Spreading the picnic spread on the slightly damp grass gave Falcon nostalgia for a moment that hadn't even happened. He had always imagined himself giving Aurelia a picnic of sorts in this very same forest...not the place where they had killed the rabid wolf that Xander had sent their way.
They could have cheese sandwiches and apple juice, and lots and lots of handpicked flowers. Alaska could have come, if she behaved and not hogged Aurelia's attention. They could have lied together and stared at the sky, and then talked till the darkness would have covered the world except the two of them.
The library was all but destroyed and they had scavenged what they could...taking it upstairs and dumping books everywhere. Aurelia had shed a few tears at the catastrophic sight and Shayma had stared in disbelief at all the sculptures, her eyes shining. Falcon had decided they had to get out of there.
