Serenity crouched down to look another herb while humming. She thought about what he had said to her...<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"The living don't understand me... Its like being caught in a rock and a hard place where nothing you do is good enough for them." He said softly. "Living people make me uncomfortable because they stare and judge me just because they do not understand. Or are afraid." He smiled a bit. <br/><br/>"You aren't like that. You don't look at me with fear and hatred. It makes me feel good knowing there is someone other than Momma Christine who doesn't view me as a freak. As someone to be afraid of." He spoke quietly at the end. <br/><br/>"I'm a druid... Nature is supposed to be the magic base a druid controls but not me...mine is spirit based... not worthy of my biological parents love... a monster child." He said in a sad voice.<br/><br/>"... all I wanted to do was please them so they would love me." He sighed a bit. "I ran away one year... I met Momma Christine for the first time. I was crying and she picked me up and hugged me. Told me lots of nice things and sang to me. To someone who had always been treated like they were repulsive it was the best present a kid could ask for... I felt I had to go back. That there was hope... Over the years I would run into Christine and stay with her for some time. Then feel obligated to go back... I was just hoping that maybe I could win their love. It never worked out that way but I am not the type of person to give up... So despite Momma Christine offering numerous times to adopt me... I thought maybe if I tried just a little bit harder that they would change. Its why it took me so long to realize all I needed was Momma Christine..."<br/><br/>"It amazes me that you think my gift is a good one. I had come to believe it a curse that made me undesirable and forbidden to others." <br/><br/>"You are not alone anymore. You have me too... For now you have a second who is me. I know what its like to feel forever alone. I know the feeling well." He smiled a bit at her.<br/><br/>"You shouldn't feel alone when you have friends. I don't feel as alone now that I have Momma Christine and I'm guessing you." <br/><br/>"I could only imagine such a curse Serenity. I still don't see anything other than a beautiful woman before me." She could hear his honesty.</span><br/><br/>While all of that made her either blush or want to torture his family, the big kicker was<span style="font-style: italic">"Are we friends too Serenity?"</span>She hadn't answered him yet, in her haste to make sure he couldn't see her blush and so her depression of forever alone didn't get to her.<br/><br/>He had stood up and followed her as did the Yuurei. They swarmed behind him like an Aura field. After a bit, while she was singing he had said, "The forest doesn't scare me like the living tends to." Though it is understandable, you know where you stand with nature, but not with people.<br/><br/>She could hear the Yuurei's murmurs as she sang and when she stopped, their Aura's dancing about. She could feel his eyes on her as she picked herbs. She stopped humming, "Koda, do you know anything about herbs?" She leaned back and peered up at his standing form.<br/><br/>She immediately caught his sheepish look,<span style="font-style: italic">So he doesn't know anything... Christine you should have taught him.</span>She motioned for him to crouch beside her, and once he did she handed him the list.<br/><br/>"This plant here..." She gently took it out of the ground, root and all, "... is thyme. It is number twelve on the list. Thyme..." And she began to lecture him on the properties of the plant, amongst other things. Serenity also had him get one or two out of the ground himself, after showing him how to remove the plant without damaging it.<br/><br/>She continued on until she felt it was getting close to daybreak and noticed Koda getting tired. She lead him back to the graveyard where he put the Yuurei to sleep - or she thought that's what he was doing - before taking him inside. She stopped in the foyer and turned to Koda.<br/><br/>"Indeed, I am not alone, but no one will be here with me forever. And that is the loneliness I fear, but conquer daily." She paused and headed towards the kitchen, before turning her head and looking over her shoulder, "I bid you goodnight Koda, my tomodachi ã€Œã¨ã‚‚ã ã¡ã€." With that she entered the kitchen to put the herbs away.<br/><br/>She heard Christine and Koda speak as she was cleaning the dirt off the herbs and storing them in their rightful containers. She also took a few for herself to put in her medical bag, before leaving the kitchen. Koda and Christine were nowhere in site as she headed downstairs to her room in the dungeons. She took a shower and wrote in her 783rd journal about the last few weeks and about the mystery of Koda. She wrote until nightfall.