| Before they come back to life
Most creatures preferred to keep to their lairs and dens during the night, when the sun had meekly bowed its blazing head and darkness ruined the perception of the majority.
Even the rowdy Chimeras, from the Slitherhens to the Really Flying Mice, seemed rather reluctant to be too noisy in a way they usually had little-to-no regard for. (Though, perhaps, that was most prominently in part because of the particular entities that were currently prowling through the dappled, shadowed grasslands of Sunshine Forest.)
An ancient tree stump yawned above, the hole bored through its wood long ago by relatives prior to the current generation so smooth and polished that it seemed almost more fitting than the cracks lining what remained of its top.
It surely once had been a sight indeed to see, its remnants so large that in its life it was likely used as a landmark - a tree proudly stretched much higher than even Leder and his bell had done, with long, reaching branches the size of the trees in the woods now.
The flowers dotting the grass at its roots fluttered softly in the gentle night wind, the rain from the hours previous beading off of their multicoloured petals as they gently swayed.
Everything, despite the strange stillness in the air, seemed almost serene: the Nowhere Islands had recovered well from the Dragon debacle.
Unseen to most everything, a boy whom was not quite a boy inched along the grotto. Familiar minds were almost as welcome as intriguing new ones, and the hallucination had the distinct sensation that a brain very dear and near to him was either about to enter the forest, or already had.
Things that pulsated softly sought out the individual that he had picked up the presence of, coils that gently reached for the wandering prey with every intention of slipping inside to their mind and start reading their worst dreads.
(It was what he did, after all, and a task - a purpose in life - that he quite excelled at.)
And of course, he mused with a note of vicious anticipation once he had settled in, who should his new host be but sweet, darling Lucas?
