Elliana would give her life for anyone that asked and do so without question - not because she has nothing to live for, or because she is so caring, she just knows that, when push comes to shove, some things are required of her. She has only one lifetime to give away, but she would do so gladly - for anyone.

She may be immortal, but Elliana ultimately knows one day she will go that grave in Virde, Isolt will smile (Elliana picture not blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, but red poppies blooming there instead), and Danae will grow a rose in the space her heart once occupied.

Elliana arrives in the forest in the same blink of those blue eyes that she decides to explore the trees further. There is the quiet, magical hour of dawn (not dusk, not dusk, not dusk.) Her mother enjoyed finding shapes in the clouds, her father the stars, and Elliana. She combs those forget me not blue eyes through tree’s shadows and wonders if those same trees grow lonely at high noon—when their shadow no longer sits beside them, gazing up at them.

She content, she is not heart thrumming happy, but she is content, enough, for now.

Because Elliana knows.
She know that it isn't okay to be overly happy.

You are happy, and, before you can blink, the shadows are infecting you. You are happy and the creatures that thrive on those shadows are tearing you limb from limb before you can scream for help or even realize that you are being torn apart. You are happy and, even without the darkness there to taunt you and intimidate you, others will seek to destroy it, because that's what has always happened and that's what will always happen; sadness is the way things are in the world, and only the truly resilient will survive with any of it intact. Elli smiles because Elli knows. So she stopped trying to become happy, stopped searching for that thing she watched her mother search for first in men, and then inside a crown, and then inside the hearts of all of her children. Elliana became something else altogether.

She became strong.

And, strong she stands... but lonely, too.

Like the trees at high noon.

Shadows gone.

And they still stand.

There is small part, buried deep inside the cracks of her soul and in the thump of her heart that goes on, that chants over and over again. Survive, it says. Sometimes it overlays the sound of run, run, run as it whispers in and out of her bones like the wind through valleys. Other times that word, survive, is on its own. It's quieter in those moments, as if it is only the part of her soul that longs, that whispers.

Those are the times she longs for something and the gnawing in her belly feels like it needs more than food and  water. That's when the hunger feels like it could devour the moon, the stars and drink the sea until it's dry. Even then, she thinks, that rabid hunger might not be satisfied.

She is caught off guard by the sudden company of another-- from the smooth-surfaced pond of her thoughts there is a ripple, and then a wave. Her heart rattles like a cage in her chest. She is careful when she looks at him, but even then, what barriers she has erected are made of cardboard and thin glass. Elliana's gaze is intense and winter cold as she judges him. She feels like a cornered beast, frantic and broken and unsure if she wants to just surrender to the mystery of him. If she could break him open, what would she find within?

Are you alone?

The pauses draws out too long, brittle and broken up with the steady way she breathes in and out to focus herself. She tries to be brave, tries, tries. She smiles. Brave, brave, little girl. “I think so,” she says, and her smile dissolves like mist.