Her Dark Embrace

There were very few things that drove Evelyn to smile so deeply as she would anytime she spoke about the wandering maze of trees in the shadow of her mighty tree in the forest, the "Hollow" as she named what really became her spiritual home.

Evelyn abandoned her home in Zyvala to go and live in the realm she claimed as her own beneath the shadow of the branches of the towering giant at the heart of this strangely beautiful place.

Often it was hard not to fall in love with just hearing her speak of this strange place as her voice quivered and warbled with such deep power as she remembered the rolling mists that cloaked the forest floor like an ocean or the moonlight streaking through the fogs in the depths of the darkest nights.

Evelyn would almost mentally leave my presence when she spoke about her "Hollow" but truthfully it was part of the reason I often would coax her into talking about it as once you have seen such deep love for something so pure, it becomes addictive just to listen too her or see the way her eyes would ignite as she dreamed about that short life in the shadows of the forest.

There was little doubt in my mind that of all the things she had come to love that the "Hollow" was the first place she ever felt truly at peace and happy.

Deep down part of me hoped and dreamed that someday she would show me the magic she had felt everyday and night in the shadows of that magnificent tree.