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Swelling belly. You swim in the waters of my life force. I meet you in the middle of dreaming and possibility. The future of everything rests on you. But no pressure.

A sweet misty aroma wafted on the breeze. I drank it in. This was the season of flowering wealth all around me, my home, in Shangri-La.

The night left us drenched. For all our walking, the solace of our own footsteps, and not a sweet chill rain, but the dank humidity of treading too close to cursed swampland.

“But mom!”
“Now now, there will be none of that.” The mother scolded in a gentle tone. Her daughter, huffed in the doorway with her doll dangling from one hand, face contorted to express just how upset she was with the request her mother had made.

Drip. Drip, Drip.
Rain dangles from the heavy branches of a tree to be released into the river below.
Drip. Drip. Drip.

“No matter what anyone says, I would die for you.”
Sassy Wench rolled her eyes. This was typical.
“Look, you don’t have to die. That’s not how Counsel of Night works.” Sassy Wench typed fervently on the keyboard.

I stumbled on a tree root and you were there to take my hand and pick me back up. We were 5. I didn’t know you, but the other kids were laughing at me and I was upset because I had just muddied my best jeans. You smiled and said nothing.