I had always believed the forest was enough. The roots knew my footsteps. The moss remembered my weight. Every tree had whispered my name at least once in the centuries I had walked beneath them. Why would I ever want anything else? Humans came and went like the weather. They were loud and brief creatures, bright sparks that burned and vanished before the leaves had time to fall twice. We watched them the way owls watch fireflies with curiosity and distance. That was how it

The field always felt different after midnight. During the day, it belonged to shepherds, wandering horses, and the slow music of wind through tall grass. But when the moon climbed high, and the earth turned silver, the land seemed to remember an older language. Sylvan had begun visiting the field without knowing why. Perhaps it was restlessness. Perhaps it was instinct. Or perhaps something in the night had begun calling his name. The young man arrived just as the moon reac

At the far edge of afternoon, when the sky had begun to turn the color of pressed violets, a young woman arrived at a fork in the road. Her name was Elinora Vale. She had walked since morning past hedgerows still breathing with winter, past fields where the grass bent like quiet applause in the wind. The hem of her pale blue walking dress carried dust from the road, and her bonnet ribbon had come loose, trailing softly at her shoulder. Two roads waited before her. One curved