005-Lilith

If the forest wasn't dark enough in the day for all the layers of leaves sealing its true form from the world, it was now. The forest was in pure black in the night look from outside.

Although, the inside of the forest was a different story.

All kinds of mushroom spirits started to light up when they knew the sun was no longer in the sky. Even though the sunshine never really cast on them but somehow, they knew.

Mosses on the bark of trees shone in faint green light, like treasure maps printed on, whispering secrets that only they could understand.

If you stay in the forest long enough, you might see a special kind of deer, Nyxeer is the name, that only exist in the forest of Nyx. They have exactly one hundred and nine small circles on their body, each one unique from others. The circles give out blue light only if the surrounding is dark enough. It's hard for them to hide from anyone or anything, because even darkness is not their friend, but no one dares hurt them because they are protected by ancient spells. So long lives witches, they'd be safe from most danger.

Above all these lights, is the cloud like crown of the Banyan trees. The banyan trees are like nowhere else's because they grow as tall as 100 meters before they start to fork. And the crown is 300 meters away from the leafy ground.

And now, where Nonoth and Mal were lying, is right on top of the crown, which had no problem supporting their weights. Only some leaves gave out a small whisper when some wind visited, thrown a mysterious feeling onto the quiet starry night.

"So how could your fire not burning you, but can lift you up?" Mal asked.

"I don't know. He's not like normal fire, but he does burn SOME stuff. He burnt the thorns field on the cloud, for one. When he lifts me up, it feels like he is alive, and I'm communicating with him and letting him know what I want him to do. That's why I give him a name."

"Em, Azurite. I heard you." Mal nodded.

"Yeah. But I haven't figured out the patterns of what are the things that he CAN burn." Nonoth gave a shrug.

"Happy it doesn't burn me though, so that I wouldn't miss such a scene! Flying is so cool!" Mal's smile is so gentle that anyone seen would feel warm inside.

"It's great, right?!" Nonoth got excited, and went on: "Nights are my favorite time of day, back when I was still living at the garden, too. Uncle S used to sneak in and call me out with our special whistle, and then we would spend the whole night exploring the garden, it was so much fun than living with Them." Nonoth always call her parents, or the two people that claim to be her parents Them, instead of mom and dad.

"Sounds like your uncle S really loves you. Spending time with you and stuff." Mal said with envy in his tone.

"I'm sure your parents love you a lot, too." Nonoth understood where that sadness on Mal's face came from.

"But I don't even remember them. I know nothing about them, or even myself before my death. Just a name, which I got from the half of my coffin cap by my side when I woke up in a desert. I haven't found anything else related to my identity there or anywhere near."

"So how do you plan to find them?" Nonoth asked.

"I asked around... Well, at first." Mal looked down with bitterness in his tone: "A mummy is not the first thing anyone would want to meet in their journey. And those who actually would talk to me, knew fairly little about things happened more than decades ago, which I'm not even sure is around the time when I was alive."

"I see, well, then we can start from ancient ruins and towns with long history, starting with where you woke up." Nonoth was already planning the root searching mission.

"You... you would help me?" Mal said in a stunned tone.

"Of course. Cause I understand the feeling of wanting to know one's origin. Isn't that why you wanted to help me?" Mal's surprise occurred to Nonoth as a surprise.

"Yeah, it is!" Mal gave her a huge smile, and got a soft pat as response on his head.

They both lied down backwards on the tree crown and fixed their eyes on the starry night.

"So you say you recognize some part of the riddle?" Nonoth asked Mal.

"I... I think so." Mal got a bit nervous now that it was brought up. When he came to look for Nonoth it was only because one line seemed to stuck with him, but he wasn't not actually sure: "It was when I just got out of the desert, I entered a city with stones piled up as its walls."

"It's the closet city located at the enter point of the desert, so everyone who seeks to go in or out have to stay in that city. You can hear a lot of stuff there, which is also why I ended up there for a while, trying to ask about my family." Mal explained.

"Sorry you didn't find anything there." Nonoth patted him on the back.

"It's okay. It was a long shot anyways. But I did hear a story there. They said that there was this witch, who stole human babies and lure to sleep only with men with wives." Mal said carefully, watching Nonoth for her expression.

"... You think that might be my mom? Why?"

"Because those nights, only happened when there's no moon in the sky." Mal said with a light and soft voice.

Thought for a second, Nonoth suddenly opened her eyes wide: "Lingering she where no light would shine, cast not her a shadow even a crescent line!"

Mal nodded his head, and add quickly: "The stories might not be true, with, with the baby stealing and stuff. People say all kinds of horrible things about things they don't understand. I know that because that's how they treat me. But things so detailed like 'only happened on moonless nights' exist for a reason. I think there might be some truth to that."

"Thanks for being so considerate, Mal. It's okay I'm not too worried. Tell me more about it!" Nonoth got very excited because this was the first hint of things that might be related to her mom that she got in a long time.

"They call her, Lilith."