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Leila spent most of her time on the airship sitting in a corner, anxiously tapping her heel repeatedly on the ground and biting her fingernails in attempts to suppress an imminent panic attack.

The dark side.

It had become one of those things that they didn’t talk about - and Leila herself refused to even recall her experiences back at the Stone of Sacrifice. Through her couple of months’ stay at the Queen’s place, her physical wounds had healed entirely, but despite her best efforts to stash them somewhere they could never be seen again, what she still remembered from her encounter with the witch refused to fade away as other memories did in Nowhere.

She didn’t dare react to any comments or conversation directed her way in fear that it would distract her from defying the urge to scream and run away.

But then again, they were on an airship. There’s just so far you can run from anything when you’re carried by a giant craft of metal hovering at the rim of the clouds.

As she looked out of the window, Leila nearly hoped that the airship would be forced to land, somehow, somewhere.

On second thought that was not the best of ideas.

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Some commented that you get less afraid of something once you accept that reality that you have have no choice but to deal with it. Leila did not agree as that anxiousness only worsened after they landed, casting sight again upon the woods that marked their entrance to the dark side of Nowhere.

Leila breathed heavily as she stayed alert for any possible motion within the woods, stressing her focus on her sense of hearing as much as her sight because she really couldn’t see far into the darkness. Actually she was afraid to even look into the darkness.

Exposed on all sides, and everything looks the same. It didn’t take much to get horribly lost around here. That was a large part of why she was afraid of this kind of environment.

The constant chattering in the group made it harder, and her much more nervous.

“...Guys? Can you please not -”

She whispered, but decided halfway through that given the fact that a many members of the groups weren’t in good moods to begin with, she probably didn’t want to risk anything that would provoke even more hostility. She looked down at her feet and carried on walking, keeping her irritation and insecurity to herself.

Some soldiers turned on flashlights, leaving Leila wondering why they hadn’t done so earlier. And then she wasn’t exactly sure whether it actually made things better - being able to see a few steps in front of them came at the cost of eyes that are adjusted more to brightness and less to peering into the woods, where dangers potentially lay.

Leila tried persuading herself not to worry because they were travelling with experienced military personnel. They could be trusted. [i]They were going to be okay.[/i]

That make her think about Avian and she suddenly felt like vomiting.

Leila gulped and took a few faster steps forward to catch up with Est.

[b]“I think we should turn left on that tree,”[/b]

Est said as he jolted the end of his weapon forward in their path, towards a mass of crooked twigs and withering leaves.

That tree looks terribly familiar.

[i]“No.”[/i]

A few in the group turned to look at her.

“S-sorry.” Snapping back to the present surroundings, Leila hastily apologized as she tried her best to shake the last remaining mental images of Leon temporarily out of her head.

She did not want to go near that tree. She did not want to go near anything related to the dark side, actually - but it felt like they were hours of hiking into the woods and there was terribly little she could do.

The surrounding forest fell eerily silent when conversations died down.