[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright] She was stargazing, again. It had started as a joke on her name and then it had taken root. She didn't actually see anything in the sky. Lights, clouds. It meant nothing to her but it was a nice way to pass the time. With current conditions though, time would be fleeting, if she chose to raise the children that were growing inside. She had yet to decide that; she had yet to decide many things.

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... ncert4.png[/imgleft] It was here that the moth came to join her. He settled lightly on her back and then took flight again before resting on her head. She tried to look at him but he was too high upon her crown. There wasn't a particular reason--perhaps it was the silence--but she began to talk to him.

"I don't know much about children. I know there's no right way to raise them. Some mothers keep a close eye, some leave right after. The swamp will care for them to a point and then it's their turn to care for themselves. I don't know what I want for them," she admitted. There were days she thought she remembered her parents, others. . .

"Do you want them to branches or roots?" came a query from behind and she almost bolted right then. She'd never be able to tell anyone how she stayed, looking behind her to find a ghostly kimeti standing behind her. Something between fear and curiosity, maybe.

"I. . . I don't understand," she stuttered out eventually.

"Branches grow up and out; sometimes they are covered in green or flowers. They get to know the sky and birds," the kimeti pondered, "but roots grow down. They know the core of the swamp and sing a different song."

Answers wasn't sure what to make of that. Where silence might have bothered others, it bothered him none at all, for he settled down and flopped onto his back to look up at the sky.

"I suppose branches?" she hesitantly offered.

"Branches are nice. Not as good as wings but nice all the same."

And what was there to say to that?

"They won't grow as tall and I doubt the birds will nest in them, but they'll be strong and healthy and not so prone to those black holes that show up every once in awhile," he grinned.

The doe nodded. Right. And then she shut her eyes and hoped she'd fall asleep to wake up from this very strange dream.

She did fall asleep. Travels did too. And thus there was nothing to wake from because he was still fast asleep when she woke up.