As the night went on, the feast began to die down. Tak and Unie had crashed after dancing the night away and eating as much food as their small stomachs could hold. Carla had passed out after drinking barrels of booze that she had a drinking contest with between her and half the strongest looking men in the tribe. Tianlong was still being talked to by a bunch of the older women and continued to sit in awkward silence as the women complimented, questioned, and flirted with him. Happy was talking up a storm to Kabuto while the shadow had his head in his hand and a mug of beer in the other, clearing suffering the consequences of drinking while speaking to Happy. Stell went to retrieve Tak and Unie to take some place more suited for the children to sleep.

Selena pointed the witch in the direction of a tent the tribe had set up for the newcomers. Stell thanked her aunt before carrying Unie in her arms and taking Tak's hand to guide him to the tent. Inside, giant potato bags and buck skin bags stuffed with feathers were spread across the grass covered ground.

Stell gently set Unie down on one to the side before laying Tak down in the one next to her. The young witch tucked the children in their bags before beginning to make her way to a different bag of her own to sleep in.

"Stell," Unie's tired voice squeaked, "can you sing us a lullaby?"

Stell began to tell the nymph she wasn't sure if she knew any good ones to help her fall asleep, but was shocked by Tak's sudden plea. "Please," the fire mage yawned, "Kabuto does that and tells stories some times."

Shadows sing lullabies? Stell thought puzzled. She wondered what a shadow lullaby sounded like. Did it talk about the darkness and how "welcoming" it was? Was it eerie or actually enjoyable to listen to? Kabuto can sing?

Stell shook her thoughts away before returning to sit between Tak and Unie and trying to remember any lullabies her mother used to sing to her when she was little. It had been so long and Xyla made sure to make every dream a nightmare when Stell went to sleep in her frightening dungeon. She had stopped singing herself to sleep not long after Arlin began punishing her because it bugged him when he fell asleep.

There was, however, one song she recalled. The one that her mother sang almost every night when none of the others worked.

"Feel the wind beneath your wings
Feel the beating of your heart
My dear, the winter cold it brings
But below bitter snow, spring will soon start

Hear him howling at the moon
Hear her sing a happy tune
The days go on and pass me by
But together we'll be, you and I

Oceans they may rise
leaves may fall
But I'll be there through it all
Even beyond stormy skies

Feel the wind beneath your wings
Follow the tale of future kings
Find who you are someday
For in your heart, there I'll be always."

The quiet snoring of the children after the song gave Stell the chance to gingerly move away from the two and make her way to her own bag to sleep in. She repeated the song in her head over and over, remembering all the words as best she could. She tried putting the words to her mother's voice, but all she could hear was her own. Stell didn't want to hear her voice anymore. She wanted to hear her mother's. She wanted her father to here with her so he could see Happy again. Even if it would be his last chance. She wanted them to come back and relive the life they lived before. She wanted something to return to when she got the Grimorie.

Stell covered her face to muffle her sobs as she slipped into another, painful night of crying herself to sleep.