Another Sleepless Night

Kept awake, and not for the first time, by grim thoughts of what had never been and what could not be undone, he had unwittingly witnessed the passing of a strange phantom. Leaned upon his axe in a forest clearing filled with moonlight, the brooding man observed a woman staggering through the trees in a westerly direction. How she did not hear the lumbering footsteps following her was a mystery. He trailed her until she came upon the Road and continued to follow through the southern gate of the village. Only when she vanished into one of the village taverns did he turn aside and melt back into the shadows, satisfied that the strange creature had escaped harm.