“You’re a strange one, aren’t you?” the older girl said, a smile pulling at the corner of her lips.
Slowly, as if a curtain had fallen beyond the trees at their back, the falling snow obscured their retreat.
* * * *
The inside of the aged tree smelt rich and musty, a sense of nostalgia rising within her as she gently placed Jolly Roger down on the ground and silently prayed that he would behave himself.
It had been nothing special on the outside, one of many trees in a forest that bordered the lonely fields of combat she found herself in, yet inside was that scent, that warmth, her heart trembling as it had done in Christmases past.
Despite the familiarity of the scent of the old tree, however, there was little else to recommend her surroundings. In the corner of the room was a firepl
