#coveredcorruption

Even after a few years, Who was still not the best at living alone. She’d been faring... okay, by herself. It was hard to find food sometimes, and harder still to find a place to eat where she wouldn’t hurt anybody by removing her mask, but no matter how hungry she got, she never got seriously sick from it, so that was a small blessing. She couldn’t remember actually getting, well, any kind of sickness, since... then. Of course, that didn’t mean she was beyond getting hurt. And when you’re an, admittedly rather small and weak, girl alone in a forest, injury is going to happen. It was a small accident, honestly. She’d been walking around in Ilex Forest, by herself, as usual, when she’d accidentally stumbled down a hill she hadn’t known was there. The fall unfortunately ended with her leg getting caught between a rock and a branch, and although she had managed to free herself, it now hurt whenever she put any weight on it.

...Which made walking kind of difficult. It was hard to go anywhere with her leg stinging like it was, but she was sure that it would have to get better eventually, yes? She’d just have to stay out of the way, because she was limping, and her leg looked kind of red and sore, and she wouldn’t want anybody to worry about her and ask too many questions.

...A good plan, at least, until someone saw her one day, and tried to talk to her, and she’d taken off into the forest in a panic, trying to get away, except she couldn’t run at the moment, and each step pained her, and... she’d fallen.

Who’s time spent in the forest was usually spent alone - she was rather afraid of the company of others, and often fled at the sight of wanderers, but today she happened to chance upon something... unusual. It certainly wasn’t a person - in fact, she had no idea what the strange spiky ball atop a pile of cables actually was, but she still immediately hid from it upon spotting it, because you never know, it could be dangerous. ...And a little masked head had occasionally peeked out from the brush at the strange being, before ducking back in in terror - repeatedly, for the better part of an hour. Someone was awfully, awfully curious about what exactly the odd forest-creature was, but apparently very, very timid as well, and afraid of even being noticed by it.

Eventually, though, the someone worked up the courage to emerge. The someone was a very small someone - short even by the standards of human children, and stepping forward with nervous caution. Her body was dirty, and her clothes were tattered - evidently, she had been in the wilderness a while.

And something felt rather strange about her.

cursed--child → coveredcorruption