The girls stood around in the garden, playing a 'friendly' game of croquet. But what most people realize when they're older is that any game they played when they were younger was more competitive than 'friendly'.

"And it's off," Willow announced, accidentally hitting the ball a lot harder than she would've liked. It rolled across the grass in the direction of the hoop, but it unfortunately stopped beside the hoop.

"Aw, so close," Ulla said sarcastically.

"I'll get it next time," Willow sighed, before looking over at Luna, "Your turn."

Luna approached the blue ball, adjusting her grip on her mallet as she studied the path between her current position and the next hoop. She swung her mallet a little, making sure not to hit the ball as she guessed the correct force and angle she needed.

After a slight adjustment in her grip, Luna hit the ball, sending it off and through the hoop.

"Well done," Willow congratulated her.

Anna couldn't help but give Luna an odd look, especially since she's been stuck at the hoop for the past three rounds.

"Are you sure you haven't played before?" Ulla asked, finding it a little funny how Luna was beating Willow, who's been playing croquet for a good portion of her.

"No, it's my first time," Luna smiled, getting a little bit into the competitive spirit.

"Not even a small game with your family?" Anna inquired, still in disbelief about her shot.

"No… I've never played before this," Luna answered hesitantly.

Ulla furrowed her brows a little upon noticing this, but quickly pushed back her thoughts as Anna approached her ball.

Anna swung her mallet, hitting the ball with a loud WHACK! As it flew forward. It hit the hoop, and rolled back a few feet with the rest of its momentum.

"Well at least you're closer," Luna commented.

"Yeah, well… the change in temperature is making me off my game," Anna blamed the changing weather instead of her poor abilities.

Ulla would have poked fun at her poor excuse, but she found herself dragged back into her thoughts. It probably doesn't mean anything, sure she didn't answer the question the way people normally would, but it could just be that her family doesn't play games. I mean, yeah she's kind of avoided family questions like this before, but there's no way it's like when he did it. Well… sure, she hasn't told us about her home life… or where she lives, but we've only been friends for a couple months. There's no way she could be hiding something like he did.

"Ulla."

Ulla quickly snapped out of her thoughts, looking over at Willow who gave her a confused look.

"You okay?" Willow asked, wondering why she was zoned out.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ulla shoved her thoughts away again.

"Well, it's your turn," Willow said, pointing her mallet in the direction of Ulla's red ball.

Ulla approached the ball, making sure to double check the distance between it and the next hoop. She did one test swing, then she hit the ball.

As the day began to wind down, Willow was eventually whisked away by her mother, causing the girls to part ways for the day.

Luna and Ulla calmly walked across the bridge, beginning the journey back to their respective homes. It was a quiet walk, which was kind of normal. Usually Anna would fill the silence, but she had to check out a book; so it was just the two of them.

It was not that they weren't good friends, on the contrary; it was mostly because the two weren't as good at small talk as Willow and Anna. Plus, they'd usually start a conversation based on what they were doing.

As they made their way through the woods, Luna began to split off from the main path.

"Bye, Ulla," she said, as she walked further away.

"C'ya tomorrow," Ulla responded. Now left standing alone on the path, the only company she had left was her thoughts. Where even is her home? Ulla wondered. It obviously wasn't in a village since there weren't any in these woods, some are on either side of it, sure, but there weren't any in it.

As her questions began to consume her mind, Ulla found herself carefully following Luna's trail. A tiny voice in Ulla's head spoke against what she was doing, but she was just too curious. Why does she avoid their questions? Why hasn't she talked about her family? Why hasn't she even mentioned them in a passing comment? Why hasn't she showed them her home?

Ulla made her way further away from the path, climbing over fallen trees and passing through bushes as she did her best to keep up with Luna, while maintaining a good distance.

Luna moved through the forest with grace and familiarity, while Ulla stumbled behind as the path became more rough.

Ulla carefully stepped over another log, accidentally stepping on a stick. Snap!

Luna stopped at the sound of the snap, and Ulla quickly ducked behind a tree before she turned around. Luna looked back, trying to see if there was any need for concern.

She waited a few minutes before continuing her walk home.

Ulla looked out from behind the tree, watching as Luna disappeared down a hill. She slowly followed behind, soon switching to a crawl as she carefully looked down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill was a small river, which had some rocks to the side that allowed Luna to cross. Beyond the river was a quaint cabin that sat in the middle of a small clearing, and had a decent size garden to the right of it.

"Huh," Ulla watched as Luna made her way over to the cabin. Once she entered the house, Ulla slowly stood up and began walking down the hill.

Ulla did her best to be careful since it was kind of steep, but she miscalculated how muddy some of the dirt was still; her foot slipped out from under her, causing her to tumble down the hill and land in the river.

She quickly sat up and spat out some water, wishing that the water was more than a foot deep so that her landing could've been softer.

"Ulla?"

Ulla looked up through her wet bangs to see Luna walking towards her, both concerned and confused.

"What are you-?" Luna stopped herself as she noticed just how soaked her friend was. "Come on, let's dry you off," she said, as she helped Ulla up.

Luna led Ulla to her cabin, pushing open the door before going into the next room, saying "I'll get you a towel."

Ulla closed the door behind her, taking a moment to look around the room. It was small, and there was no difference between the wood for the walls and for the floor. There were no paintings to fill the empty walls, and the only piece of furniture was just a small table and chair, with a clay vase resting on top holding a bouquet of wildflowers.

Ulla looked past the table to see a stone fireplace with a recently lit flame. She moved towards it, sitting at the foot of the stone to warm herself.

Luna entered the room carrying a towel, which she handed to Ulla, who muttered a small "Thank you."

"Ulla?"

"Hm?" Ulla responded, as she began to dry her hair.

"What are you doing here?" asked Luna, her tone a bit cold.

Ulla looked down. "I wanted to know about your home life," she admitted.

Luna's face was expressionless, and Ulla realized how she kind of crossed a boundary.

"It's just you've always avoided questions about your home and family, not even mentioned them in a passing comment, and… well…" Ulla sighed, knowing what she was saying was just an excuse.

"The real problem is… I once had a friend who was just as secretive, and it was because he was hiding a completely different side of him… a side that wasn't good," Ulla explained, looking back at the fire that slowly grew.

"Ulla," Luna sat down in her chair, "I don't know what your friend was hiding, but

I promise you, the reasons behind my secrecy are not the same.

Ulla looked back at Luna, ashamed for letting her mind create any distrust. "I'm sorry," Ulla apologized, "I should probably leave before your family gets back."

"I… don't have a family," Luna admitted.

Ulla looked at her in shock, there wasn't really any sorrow in her expression, mostly numbness towards the topic.

"You mean, you live here all alone?" Ulla questioned.

"Yes."

"In the woods?"

"Yes," Luna answered again, as she lifted the bouquet out of the vase to remove a few wilted flowers.

"Are you like… hiding from someone?" Ulla inquired, worrying about her friend's situation.

"More like hiding from everyone," Luna explained, gently placing the flowers in a clay vase.

"Oh." Ulla's concern quickly disappeared, coming to a new conclusion. "You're a hermit."

"Yeah," Luna smiled a little, "I guess you could call me that."

Ulla softly hit her fist against her leg, "So, that incident when we first met... Was that your first interaction with society."

"Oh no," Luna laughed a little. "I lived in an orphanage when I was younger; but I eventually made the decision that I didn't really want to be involved with society."

"Why? Corona's a wonderful place?" Ulla questioned, slightly offended for the place she grew up loving.

"I know," Luna raised her hand to quiet Ulla, "You, Willow, Anna, and Tim... You all have shown me that the world isn't as awful as I thought it was. But growing up, I was afraid... and found it easier to hide from the world, instead of facing it."

Ulla stared at Luna for a good minute before looking at the fire. "What made you so afraid?" She asked.

"It's... complicated," Luna sighed, looking down at her hands.

"Well… I'll try to wait this time for the answer," Ulla offered her a warm smile.

"Thank you," Luna smiled back.

"So… are you gonna tell Willow and Anna, or do you want me to," Ulla made a 'shut it' motion in front of her mouth.

"I'll tell them later," Luna answered with a little laugh, gaining some confidence from this interaction to tell them… maybe in a week.