The songs were over but something kept me from going to my cabin. I'm not sure what it was at first.
A presence? Maybe.
I could sense it. There was warm feeling of a mother's embrace. The sweet scent of freshly baked cookies. The mild hum of a TV in a room. The rich taste on my tongue of hot cocoa right out of the kettle. What was this feeling? It felt so familiar, yet I couldn't put my finger on it.
Coming out of my dazed, I looked around the circle of log seats and realized everyone but a chestnut-colored hair girl and I, were gone. I was so deeply concentrating on my new-yet-familiar feelings that I didn't notice all the rest of the campers head to their cabins.
*Sizzle, crack*I glanced over at the last remaining girl who was poking at the dim fire of tonight’s activities, with a soot-ended stick. The fire should have burnt out by now or at most have a few soul- surviving glowing ashes. But the way she looked at the wavering fire seemed to give it energy to live.
I focused on her amber eyes as she watched the fire. I could see the flames reflection in them...but wait. It seemed as though the fire was actually in her eyes, as if that is where it was originating from!
She turned her head so that her curious eyes burned into my ogling ones. I quickly shifted my view back to the flames. I slowly sank back into my earlier feeling as I gazed forward.
" Wonderful isn't it? The feel of home that comes from far away places like a campfire. Even after all my years, the fire of a hearth never fails to deliver that feeling." Her voice sounded very wise, but full of comfort, worry, and reassurance. Somehow, it made me remember my mother. Oh, I missed her so much. Slowly, I started to feel homesick creep in.
That was the feeling that was I was experiancing the whole time. Homesickness. I looked back at the girl next to me and in an instant I knew who she was.
" I do agree, it is quite wonderful. Thank you, Lady Hestia!"