AwesomeAndo

A romantic fantasy fable. Also now available as an audio recording: https://soundcloud.com/silalus/lifelong Lifelong © 2022 JT. All rights reserved Aiden moved through the forest with the uncertain waddle of a drunken man, bowlegged and unsteady, stumbling with each step. One hand was outstretched as though to find his way. The other was in his mouth, and he drooled around it. Prodigiously. This was not as bad as it might sound in some ways, and yet in others it was far worse―because he was a toddler at the time. He was a literal babe in the woods. Terror and loneliness filled his mind, of the sort that will either freeze the body or propel it. For him, it did the latter. So he toddled his way through the forest at top speed. All the while, shadows lengthened by the light of the setting sun, then faded by the light of the rising moon. The mournful howl of a wolf rose in the distance. Adults might be somewhere nearby. How far could a toddler get by themselves, after