choose wisely | Glowfic Constellation

The trees stop growing and the fairy paths get thinner and you can see the ocean ahead of you in the distance, though I wouldn't go all the way to the ocean personally.

imeanforever

"Okay."

⠀

He doesn't write anything else.

imeanforever

She takes off.

She flies north.

It gets colder. There's a strait of water. Eventually, the trees stop growing.

imeanforever

She touches down past the last tree. She starts a gate and -

- she starts a -

She goes to sleep and eats some frost and flies back until she finds the court she left.

It looks about the same as she left it.

imeanforever

She lands.

It takes them about twenty minutes to find her. They don't throw a net this time. Someone gets out a notecard on which is already written,

Welcome back. You can ask the guards to show you to a guest room, if you'd like, or a place to stay outside, if you'd prefer that. I can join you shortly.

imeanforever

"...I'll take the room."

So they lead her down a path that winds and gets smaller and goes, eventually, into a fallen tree. There's a city in there, with paths curving all around and houses carved into the walls and people working and playing and talking in the space between them.

People turn and stare.

The room that the guards take her to is simple and reasonably sized. It has a bed and a table and a window and some ivy growing out of a pot and up a wall.

imeanforever

In she goes. She flomps on the bed and goes to sleep again.

No one interrupts her, but when she wakes there's food on the table and a note that says

I don't know what you like, so I wanted to offer a variety, but I feel obliged to warn you that if you happen to like all of it that'll be expensive. Tell the guards when you'd like to see me.

imeanforever

She places the tray of food out in the hallway, all the comestibles untouched. "I'm up," she tells the guards.