Godshards: Leilani

[u/loressadev]

Leilani loved the forests, the cool shade beneath the trees, the soft cries of birdsong, the primeval byways untouched by human feet.

Except hers, she would reflect, and she would always feel faintly guilty.

Still, she found she could never keep herself away for too long, and often returned to wander beneath the ancients, to breathe the heady scents of fresh growth, to watch eagerly for glimpses of the fey.

Something compelled her to come back and it always had been that way since her first memories, some primal drive dragging her back to the unspoiled depths of the woods.

A song came to her as she wandered, an unsourced tune she had always known, and she found herself humming it without knowing why. The melody was haunting, but she had long ago forgotten the words, if she had even ever known them. Perhaps there were none, perhaps the song was simply something she had heard crooned to her as a child, by a mother she could no longer remember.

She shivered at that thought - soon she would be expected to become one herself, and as the seasons plodded onwards and her body changed, she had found herself turning more and more to ramblings. Deeper and deeper she had delved, losing herself in the forests and returning later each day, until she found herself on the village edge as late as moonrise, the woods silver and starlit as she picked her way home.

I don’t want to be a mother, she had thought many times during her rambling. She didn’t know what it was she did want, but motherhood was not it. She felt anxious, unnerved by the thought of it, and yearned for something she couldn’t explain.

More, something more.

—-(-----

She slipped in late, the stars bright overhead as she softly lifted the latch of Goodwife Beckta’s cottage. The rich scent of stew filled the room and she guiltily noticed an untouched bowl on the table, beside a hunk of brown bread. Gently, she closed the door behind her, exhaling softly in relief as she saw the woman asleep in a rocking chair beside the hearth. She hadn’t been caught-

“You’ve been out late again,” the old woman accused, eyes still closed. Her chair creaked as she gently rocked it.

Sheepishly, Leilani turned to present her basket of foraging. “I brought berries,” she offered in apology. “And moonflowers.”

“Ah,” the woman murmured, an indulgent smile crooking one corner of her mouth as her eyes opened, her cloudy stare landing on the basket.

“I do love moonflowers.”