You said you'd be back. You said you wouldn't leave me. You gave me your word. Yet... it's been thirty years. Ten years I waited for you. Ten years was already way to long. I thought you would be back in a weak. I thought you'd actually cared about me more so than the forest.

"Just wistful dreaming." I sigh.

I slam my axe into another tree. I didn't think you'd actually abandoned me. I thought... I thought you would at least pull me back to the right direction. I thought... never mind. I'm too old to dwell on the past. I watch the tree fall. I walk forward and run my hand over the tree's wood.

I slam my axe onto it. I was ten! I was just ten when you left me on that willow tree. You never showed your face to me. You didn't come back! I had to grow and fight on my own! I had to tame my wild side all on my own. I look around at my animals. I suppose I'm not exactly on my own but how could they understand my pain? But... I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm better than I ever was. I break a piece off.

"Ibis, come here." I say.

He groans and lumbers over pulling the cart. I don't know why I'm still here in Corona, but King Edmund has said for us to help rebuild Corona. I put another log onto the cart.

"Not too heavy, is it?" I ask him.

He licks the side of my face. I wipe it.

"I'll take that as a no." I climb onto him.