Excerpt: Quest (working title!)

34

Trees have always seemed like silent, innumerable authority figures—always judging, never quite punishing, never rewarding, but shaping your behavior through their presence nevertheless. They’re alive, like you—it’s quite evident. And the trees here, in the tall, brown woods, are larger than the streamside ones you’re comfortable with. These trees know things you don’t.
Yet if you never wander through a place like this, how will you ever learn?
They block out a lot of the starlight you’re used to. Even the moon has trouble shining through sometimes. It’s eerie. You find your way by smell, and eat sparingly, but the time comes when you aren’t quite sure exactly which way you came from, and you haven’t got much clue what you can eat, or how to catch the mice and voles you hear skittering about. Water voles you know how to snag—but so far from the river, you’re out of your element.
The idea occurs to you—so long as you’re transforming your life so utterly anyhow, maybe you should take to being awake in the daytime, rather than the night. At least then there should be enough light to find your way around—and there may be daytime treasures you’d otherwise miss.

“No—one step at a time. There’s no prey in the daytime, and I don’t want to starve.” Section 39.
“I may as well. Here’s to a long sleep and a new, diurnal me.” Section 37.