It was night. Pitch black. There were puffy, white clouds surrounding the moon and stars, blocking out all light from entering the medicine den. Monarchflutter was awake, though. And she felt different. She felt changed. She felt... better. Tossing and turning in her nest for a few minutes, she finally blinked open her eyes, awake. She sighed. She wasn't going to get back to sleep anytime soon now. Oh well. Yawning, she stood up and stretched, continuing to pad out of the medicine den and over to the center of camp. It was dark, but just a patch of light showed through the clouds, so she could see a bit, but barely. Monarchflutter gazed at the cloudy, dark sky and smiled. It was how she felt most times. Like everything buried her emotions and she couldn't show her true self to anyone. But whatever, right? What did her feelings matter? She frowned and started to return back to the medicine den, but something caught her eye. The entrance to camp. Biting her lip, she slowly turned and walked towards it. Monarchflutter stood at the entrance, staring out of it into the sandy dunes. Maybe she could take a step out. Yeah. Maybe? Her paws slowly moved her body out of the entrance, for the first time in literally forever. A sob started to come up in her throat as she continued to walk out of camp, her paws sinking into the sand slightly. Monarchflutter choked out a sob and skipped out of camp, smiling and crying. She had done it- she was out! She ran, until the camp was just a dot in the distance, and kept on going further still. She had done it. She had taken that next step. She was new again.
