300
Though the young Inferni woman had lived there since last fall, she had often skirted around this place, avoiding the deadly beauty it offered to anyone who would look. Perhaps she hadn’t come sooner because of Valkyrie – she used her daughter as an excuse whenever she felt like she was holding back. It was easy to say that she couldn’t do something because he daughter was still too young, or she needed to go look after Valkyrie. The girl was getting older now, and Ryan knew that excuse would no longer hold up to being feasible.
It was another miserable day, but that was to be expected. It hadn’t felt like summer at all these past few weeks, and had she not known, Ryan would have guessed it was still April. The rain had diminished to a thick mist, drenching everything it could touch. Ryan hardly noticed; she had situated herself at the base of the waterfall, allowing a few sparse branches of a tree to offer some shelter. She had been thinking a lot lately about the advice that Jefferson had given her. She had been told not to let go of DaVinci, but Ryan had to wonder if that was even possible. Could she continue to live her life here in Inferni if she were to try and preserve her relationship? She had started to think that it wasn’t possible, and she wasn’t about to give up her home for him. Not yet, not now. She had told Jefferson that she loved DaVinci, and she did believe that, but there were some things Ryan knew she just couldn’t sacrifice from love. Inferni, the only family she knew, was one of them.
Though the mist had heavily collected around the bottom of the waterfall, there was no sun to light the prisms into a ribbon of color. Ryan was only greeted by the soft drone of the water crashing down the ravine and the soft patter as the leaves around her gently swayed into one another.