Chapter 7 Kindling The Spark

• The next few weeks passed in a feverish haze for Olivia. An all-consuming restlessness hummed through her veins, a preternatural force propelling her to wander the labyrinthine trails winding through the dense forest surrounding her village.
• No matter how deep she delved or how many miles she logged trekking the mossy footpaths, the sense of yearning stillness perpetually eluded her. Like a sailor hopelessly adrift on uncharted seas with only the phantom lodestar of an inner compulsion to navigate by, Olivia roamed the emerald cathedral of towering pines and oaks each day until dusk.
• Only upon returning home under the celestial glow of the full moon would her soul settle into an uneasy rapture - yet even then, every fiberof her being remained tautly attuned to the primordial frequencies susurrating through the night. Slumbering with her window open, each haunting chorus of lupine howls echoing through the obsidian depths reverberated straight into her bone marrow.