#wren 02

After his conversation with Tamyra, Mik had wandered around South Beach in a daze. The edge of his hoodie had started to smoke a while back, so now he was wandering in soaked, dripping clothes, shivering at the cool Easterly wind. He needed answers, he needed to find someone who had banished his baby to the Labyrinth and shake them senseless until he could understand what kind of sick fuck would do that?

Up ahead he saw a familiar face, someone who Tamyra had mentioned. Mik rushed towards Wren, gripping her by the shoulder as he looked intently into her face.

"There was a baby, a little kid on North Beach," Mik began, releasing one hand to slip his phone out of his pocket. With shaking hands, he held the picture of baby Nova out to Wren, gripping her tight in place. "Do you remember her?"

The ground was still wet from the monsoon as Lily made her way back to her treehouse, amusing herself by making crudely-shaped little animals to walk alongside her from the groundwater. None of them were like Tamyra’s dragon, but a hare that would hop after her there, a butterfly floating in front of her there. Small things, working on the details, pretending to be them like Tamyra had advised.

She could see a shape moving in the box she’d once called — still called — home. And the rope ladder was up, so Wren had found it. Good. Hopefully that was Wren in there and she hadn’t gotten consumed by the Heart Tree.

It still was somewhat chilling, thinking about people she’d seen around the beach who would never be seen again. Thinking about the Heart Tree, and the shadow that had gone inside it to take refuge, and the implications. Because that wasn’t kami. Kami were invisible to the human eye.

But that wasn’t something to think about now. The latest horror was over, her people were alive and well, and she was paying a visit to a fellow island baby. Someone who was in a unique position to understand her better than anyone else.