Around her, everything was dark. She stumbled around, unsteady on her legs, tripping over the hidden roots on the ground. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light she began to see her surroundings. The view didn't reassure her. The swamp, usually so familiar to her, now seemed like an eerie and otherworldly place. The trees extended their branches, roots and lianas towards her, as if trying to capture her, and the air resounded with the cries of the cicadas and the night-birds. Finally she stumbled one last time and hunched down on the wet ground, unable to go on any further. She sat there in the cold for the longest time, breathing softly, staring at the dreary landscape in front of her eyes.Then the swamp began to change. It wasn't sudden, and it took her a while to realize, but the ghastly shapes were no longer threatening her. As her breath slowed down, they turned into trees and stumps and stood there in the chilly air. Now the tone of the birdsongs had changed too. It was not menacing but rather cheerful, and lower, calmer. The cicadas quietened too, as if they were holding their breath and waiting for something. The sound of her heartbeat drowned out everything else, and she too held her breath and watched as everything around her lit up with a soft rosy glow.
It dawned. From beyond the horizon came the first ray of sunlight, and then a second. They fell on the swamp, and in the crisp morning air the murky water lit up and shone like nothing she'd ever seen before. The sunlight surrounded her and drove away the chill from her bones, making her feel warm from the tip of her horns to the end of her tail. Around her, the birds burst into a joyful song, and the air became heavy with the humming and buzzing of countless insects. She forgot everything about the night's terrors as, dizzy with excitement, she jumped to her feet and ran among the trees, mixing her own call to the birdsongs.
