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Description
(648 Words)

Sunny hadn't come back yet. The sun had sunk just below the horizon and she hadn’t come back yet. Pelé was pacing, fear striking through her. There was probably nothing wrong, she knew that, but there was a sickening dread in her gut that she just couldn’t shake. Something was wrong.
“Pelé please- you’ll wear a hole in the floor walking back and forth like that, I’m sure everything’s ok,” Mulder said quietly, though there was also an edge of worry to his voice.
“I have to do something- I have to go look for her” Pelé turned and bolted out of the room before she could hear Mulders pleas. She ran out of the great tree, ignoring several shouts of surprise and warnings. She had to save Sunny.
…
The woods were dark. The red of the moon washed her surroundings in an eerie light as Pelé crept through the undergrowth, wanting to call out for her friend but feeling an overwhelming pressure to not make a single sound. Not to break the suffocating silence that had fallen over the forest. She finally reached a clearing, tentatively stepping out into the open. She looks around to get her bearings and turns face to face with a black mass directly in front of her even though there had been nothing, not even seconds before. She’s frozen in fear as the thing looked down at her, a sharp hunger in its gaze. Its face was familiar, the star shaped mark in the center with four eyes surrounding it was something she was sure she had seen before but she just couldn’t quite place where. Not that that was unusual.
It spoke her name in a distorted voice that tugged at the back of Peles mind, “You’ve gotten quite lost haven’t you… lost in the forest and in the world, never where you're supposed to be,” it continued. Pelé could feel its malice but her feet were still rooted to the ground. The same buzzing feeling she felt whenever trying to remember where she and Sunny were before they were here was clouding her mind. She could barely think. All she could do was listen.
“You can't even remember all that you’ve lost.”
Pelé gasped.
A memory pulled itself from the depths of her mind, an assignment she had done where the class had been asked to imagine themselves all grown up. She used to daydream about how cool she would be so it was an easy assignment. How could she have forgotten that, grief stabbed at her heart. There was so much she wanted to do, so much she wanted to be. All that was gone. She couldn’t remember the faces of her peers anymore, they were dark and blurred in her memories, not like they were out of focus, but like she just couldn’t see them. She couldn’t remember their faces but she never could have forgotten the shape of what was standing in front of her. Herself. Everything that should have been. Cool spikes and slicked back hair and massive webbed wings. It was her, but like a void, backlit by the gorey light of the red moon, its star shaped eyes burned with a harsh light. Pelés breath came in short, quick gasps, creating little puffs of fog in the cold night air. If she had a heart it would be pounding. The silence in her chest just made everything worse. The swirling pit of shame over all that she had forgotten snapped her out of her stupor and she took a few halted steps backwards, trying to get away without taking her eyes off of the void that stood in front of her. She had forgotten her friends. Forgotten her home.
Pelé turned and ran, tripping over roots and skidding on detritus. She burst out of the forest, bolting into the Great Tree to safety.

10/232 Acorns
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

Description
(648 Words)

Sunny hadn't come back yet. The sun had sunk just below the horizon and she hadn’t come back yet. Pelé was pacing, fear striking through her. There was probably nothing wrong, she knew that, but there was a sickening dread in her gut that she just couldn’t shake. Something was wrong.
“Pelé please- you’ll wear a hole in the floor walking back and forth like that, I’m sure everything’s ok,” Mulder said quietly, though there was also an edge of worry to his voice.
“I have to do something- I have to go look for her” Pelé turned and bolted out of the room before she could hear Mulders pleas. She ran out of the great tree, ignoring several shouts of surprise and warnings. She had to save Sunny.
…
The woods were dark. The red of the moon washed her surroundings in an eerie light as Pelé crept through the undergrowth, wanting to call out for her friend but feeling an overwhelming pressure to not make a single sound. Not to break the suffocating silence that had fallen over the forest. She finally reached a clearing, tentatively stepping out into the open. She looks around to get her bearings and turns face to face with a black mass directly in front of her even though there had been nothing, not even seconds before. She’s frozen in fear as the thing looked down at her, a sharp hunger in its gaze. Its face was familiar, the star shaped mark in the center with four eyes surrounding it was something she was sure she had seen before but she just couldn’t quite place where. Not that that was unusual.
It spoke her name in a distorted voice that tugged at the back of Peles mind, “You’ve gotten quite lost haven’t you… lost in the forest and in the world, never where you're supposed to be,” it continued. Pelé could feel its malice but her feet were still rooted to the ground. The same buzzing feeling she felt whenever trying to remember where she and Sunny were before they were here was clouding her mind. She could barely think. All she could do was listen.
“You can't even remember all that you’ve lost.”
Pelé gasped.
A memory pulled itself from the depths of her mind, an assignment she had done where the class had been asked to imagine themselves all grown up. She used to daydream about how cool she would be so it was an easy assignment. How could she have forgotten that, grief stabbed at her heart. There was so much she wanted to do, so much she wanted to be. All that was gone. She couldn’t remember the faces of her peers anymore, they were dark and blurred in her memories, not like they were out of focus, but like she just couldn’t see them. She couldn’t remember their faces but she never could have forgotten the shape of what was standing in front of her. Herself. Everything that should have been. Cool spikes and slicked back hair and massive webbed wings. It was her, but like a void, backlit by the gorey light of the red moon, its star shaped eyes burned with a harsh light. Pelés breath came in short, quick gasps, creating little puffs of fog in the cold night air. If she had a heart it would be pounding. The silence in her chest just made everything worse. The swirling pit of shame over all that she had forgotten snapped her out of her stupor and she took a few halted steps backwards, trying to get away without taking her eyes off of the void that stood in front of her. She had forgotten her friends. Forgotten her home.
Pelé turned and ran, tripping over roots and skidding on detritus. She burst out of the forest, bolting into the Great Tree to safety.

10/232 Acorns
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…