A hollowing buzz rattle inside his head. Danny woke up to the dark emptiness of the house. Looking around to see the slumbering silhouettes of Mimi or Rolf, he slowly made his way off the make-shift bed and walked outside into night sky. A warm breeze accompanied his efforts as he walked out towards the moon. For some unknown reason, he was drawn to the nightly lulls of the moon, as if seeking a nature long lost to him. The ground was littered with small stones causing him to stumble occasionally and further injure his bruising feet. As he wandered off towards the forest, he spotted a faint flicker of a light far inside the shadowy landscape. Its pulsating rhythm beating in-between the trees seared its way into his mind.

Notions of caution and fear left him as he was drawn closer and closer towards the light. As he motioned forward, he heard the rattling dismemberments of what sounded like bones and joints reverberate off the enclosed surroundings. Each snap and splinter broke through the silent night, accompanied by the subtle, yet distinct echoes of strained, haunted breaths. Peering in from behind the trees, he saw a figure, tall and looming, hacking away at an unresponsive victim. The shadows would dance erratically in the bath of the hazy, blue aura each time the figure's arms had swung downwards. Danny stood still, a helpless spectator to the feverish scene. As if noticing his intrusion, the figure's head darted unnaturally towards him. The world ebbed as the whites in its ferocious eyes froze any of Danny's attempt to move.

"Oh hey. You're awake."

A soothing voice which sounded as if it radiated from the environment itself broke Danny from his trance. The onset of a tremendous headache shortly followed afterwards as he approached the kind man who had given them a place and food days before. Now, with a clearing mind, Danny saw that the thing he was hacking at turned out to be just a long portion of a felled tree, laying beneath one of his feet. Shaking off the previous imagery, Danny began looking around listlessly to make sure this was not another dream.

"What's the matter?" The man's brows arched with concern.

"Nothing, sir."

Astor gave a questioning stare before continuing with his work. Danny sat down nearby and silently watched as he chopped into the tree, only stopping to tap on the emanating blue orb that hung from a branch overhead. With each tap, the orb would glow brighter for a period of time before dimming again. This cycle continued, and with each renewing glow, Danny felt as though the throbs in his head faded away with the darkness.

He watched as Astor eventually straightened up to dust his hands and examining his work.

"I've crapped up. Danny, can you read me the instructions on Part IV again?"

Astor pointed to the large book that laid open a few feet to his left. Danny quickly scrambled to the object and lifted it towards his face.

"Um. I-"

Danny could feel the demanding eyes of Astor as he hopelessly attempted to decipher the text.

"Oh, I forgot that you can't read yet. Hmm. That's Troublesome."

Danny felt saddened by his inability to be of use. His mother died, and his father drank most of the time, so he had never gotten the opportunity. They sat in momentary silence before Astor took the book from him.

"Don't worry. You'll learn soon enough. Ask me anytime when you wish to learn the letters."

Danny looked around intently to see if he could find anything to help with. Towards the edges of the light, he spotted as a small tree next to Astor slowly tilt off its support towards the distracted reader. Danny attempted to warn Astor to the impending hazard but to no avail.

"TREE!"

He watched as the pillar crashed into the back of Astor's head with a resounding pop. The man stumbled a few steps forward before catching himself. Danny waited for some sort of response from Astor, but the silent figure did nothing, and, without a word, began shuffling towards him with his head down.

"These..." Astor pointed to four letters in the book. "are the letters for tree."

Danny was handed back the book and watched in puzzlement as the man crumbled to the ground to lay face-up towards the starry night. Looking again at the text, Danny struggled to find where the four letter last were. Quickly scanning through the book and finding the four letters again, Danny couldn't help but notice a few other symbols that had looked the same to the ones Astor had mentioned. Looking up from the book to see the tall man still sprawled out on the floor, Danny spoke up meekly.

"This word is not Tre-e?"

Astor crawled over to read the text.

"No, that's trunk. As in tree trunk."

Trunk had one more letter than tree. So it each letter had to be for how long the word sounded for.

"And this is?" Danny pointed to another word.

"That's Trace. As is when you to make an outline of the object."

"What's outline?"

"Its. Um. When you imagine the shape of something and put it somewhere else."

Danny didn't know what shape meant, but he understood, from the hand gestures, that it was probably whatever the object looks like without color and detail.

"This is Tra-. What is this?"

"That's trail. It is what you walk on while going through the forest or a town or anywhere. A path."

Danny knew what a trail was. Eager to experiment with these newly learned words, he quickly scanned through the book, flipping through 8 or 9 pages before coming on a word that was very different but had all the letters he had learned.

"This is. Trunk. -unk. -un. And um.. Trail. -il... a-ace. -UN-IL-ACE. Is that it?" Danny looked up for confirmation. He thought he had gotten it correct when he saw the surprise in Astor's eyes.

"Close. That's unlace, meaning to unwind a piece of lace that is tied or wound up."

Danny frowned and began hungrily flipping through pages for another word.

"Don't push yourself. There's a much easier way of learning that doing that. Come on, let's go home. We both should be asleep by now."

Astor dimmed the glowing orb before leading the way back home. Danny followed suit, still eager to understand the deep meaning hidden within the simple book pages. Danny was briefly patted on the head before Astor lifted him in between the two, unsettled bodies on their bed.

"Tommorrow, make sure to stay out of trouble for the person bringing you food."

Danny continued peering at the dimming light of Astor's orb hanging on the wall until drowsiness soon overtook the attractive glow.

It looks like the sunrise a little bit, Danny thought as he slowly slumped into a deep sleep.