Days passed.
And slowly, the whispering voices around the village cooled.
Not completely.
Never completely.
But enough that people no longer stopped what they were doing just to stare whenever Gabriel's family passed by with the little girl beside them.
Life slowly returned to its usual rhythm.
Morning smoke rose from chimneys once again, children ran through the dusty paths laughing loudly, and the sounds of chopping wood and farm animals filled the village from dawn till evening.
Inside Gabriel's small house, things had begun changing too.
The little girl—Evelyn—was no longer sitting silently in bed all day.
Though her injured knee still forced her to walk slowly, she had begun moving around the house little by little. Small careful steps. One hand usually against the wall or table for support.
Lily followed her everywhere.
"No, not there," Lily said quickly one afternoon as Evelyn reached toward a hanging pot. "Father says that one is hot."
Evelyn quietly pulled her hand back.
Lily immediately brightened again.
"Come, come! I wanna show you something."
Before Evelyn could react, Lily had already grabbed her right hand and carefully pulled her toward the back of the house.
Aster watched the scene while sitting near the doorway sharpening a stick against a stone.
"You're going too fast again," he muttered.
"I'm not!"
"You literally are."
Lily rolled her eyes dramatically.
Evelyn only blinked quietly between the two siblings.
Outside behind the house sat a small pile of smooth stones arranged unevenly beside the dirt.
"This is where I play sometimes," Lily explained proudly. "And this one is my favorite rock."
Aster snorted from behind them.
"It's literally just a rock."
"It's not just a rock."
"It is."
Lily ignored him completely before turning back toward Evelyn.
"And now you can play with me too," she said excitedly. "Because all the girls here are older than me and the ones my age live far away. So usually I only end up playing with stupid boys."
"I heard that," Aster complained.
Lily stuck her tongue out.
"But now you're my first real friend," she finished proudly toward Evelyn.
For a second, Evelyn looked slightly startled by the words.
Friend.
The unfamiliar warmth of it settled strangely inside her chest.
Aster noticed the small expression crossing her face before quickly looking away again.
At some point later that evening, Gabriel returned carrying chopped wood over his shoulder.
The moment Lily saw him, she ran over excitedly.
"Father! Evelyn walked all the way outside today."
Gabriel lowered the wood beside the wall before looking toward Evelyn carefully.
"Did your knee hurt too much?"
Evelyn hesitated before quietly shaking her head once.
A small answer.
But still an answer.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
"Good."
That night while the lantern flickered softly above the table, Gabriel spoke again after a long silence.
"Evelyn," he began gently.
The girl lifted her eyes toward him.
"Do you remember where you came from?"
Silence.
Lily and Aster both looked up slightly too.
Evelyn lowered her gaze toward the bowl in front of her.
"I..." her voice came out quiet and rough from lack of use. "I don't know."
Gabriel stayed silent, allowing her time.
The room only carried the sound of firewood crackling nearby.
Then slowly Evelyn spoke again.
"I remember..." She paused weakly. "Rain."
Her fingers tightened slightly around the spoon.
"And... a tree falling."
The room quieted.
Gabriel's expression darkened slightly.
A storm.
The same storm from that night.
But before he could ask anything else, Evelyn lowered her head again as if the memory itself hurt to think about.
And so Gabriel did not push further.
Outside the next afternoon, Aster sat with several boys near the village corner, kicking marbles through the dirt while dust drifted lazily through the warm air.
James sat beside him while two other boys whispered nearby.
One eventually glanced toward Gabriel's house before speaking quietly.
"So she's really staying with you now?"
Aster didn't answer immediately.
Another boy scoffed.
"My mother said that girl brought the storm."
"And mine said weird things happen around cursed people."
Aster's hand stopped moving.
The boys continued.
"I heard she doesn't even talk properly."
"Maybe she's possessed or something."
At that, Aster suddenly stood up.
"Stop saying that."
The boys looked startled.
Aster's expression tightened.
"She didn't do anything."
The group went quiet.
One boy shrugged awkwardly.
"We were just saying—"
"Well stop saying it," Aster snapped. "She's living with us now, so don't talk bad about her again."
Silence followed.
Even James looked surprised for a second before quickly standing too.
"Alright, alright," he said, forcing a grin. "Let's just play something else."
The tension slowly broke apart after that.
Soon marbles rolled through the dirt once more while shouting and arguing returned between the boys like usual.
But from farther away, Aster could still see Lily outside the house trying to teach Evelyn how to stack stones properly.
And for some reason—
the sight made him feel strangely responsible.
Like an older brother watching over two little sisters.
Far beyond the village, deep inside the forest, another man moved between fallen trees.
The woodcutter wiped sweat from his forehead while stepping over broken branches scattered across the ground.
"The last storm really ruined this place," he muttered.
Large trees still lay crushed against one another from the heavy winds days earlier.
The forest had grown quieter near evening now.
Too quiet.
The sun slowly lowered behind the mountains, painting the woods orange and gold.
The woodcutter adjusted the rope around his shoulder before glancing toward the darkening trees.
"Better leave before the wolves come out."
But just as he turned—
Something reflected light near a fallen tree.
The man paused.
At first the object barely shined at all.
But as the sky darkened further, the strange reflection became easier to notice beneath the broken branches.
Curious, the woodcutter crouched lower before lifting part of the fallen tree carefully.
His eyes widened slightly.
A pendant.
Beautiful.
Golden.
An oval-shaped pendant with strange carvings along its edges and a crest engraved at the center.
The symbol looked like some kind of creature.
Not quite a bird. He thought so.
The man wasn't sure.
But one thing he did know—
something this valuable could earn him a great amount of money.
The next morning, the woodcutter traveled by carriage toward the nearest market town.
Unlike the poor little village, the market overflowed with people, noise, and movement. Merchants shouted prices loudly while carts rolled through muddy streets crowded with buyers and travelers.
Though it still stood far beneath the riches of the capital, almost anything could be bought there.
Or sold.
The woodcutter eventually slipped quietly into a narrow hidden alley between two buildings.
At the far end sat an old man surrounded by small accessories and jewelry spread over cloth.
But those who truly knew the place understood he sold far more than harmless trinkets.
The woodcutter pulled the pendant from his pocket carefully.
The old man's eyes immediately sharpened.
Slowly—
a grin spread across his cracked face.
"Well now..." he rasped softly. "What exactly do we have here?"