Damien
the woods have remembered you
Damien followed Iskra’s rhythm, swinging his axe down into the wood, the thunk echoing through the Brambles. He rolled the split in place and caught it, letting the familiar strain of the muscles in his back settle him into the work. Aria darted past, Goose following shortly after, and he felt a small grin tug at his lips before it faded back into thought.“...I’m sorry,” he murmured quietly, almost to himself, though Iskra would hear. Not for prying, not for asking, but for the loss he recognized in the man’s words. “Losing your mother… I know what that’s like.” He let the comment hang for a beat, letting the timber, the snow, and the scrabbling of the animals fill the silence that followed.
He shifted the log into its next position, hands sure and steady, letting the edge of the axe bite in the same way it always had. “I’ve been to Torchline a few times myself,” he admitted, voice low. “Nice place. But… I don’t think I could live anywhere but Halo.” His gaze flicked to the woods ahead, the brambles curling like black smoke across the snow. “No matter what excuses I come up with to leave, it’s still… part of me. Where my parents… where they lived and died. And who knows how many generations before them.” His jaw tightened slightly at the words, unspoken grief tucked into the cadence of his voice, but not raw enough to falter. “Being there makes me feel.. closer to them. In a way I wouldn’t anywhere else.” Indeed, Ulfsen is a name that goes as far back as Halo's records permit.
He swung the axe again, the tip of the blade catching the light, and split the log cleanly. Aria chirruped, leapt to the side, then crouched low, ears flat, ready to dart again. Damien allowed himself a short chuckle at the cub, shaking his head.
ever since the first time you got lost in them
