“A shadow in your eyes
Makes a good disguise.
Scatter, scatter
We all blow away…”

“Daddy?! Daddy!” I called out into the darkness. The last thing I remembered was the pain, and my Daddy promising that everything would be alright. I was sick, wasn’t I? But Daddy was an alchemist! Daddy promised!

Eventually, as I cried alone in the dark, I heard a faint voice. “Dana…” I turned, trying to find the source of the voice that had called my name.

It sounded like Daddy, but it was so old! Did he get sick, too?! “Daddy, I’m here!” I rose from the darkness, and tried to run towards the voice. I felt something pulling me, drawing me towards… something. I don’t know how to explain it! There was this little voice in my head, but it wasn’t a voice, and it wanted me to run to Daddy.

So I ran. I ran and I ran, and I lost track of how far or how long I had to run. Every now and then, I would hear his voice again, and it would keep me going.

Finally, I saw a light ahead. No, wait, was it a light? It looked like… me? But I was me, so how could a light be me? Though I felt like… I felt like Daddy was in the light. And that little not-voice wanted me to go into it.

The not-voice had brought me this far, so I listened again. I ran to the light, and jumped right into it. When I did, color exploded in the darkness around me! There was a flash of light, and I was able to see the world again, just like before I got sick!

Go away, not-voice, there’s Daddy! I could see him slumped against a nearby wall, and ran over towards him. His hair was lighter than I remembered it, and his face had more wrinkles. He looked like an old man, but that was him! I knew it was him!

“Dana… is it you?” He asked, his voice dry and cracked.

“Don’t be silly!” I told him, feeling tears welling up in my eyes. How long had it been since I was able to cry? “Who else would it be?”

His lips parted in a happy smile, and he closed his eyes. He needed to rest after making me better, so I just hugged him and helped him into a nearby chair. Once he was in it, I nodded to myself and began looking around. Daddy’s lab really changed while I was gone!

There used to be beakers and flasks full of funny colored liquid that I was never allowed to touch, and rows of herbs hanging from hooks in the ceiling. But that was all gone now! Now there were these weird little drawings on the wall. Ooh, was Daddy studying magic again!? Some of these drawings looked a little bit like me, but others had these weird patterns that always showed up whenever someone used big magic.

I hummed a familiar tune to myself while I looked around his new lab, seeing if there was anything I could play with without getting in trouble. Eventually, I found an old dusty mirror hanging on the wall, and let out a cute little squeal before covering my mouth with my hands and looking back to make sure I didn’t wake him up.

Thankfully, it seemed that he was still sleeping peacefully on his chair, his chest slowly rising and falling. I smiled, nodding happily to myself before rushing over towards the mirror. It was high up on the wall, obviously for Daddy himself to use, so I had to carry a stool over to stand on.

Carefully, I climbed up the stool, spreading my arms out to balance myself and make sure I don’t fall down. When I looked at the mirror, I was planning on making a funny face, but covered my mouth again to hold in my gasp.

I still looked… mostly as I remembered? But my eyes… They weren’t always that dull, were they? No, no, they were a bright and happy green, just like Daddy’s potions! Why do they look all muddy now?

I looked back to see him sleeping in the chair, wondering if I should wake him up and ask if everything was okay with my eyes. But no, no! Good girls let Daddy sleep when he’s tired. It’s been so long, I wanted to be good again.

Instead, I slid a chair over from one of the tables, wincing every time it screeched against the wooden floorboards. I moved it over next to his chair, and climbed up into it, before leaning into his side and hugging him again. I could wait to ask him when he woke up…

As I thought about that, I felt my eyelids starting to grow heavy, tiredness settling over me. It’s been so long since I really slept… I just let myself drift away. And then I was in the darkness again, all alone. But now, it was oddly… warmer. The darkness didn’t seem as scary anymore.

After I played around in the darkness for a little while, I noticed itty bitty spots of grey seeping in, like smoke or a fog. I gave a little shout, scared that I might have set something on fire, and the little smoke flew away as if startled.

… Did the smoke just want to play, too? I walked over to where I had seen it, and looked around. “Uhm… it’s alright? You can come out now!” I shouted, my voice echoing deep in the dark.

Seeming happy that it had been invited back, the smoke returned, slowly crawling over my ankles. It kind of tickled, causing me to giggle for a bit before reaching down and picking it up. I know, I know, you can’t pick up smoke! But I did, honest! I picked it up and it rested in my hand.

The smoke felt all tingly in my palm, so I brought a finger up to it and poked it, and it began to jiggle like a slime. Maybe the smoke was really a little slime friend? Thinking that, I used my hands to mold a new shape for the smoke, making it look like one of my old clay dolls.

Surprisingly, once I was done shaping it, the smoke changed colors, or… changed somethings. It wasn’t smoke anymore, okay?! It actually turned into my clay doll! There was the little red line I had drawn for the mouth, the wiggly little eyes I had Daddy buy from the aunty down the street, and even the cute button nose that I had gotten from… I couldn’t remember who I got the button from, but that’s okay! I’m sure they were nice if they gave me such a cute, heart-shaped button!

Unfortunately, it seemed my playtime in the darkness was over. I saw the light appear again in front of me, but this time the not-voice wasn’t telling me to enter it… Still, I knew I needed to go out. Daddy was waiting for me!

When I opened my eyes, I saw that he wasn’t sitting in the chair next to me anymore. And… I was wrapped up in a cozy, warm blanket. Smiling, I nuzzled my head into the familiar blanket before sliding down from the chair, holding it close to my chest.

I could smell breakfast cooking, so I rushed out through the open door of the lab. “Daddy!” I shouted out happily, seeing him standing in his alchemist’s apron, flipping over some eggs on an iron skillet.

He laughed, turning around to face me. There was a weird look in his eyes for a moment, but it faded away when he saw me. “Good morning, Dana. Did you sleep well?”

“Uh-huh!” I nodded my head quickly. “I dreamed of this big black space again. But this time, there was a little smoke friend, and I made it into one of my old dollies!”

His eyes widened a bit at that, looking surprised. It was a pretty weird dream, but it was fun! Daddy asked me if I was hungry, but I wasn’t so I just sat down with him and hummed to myself while he ate.

After he was done, he said that he wanted to play a little game. At first, I was excited, but his game was boring. He kept asking me questions that he wanted me to answer. Daddy already knew what my favorite color was! And of course he knew that I was only twenty-six! I don’t turn twenty-seven until just after Sheawynn!

He nodded his head to each question, his smile growing more and more. “Okay, you’re doing great, Dana. Now, do you remember your Mommy’s name?”

Curiously, I tilted my head, staring up to him. “What’s a mommy?” That was a strange word! With how he used it… was it like a teacher? Or one of the aunties that live down the street?

His smile broke for a moment, and Daddy looked like he was going to start crying. “I’m sorry!” I yelled out as I reached over to hug him. Hugs always cheered Daddy up.

After that, he didn’t seem to want to play the game anymore, but that was okay! It wasn’t a very fun game anyways, and it made Daddy cry. I didn’t like that game anymore!

Once he was feeling better, Daddy took me outside. I could tell right away that we had moved while I was sleeping. The houses near ours looked different. And there were all these weird people walking around that I never saw before.

I knew about the funny beast-eared people, but there were others that didn’t have tails or animal ears. They looked like elf kids, kind of, but with even smaller kids walking with them! Then there were the little fat ones that walked around, usually with really big beards. Oh, those were dwarves! I remembered hearing about them when I got sick.

But then there were the big horse-people! I know I never met them. I’d definitely remember that. They looked like they could give fun rides!

As we walked down the road, lots of people greeted Daddy. Some even asked about me. But, Daddy didn’t let me answer. He said that I was his granddaughter, and that I had moved in with him after I got sick, but I was all better now!

The aunties and uncles smiled, reaching down to pat my head when they heard that. They seemed really nice, like the people where we used to live! Some of them even asked if I could play with their kids sometimes, and I thought that’d be amazing! I wasn’t able to play with any of my friends while I was sick. Smoke friend was the first one that I had to play with in a while.

Daddy walked me around town for a while longer, before dark clouds began to appear in the sky. It seemed like a storm was coming, so we had to hurry back inside. Still, it was fun to be able to walk around outside! I saw so many new people, and they all seemed so happy!

I just couldn’t shake the question that had been bothering me ever since we played that game. What’s a mommy? I’d have to ask Daddy again when he was feeling better! Or maybe one of the aunties would be able to tell me.

It wasn’t nice to keep secrets… but I could forgive him. Daddy had been working so hard to make me better. He was probably really tired and just didn’t want to make me worry or something. Hmm… why would I be worried?