Back again! Sorry for the wait guys. Don't even really have an excuse.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything


A Speck of Light
In the Darkened Night
Where the Storm Raged All Around

She awoke with the name on her lips, and the moon disappearing from her eyes, leaving her gazing upward through the leaves. The scene of amber and gold above her seemed so familiar, yet so foreign all at once. The ancient oaks illuminated by the setting sun, the faint path... It made no sense. She tried to remember how she had gotten there, but... Nothing. Nothing but the faint birdsong and the whispering wind that awoke her from her slumber. Slowly, she pushed herself onto her unsteady feet, and gazed curiously upon her dark skin and the wispy white material that clung to her form and swayed like faint tendrils of smoke in the wind, yet when she brought her hand to it, it was as solid and smooth as silk.

Silver eyes gazed upon the roots of the massive oak that had cushioned her head as she slept, rumpling her short midnight tresses. With a tentative step forward, she rested a delicate hand against the cracked bark. There was something here. Something important. She could feel it, but she didn't know what it was, so her eyes continued to roam upwards until they hit a branch high above her head where her eyes were drawn to where a small bird perched, gazing off beyond where she could see. She wished to join it, to see what it saw, and so with a small leap, she found herself perched like the beautifully feathered creature beside her, but immediately felt greatly fatigued.

The small creature beside her did not startle at her presence, only gazed upon her with wide, curious eyes as she regained her strength. Its feathers were such a similar shade to the leaves surrounding them, a red reminiscent to a burning flame. The small being before her tilted its small head, a curious chirp emanating from its beak. Ignoring the sudden need to rest, the thoughts of the flame still in her mind and the meager wish for a companion for wherever she was to go, she ran a finger over its fiery feathers and watched in amazement and then horror as flame trickled over the winged creature seemingly without harm, and ignited it in a burst of fire, leaving nothing but a small pile of ash in it's wake, all in a matter of precious seconds.

An anguished cry rang throughout the ancient wood as the tiny creature became no more, and a single tear fell from the eyes of silver onto the remains of what once was such a beautiful creature, gone in but a moment.

But the pile shifted.

And a golden beak emerged from the ashes, its golden eyes blazing with an internal flame. With a beautiful call it escaped the confines of the ash and rose into the air, its feathers afire and spirit young.

Silver and Gold met, and with a simple wish to join her new friend in the skies it swiftly soared to, she leapt off that branch high above the ground.

And she flew on wings of silver, following the lights of every color that soon lit up the night sky, her companion by her side.

And she never once looked back upon the ancient oak behind her, where just behind its magnificent trunk, there lay a stone in the ground with a name upon it.

A name she would never know or remember.

But there were some that would.


Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, the wind screamed and the trees shook, the abundance of sounds conjoined into one massive cacophony that blocked out even her own thoughts that could never be silenced.

She couldn't breathe. There were too many people. Too many eyes locked on her shaking hands, her fearful eyes, the short, messily cut hair that hung no farther than her ears.

Anger. Confusion. Disgust. Judgement.

She pulled on the soaked hair hanging before her eyes wet with rain and tears with her still shaking hands.

"What did you do?!"

"Your hair was so beautiful. Why would you do this?"

"That is not a look befitting of a young woman."

"Your actions reflect back on me, do you know that?"

"It looks awful."

She returned her head to her knees, and she shivered with cold, her minimal clothing having done nothing to keep out the chill of the storm.

Suddenly the dress her mother forced her to wear was too tight, suffocating her. The voices surrounded her, much as their owners did, and forcefully yanked on the shortened, choppy tresses, letting her know how big of a mistake she had made. One that they couldn't easily cover up or ignore.

"No daughter of mine will go out looking like that. What the hell were you thinking?"

"I don't know," she whispered into the night, her words whisked away in the wind. "I don't know what I expected from you." Heart and mind filled with such pain and anger, she lifted her head and rested it against the ancient oak behind her, stared into the abyss of the storm, and watched as the lightning raced through the sky, faster than her thoughts, her feelings that she had suppressed for so long.

Fear. Anger. Despair. Hate.

How dare they? Claim her body and her actions?

She didn't belong to anyone.

Her face clouded with her emotions and tears in her eyes, she ran, knocked away furniture and people alike to get free, and ran like she never had before. The door slammed shut behind her as her bare feet slapped against the cold, wet ground, and blocked out the inquiring and angry voices behind her.

It had been hours, of that she knew for sure. Fatigue weighed down her limbs, and the chill had settled in hours ago. She could feel herself fading, and gave it no care. She had heard the words loud and clear, words spoken to her years ago that had never truly left her mind.

"Leave. You wanna run away again? Ok. Then stay away. Next time you walk out that door with that hate in your eyes, don't you dare expect me to open it up when you come back crying about the cold."

She was done crying about the cold, and not just the cold in the air. The icy hearts that surrounded her daily slowly froze her tongue and leaked frost onto the ground and made each step she took even more treacherous than before.

And as she allowed herself one last look into the storm through the autumn leaves that she could no longer see through the rain and the dark, she closed her eyes for what she knew as the last time, just missing the brilliant glow of the dreams she would no longer know.

She let the cold of years past finally surround her, and the hearts of ice that had infected her for so long and froze her limbs one by one finally take her heart as well.