Khun creeps silently down to the shoreline.
Above, the full moon shines brightly, illuminating the forest in an almost unnatural light. Through the gap in the trees, he can see the beach, the sand equally bright for the darkness of the night. And at the shoreline stands a lone little pier, extending into the endless expanse of ocean. The waves glitter under the moonlight, and he’s reminded of why he came here when he was young, a little escape from home. And he remembers, once, looking off the pier after a night of fishing, to find the reflection of someone else staring back.
The boy couldn’t have been any older than him. But he smiled with a sort of childish joy that Khun had seen but never experienced, and he found himself waving back hesitantly, which the boy returned before vanishing into the water. And for a few days, they had been like this, exchanging wordless greetings through the water. He had come to grow a fondness for those interactions, and was in the middle of trying to figure out a method of communication when the beach was closed off.
Missing children, the news said. They would wander down to the beach at night and fail to come back in the morning. Even though he had been reckless as a kid, his mother had checked on him sporadically after that to make sure he wasn’t leaving. She didn’t care much for him, but his disappearance would affect his sister, and that would be a problem. He ended up wandering off during school instead, but the beach had always been normal during the daytime, with no other water reflection in sight. He had waved it off after some time, dismissing it as a trick of the light or his own exhaustion. Still, it had been a strange enough time for him to remember it.
But now it’s night, and now he’s no longer quite so young.
His footsteps are silent in the sand. There doesn’t seem to be anyone here.
—At least, until he hears music and singing from the woods behind him.
He jumps, but there’s still nothing in sight. Just…a faint golden glow from the woods where he came. Slowly, he traces his steps back, ducking into the bushes to try and catch a glimpse of whatever’s going on. And as he peers through the undergrowth, he sees a ring of…dancing children? Children in glowing gold, and one of them looks a little familiar, albeit with long hair, and Khun watches, entranced, as they laugh and prance and—
Yeah, no. We're not doing tarot again, especially when combined with moonlight.
Anyway, we got extra treat today from Soli 🫶 a whole comic 🎉
I also didn't know how to quote today's story, so I just put the whole fic 😅😂