Neledh || ONC 2023

Chapter 2 | Tiffany

Author's note

Two new chapters, I'm really curious what you think of it.
Do you like the girls? What do you think of Tiffany's story?

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Camille was dying.

She had been old as long as Tiffany had known her, but never before had she collapsed.

They had been celebrating the winter solstice and Raine and Camille had been dancing together when it happened. Camille had collapsed in Raine's arms and was yet to wake up from her slumber.

She was laid in a bed of violets in eager anticipation for her awakening, Raine was yet to leave her side, but things weren't looking good. There were three master witches and one apprentice, yet none of them had been able to do anything for Camille.

Many springs had been seen by her, for centuries she had lived among the nymphs and now it was time. The earth had been reclaiming her for years and now the end was there.

A dame blanche could live for millennia, they had done that when the earth had still been young. The place they were connected to unchanging for ages.

Yet the world had changed.

Nature's children in all their different ways lived shorter and died earlier in far more violent ways than when their mother had breathed life into them.

Forests were cut and burned down at a speed not yet seen before. No longer were their children immortal either.

Camille was dying, nothing could be done to stop the inevitable.

-

Camille was laid to rest under a bed of snowdrops. Raine followed her days later, her spirit giving up after she lost the last of her chosen family.

Their daughter couldn't be with them anymore, but they had been reunited in the spirit of the forest.

-

Though Raine had been in no way or form the leader of the kore, after her death the remaining nymphs fell apart. They scattered in groups of three or four and divided themselves over the neighbouring forests and creeks.

The heart of the forest had died together with Raine and Camille. In the wind a song could be heard of long forgotten hopes and unfulfilled dreams.

-

Tiffany and her parents left with three other nymphs, they would return to the place the kore had previously inhabited. Though technically it was the same forest, Tiffany had never been there as it had been burned down before she was born.

The nymphs remembered the trees they hadn't seen in years and would reverently touch them as their group came closer to the clearing that had once been their home.

For them this was a reminder to the people they had lost to the cruelty of humans. The home they had left behind. The children they had been unable to bury.

For Tiffany it was the adventure she had been yearning for as long as she could remember. The place her soul yearned for was coming closer with every step she took.