Damien
the woods have remembered you
Damien trudged in the mule’s wake, boots crunching through the pale crust of snow that hadn’t yet been chewed down to mud. He shifted the weight of the bundle already tied and slung at his shoulder, the scrape of rough bark against his coat a steady reminder of the day’s labor. The Hollowed Grounds had always felt strange underfoot—softer, almost tame, as though the earth here had been broken in by too many feet over too many centuries. Not the raw bite of Halo, where even breathing sometimes felt like wrestling the tundra into letting you live.Aria padded close by, pale fur puffed against the cold, her fuzzy paws sinking deep where the snow softened. Every so often she'd try to initiate a game of cat-and-mouse with Goose. But, if the dog paid her no mind, she'd turn her frustration on the snow itself, scattering powder into the air with feline determination.
Damien glanced up at Iskra’s call, catching the man’s grin, and allowed himself the faintest huff of amusement. “You’re right about that. No frost biting your ears 'n fingers off—” he shook his head, a quiet appreciation in his tone “—that’s a gift in itself.” He bent, hands sure and steady, as he gathered another armful of split logs to add to their growing stock. The wood smelled sharp and clean, sap still weeping from the fresh cut, and he lashed the bundle together with a practiced twist of cord.
His eyes drifted past the mule, out to where the brambles knotted thick along the tree line. Luxere moved there, distant but glowing, their pale light threading through the dark like embers. Damien’s gaze lingered, a quiet habit born of a hunter’s caution and curiosity alike, before returning to the work at hand.
“How many of these bundles you figure we’re making?” he asked finally, straightening, snow dusting from his gloves. His tone wasn’t complaint—it was calculation, the sort of practical tally a man kept when he measured hours against daylight, effort against need. “Feels like we could load the mule down all day and still not stack enough to last Halo through LongNight.”
ever since the first time you got lost in them
