” Aonia said, covering the ear closest to him. “You can’t just scream that.”
But Perri’s intensity was unbroken, and he was pointing across the water at Marco with a stick. “It’s him,” he said darkly. On the other side of the narrow stream, the kitten sprawled, unbothered. “The great flightless scythe. The very monster who ate my son.”
Aonia chided, “Too dark, Perri.”
“The very monster who is my son.”
Aonia sighed. “I—sure.”
Perri tugged Aonia down to his eye level. “And now,” he began, “he’s stolen my family jewels.” He looked back out at Marco slowly, his eyes narrowing upon the sparkly white stone. “Including… THE WELLSTONE!”
Aonia covered her mouth and gasped. Flora giggled.
Marco dashed between them, a black-and-white blur of paws and whiskers.
At some point, he managed to get his paw soaked while swatting at a floating leaf, hissing angrily as though the whole thing had been someone else's fault.
The children laughed and cheered him on, their voices mingling with the hum of the stream.
The day stretched out before them in a golden haze, each moment sewn unknowingly into Flora’s heart like a patchwork memory of dappled light, laughter, and the steady rush of water.
Flora breathed the sunlit air of summer, a stark contrast to the gray skies and endless winter back home.
It had been months since she had seen so much green and felt so much warmth.
Her eyes were wide with the wonder of every wriggling fish and waving blade of grass.
As evening came, the children gathered by the stream with grass stains climbing up their knees and cheeks flush with afternoon warmth.
Aonia sifted through the creek bed for more stones to add to her collection, while Perri was either chasing frogs or fabricating the plot to their next adventure.
As Perri sang Marco’s theme song, Noec dipped his toes in the water, quietly gazing up at ice cream-clouds as they swirled into familiar shapes.
He smiled at whatever he saw, and though she didn’t know what he was seeing, Flora found herself smiling, too.
Flora cradled wildflowers in her hands, arranging them into tiny bouquets. There were purples and pinks and whites, but her favorites were yellow with freckles of pink. She kept those aside.
“You like flowers,” Noec observed once he had joined her, tying a baby bouquet together with a blade of grass. She nodded. He reached for the small pile of three or four yellow flowers, and she smacked his hand.
“Those ones are for someone special,” she scolded. “And I’m gonna run out.”
He blinked. After a moment, he stood up and walked away.
Flora stared at the tiny yellow flowers. She felt mean, guilty for having scared him off.
Aonia knelt down at Flora’s side. “Is there one for me?” she asked, pointing at the little bouquets.
“Yeah,” Flora grinned, then handed Aonia a bundle of purples and pinks. “You get the prettiest one. ‘Cause you’re pretty.”
Aonia beamed, admiring the bouquet with wide eyes before tucking it behind her ear. “Thank you!”
Soon, Aonia settled back into her flow state of sifting through rocks and throwing things at Perri when he wasn’t looking. Still, Perri never stopped bubbling with laughter, hopping from one stone to the next, and his bold voice was a bright echo in the quiet of the countryside.
“Hey, Nia,” Flora began after a moment, wrapping another bouquet. “What were those spooky flowers in the forest?”
“Dead people,” Perri replied brightly.
Flora shuddered. “Dead… people?”
“Night lilies,” Aonia corrected, putting a hand on her hip. “They’re called night lilies. People like Sona believe that Night Sky Forest is a graveyard of the spirit, and that the night lilies hold the waiting souls of the dead.”
“Is that true?” Flora asked.
“Probably not,” Aonia replied with a shrug, and Perri looked back sharply with a brow raised. “I mean, who knows?”
After a few minutes, Noec finally returned. His knees thumped to the ground across from Flora.
“These are the ones, right?” he said, with bunches of little yellow wildflowers falling out of his hands.
Flora’s jaw dropped as he carefully corralled them into a huge pile next to her tiny collection. With a restrained squeal, she beamed, “You're amazing!”
He chuckled, still smiling as she eagerly wrapped and tied together the stems. “Who’s it for?” he asked.
She smiled but didn’t say.
Aonia announced that it was time for her to head out, and the boys both booed in response.
“Oh, calm down. I’ll be able to visit again tomorrow.”
“Yes!” Perri cheered.
Aonia crouched down next to Flora, holding the flowers so they wouldn’t fall from her hair. “Here,” she said. She placed the white stone they had rescued from Marco into Flora’s hands. “It’s a memory.”
Flora smiled down at the smooth river rock, and soon, they waved goodbye as Aonia departed back home to the city. As Aonia disappeared through the northern gate, Flora felt a creeping dread that she didn’t quite understand.
Maybe she would have the same dream tomorrow. Maybe this episode would pick up right where it left off. But maybe… maybe she would wake up, and her only friends would never have existed outside her dreams.
Noec met her worried eyes from his perch by the water and tilted his head. He offered a timid smile.
“Gifts—from my wife and I.” The children looked to see Heron leaning against the bridge railing. He set down a basket of sandwiches and fruit on the creaking steps of the bridge. “My lady needs her rest today, so I told her I’d feed you monsters.”
Heron chuckled as the children ravaged the basket. Flora tapped at his arm and, shyly, she offered him a tiny bouquet of yellow wildflowers.
Though trepidation still lingered behind his eyes, he couldn’t help but smile. “Oh,” he said. “Thank you very much, little one.”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“So, like, you just live in the village now?” Perri asked Flora from his spot on the ground. Flora shrugged.
Noec looked up from his sandwich, jam leaking down his chin towards the grass. “Heron says she’ll get stuck if she doesn’t go back to the water before midnight.”
“Aww.”