65 - Water with Clarity

I wake and Kylar is gone. There’s a dry feeling on my tongue, I’m dehydrated. Even my eyes are itchy. I stay still, reluctant to face the day. To accept that I’m lying on an inflatable mattress in a tent, because my sons were stolen. I feel broken from the inside out.

But lying here won’t find them either. I roll off the bedding and ease out of the tent. It’s still early morning and I stare at the grey light that surrounds me. The campsite feels as though it’s asleep. It’s quiet except for a soft call of birds. I can see half a dozen tents along with trailers and more quads and atvs that I can count.

Everything is neatly organised, as though Midnight Forest has mobilised an entire army into the Forest. I feel a lump in my chest, they really have. They’ve called everyone in for my boys. I’m so incredibly grateful and frustrated at the same time.

I can feel the connection between myself and the rest of the Pack. Fainter than it was yesterday. There is some relief in that. Yet I know