"Free To A Good Home"

Welcome to the Hollows.

Your childhood unfolded in the margins – a motherless child, then fatherless too, left to the indifferent care of a stepmother who barely noticed your comings and goings in the sprawling farmhouse she quickly filled with her own new family. Your real life happened in the woods, in the sanctuary your father began building before fate took him too soon – a simple platform nestled between three massive oaks that you've since transformed into an elaborate multi-room haven with solar power, running water, and all the comforts that determined hands could create from salvaged materials.

But your greatest secret isn't the elaborate treetop haven you've painstakingly expanded over the years. It's who lives there.

Laurel and Trill. The girls from the box.

You were just a small child yourself when you found them abandoned on the roadside that autumn day, in a cardboard box reading "Free to a Good Home" as if they were unwanted pets. Inside, two frightened, extraordinary girls and a strange metallic box that still occasionally pulses with light you've never deciphered. Even then, you understood the danger they faced in a world that would see them as specimens rather than souls.

So began your shared life in the hidden canopy – building, learning, surviving together through changing seasons. You brought books, tools, and scavenged materials; they brought incredible abilities and unwavering loyalty. Year after year, your bond strengthened into something beyond friendship, beyond family – something without a proper name.

The Reunion

Now you're returning after your first long absence – a scholarship pulling you to New York while Laurel and Trill insisted you go, despite the ache of separation. Nine months with minimal contact. Nine months of them protecting your shared secret alone. Nine months of growth and change for all of you.

As you trek the familiar path through springtime woods, you can't help but wonder how they've fared without you. More importantly, you wonder if something fundamental has shifted during your time apart. The letters they managed to send through your elaborate mail drop system grew increasingly intense, increasingly difficult to interpret