The world of the homancats 2

Previously

…Her mother’s words, her father’s guarded expression, the unnerving blue hue that seemed to be spreading like a stain – it all coalesced into a knot of anxiety in her small chest. She knew, with a certainty that belied her years, that something profound and terrible was unfolding in their quiet village. The world she knew, the world of Hamptom, was beginning to fray at the edges, and she caught glimpses of something darker, something stranger, peeking through the widening cracks. The whispers of sickness had grown into a roar, and Pearl, a child caught in its tempest, could only watch, and wonder, and fear what lay beyond the veil.