Sleep drifted into her eyes after a while.
Sometimes Sol hated sleep.
Sleep wasn't always the kindest of suitors after all.
Sometimes sleep brought forth that numbness that Sol had grown to know all too well. The numbness that she had felt herself dragged deep down into as she ignored all sense of pain within her body. She had grown far too accustom to sleep during her time in slavery. Accustom to the way that when you were asleep you weren't always forced to face the reality that you truly lived. She slept the days away back then, let sleep bless her eyes until she couldn't think about the dark world that she was being forced to live within.
Yet sleep sometimes forced those thoughts right back into your head.
Sleep made them feel just as realistic as the last time you experienced it. It brought back the same color and warmth to your body, tricking your senses to believe that you just might be back in hell. Sol never wanted to return to that hell. She hated the way her wrists had grown so heavy that she felt as if she couldn't lift them. She hated the collar that stung at her neck, the cold metal hanging on her neck and making it feel heavy. She hated it all. Yet often her dreams dragged back the reality as if she had never even escaped.
This night, sleep was peaceful. More peaceful than she had known.
Perhaps it was due to the tea.
She wasn't sure, but her rest was peaceful. She was in the forest of the Elders once more. Her parents were there... but she couldn't remember their faces. They seemed happy nonetheless, urging her to participate in their festival as they celebrated their people. Celebrated their fae. It was as if her people had never been attacked. As if she hadn't spent half of her life on her own, as if she hadn't been raised entirely on her own. She wondered if this is what her life would have been like should the humans should not have bothered them.
She wanted to remain in this dream, to relive this paradise that was the fae villages.
The elder forest had never looked so beautiful, a canopy of beautiful glowing tree tops protecting them from the world around them. No one would find them in this safe haven that the fae had created for themselves. Bridges drooped from tree to tree, connecting those too far to travel between. Homes were carved into the tree tops of the largest Laurel trees that had been grown even larger with their mana. It was a haven, a haven only made possible by those who cooperated both with the mana within them but also the nature that bloomed within the earth.
When he returned, Sol remained lost in her dream world.
Her breaths were soft and her eyes remained closed as she rested. It was clear that she needed the rest, her body needing a lot of healing. It was not clear how long they had starved her for, how long they had refused her food or water or left her in the darkness. Her body had been a victim to such harshness that it seemed it would take many days for her to fully heal. She needed rest, rest and care.
She only woke when she heard his voice, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she let out a tired whimper. "mmm..." She shifted, her eyes fluttering open tiredly as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Jonah?" She looked at him with a half asleep gaze, the look on her face almost cute as she looked at him sleepily. "Mhm..." She sat up, stretching her arms above her head. Her body creaked as she stretched it, crackling like that of a fire. After a moment, she stood up and walked over to the table with him.
"I don't know how much I will be of help... but I will try my best." She smiled softly, wanting to be of some sort of help if she could. After all, he was putting so much energy into being of assistance to her. It was the least she could to if she could be of any sort of assistance to him.
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