After Enja had stormed out of the room, it became eerily silent. The only sound one could hear was the fire place. Ellora stood still, staring at the now closed door. Would Enja ever forgive her? Regret filled her heart. Her eyes began to sting and in a blink of an eye, she let herself fall down to her knees. Heavy sobs broke trough the quiet room.

Ellora had always been a strong woman. But now? She was but a shell of what she always seemed to be. She regretted her actions, she truely did. But what could one have done in the moment she was in so many years ago? She couldn‘t have killed him. No one in their right mind would‘ve been able to kill their own husband, the love of their life.

In just mere minutes Ellora‘s life had crumbled to the ground. Azero was back, causing destruction in Erokona. And no one knew how to stop him. If she had killed him back then, their life‘s wouldn’t be at risk now. If she just could’ve been strong enough.

Enja, her own daughter, blamed her. She blamed her for everything that had happened. Because of her stupidity and selfishness Blaine was now dead, her own blood, her son. The pain was unbearable. She felt as if a thousand knifes were being stabbed into her being. But she could not do anything. She could not fix this.

Ah, here I was again. Hanging on my beloved tree with my fellow leaf companions, a harsh storm swirling past us. I never liked storms. I always had to hold on for my dear life, fearing of getting carried away by the wind blows. Beside me I felt the other leafs being just as afraid as I was. We couldn‘t talk, see, nor smell. We couldn‘t do anything beside feel the harsh conditions of the weather and hear our own thoughts. Atleast I always thought that the other leafs could so too. Or was I the only one? I would probably never find out. Besides, it wouldn‘t quite matter if I fell down right now or not. By autumn we will all have fallen anyway. Leafs didn‘t really have a happy life, I realize. We just hang here, waiting for the seasons to change. Did we even have a purpose or were we there so the tree didn‘t feel naked? Did the tree even have it‘s own thoughts? And at last, I was thinking about the most random stuff a leaf could think about until the storm has calmed down. Today I didn‘t fall down to the ground. Maybe my companions have, maybe not. Again, I will never know. In the end I‘m just a single leaf on a tree in the middle of nowhere.

After a long day Willow has finally tucked herself into bed but as soon as she fell asleep, she had to wake up again. With a groan she hastily turned off her alarm clock and stared at her phone screen. Every day was the same routine. Dreading waking up, actually waking up, getting dressed and finally going to work. But in the end it was all a routine to her, she was used to it. She heaved her still asleep body out of bed and got ready for work. Willow hated the thought of going work. Actually, she hated going anywhere. If one heard her daily complaints, they would surely tell her to quit and find a new job. The job was badly paid, they never had enough staff and there were just too many kids. But she never quit. She always put up with it, going to work five times a week. And today was just the same. When she entered the building, greeting colleagues along the way, her anxiety spiked up most of the time. But when the first children arrived it was like a heavy stone was lifted of her shoulders. The children brought her the joy she needed, to still enjoy this job. One particular moment of the day was when she was playing a board game with a kid and she was suddenly interrupted by a poke in her arm. Turning to the kid, Willow always held a smile on her face. „What colour are your eyes?“ the kid had asked. Replying with a simple „green“ the kid was satisfied and went back to the drawing table. At that time Willow didn‘t think much of it. She was curious, of course, but she still went back to the boardback. After finishing playing the kid from earlier had came back, holding a drawing to her face. „It‘s for you!“ the kid had said with a joyful voice. On the drawing was scribbled down a human with green eyes, purple hair and a black outfit. Next to it was a heart filled with all the colours you could possibly imagine. It might not have been a well drawn picture, but to Willow those little gifts were everything. „Thank you so much, you used really colourful pencils.“ And when after another long day she finally came back home, she would put the drawing in a folder dedicated to the gifts she had gotten over her work life. Altough Willow dreaded going to work, she always came back with a smile.

Seven days. For seven days she has been ignoring me. She doesn‘t speak to me, she doesn‘t even look at me. For seven days I‘ve been enduring the most gutwrenching emotions, trying to avoid her presence as much as possible as to not get hurt. But now I‘ve had enough. I can‘t deal with the silence anymore. Therefore, I am now standing infront of her door, contemplating if I should knock or just walk away. It‘s either I walk away and deal with many more days of silence or face her and probably live trough the worst conversation of my life. But before I could even come to a decision the door happened. I stood there, completly caught offguard, looking at the disheveled female infront of me. Her hair was a mess and eyebags painted her eyes; she had just awoken from a nap. „What are you doing here?“, she asked me after a minute of awkward silence. I cleared my troath, looking down. „We need to talk.“ My words came out in a mumble. Taking in all the courage that there is in me, I looked her in the face again. „The words you said to me wound me deeply, but your silence hurts even more.“ She sighed, moving from one feet to another. „I‘m sorry“, her voice was quiet but firm. „Please, come in.“ An invitation to talk things trough. A small smile painted my face as I walked into her home, closing the door behind me. After seven days, it would be okay again.