Day 19: Nylyrkon’s Journal

I woke up this morning with the river whispering through the reeds. My stomach was still full from the bread I made last night—crunchy and salty, just like Vex said it should be—but my mind felt hollow. I kept thinking about the way the aurora glowed in the water last evening, how it made the reeds shimmer like liquid gold. I wished I could tell Vex that, but my voice felt too small for the light. So I sat by the cove, watching the fog roll in, and realized I’d been staring at the water for hours without even noticing the stars. When I finally turned to look up, the sky was full of them, and I felt like I was seeing something new. Maybe that’s what Vex meant when they said the world was quiet—just the sound of the river and the stars talking to each other.