:)
Hello, I’m back again.
Where do I even begin?
She gave me a big scare.
I could feel her breath against my neck, shallow and uneven, as I trudged through the tangled mess of swamp brush.
Every step sank into the muck, the weight of Alaena pressing down on me, but I didn’t dare stop. Not here. Not now
What she didn’t know was I too was on a journey, Mahina had told me about this, but not in great detail.
My encounter with Mahina is a story for another time.
Her arms were limp around my shoulders, but every so often, she’d stir, mumbling things I couldn’t quite make out initially.
Sometimes my name. Sometimes nothing but slurred whispers. Each time, I’d tense, afraid that this was it—that she’d slip too far and wouldn’t come back.
“Stay with me, Alaena,”
I whispered, my voice
