"Message"- Kira, ???
Kira runs her fingers over the tree bark, tracing the edge of the hole. It seems so small, and it’s strange to imagine that she could have once been tiny enough to fit inside it. She hadn’t ever intended to come looking for this place- any significance it might have held, any remnant of her mother’s touch, has surely been long washed away by time. It’s just a tree. Still, here she is, drawn by the familiarity of faint memories, staring at it as though it might hold some answers.
She expects none, and prepares to turn away, when she catches sight of a dim shape in the back of the hollow.
It’s a seed, round and smooth. Perhaps, she thinks, this has become the hoard of some animal in preparation for the cold, though it has done poorly to only collect a single nut. There’s no reason to touch it, save curiosity. But Kira is a curious creature, and when she wraps her hand around it, she feels the unmistakable thrum of life, the hum of the Song.
A dreamfast?
A voice echoes through her mind, low and gentle, the imprint of a memory.
“Kira.” It knows her name, somehow. “I have no idea if you’ll ever find this.” It lets out a self-deprecating chuckle. “I doubt I’ll be around if you do. It’s already strange to be- well, one of the last. But if you do…I want you to know that your parents loved you. Your aunt did too, after they were gone. They didn’t want to leave you. And I...I loved all of them, very much. They shouldn’t be forgotten, and I’m afraid we all will be.” The voice pauses, as though collecting itself. She wonders who it once belonged to. “I hope what I’ve dreamstitched here will be enough to keep their memories alive, at least for you.”
She stands silent for a moment, stunned, apprehensive. But the object in her hand is warm, glowing softly, breathing the way the forest breathes, alive with the echo of life held within it. It has more to say, more to show. She closes her eyes.
“Please...tell me.”