SE VI

"We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed, and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature."

—Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

"Quiet people always know more than they seem. Although very normal, their inner world is by default fronted mysterious and therefore assumed weird. Never underestimate the social awareness and sense of reality in a quiet person; they are some of the most observant, absorbent persons of all."

—Criss Jami, Healology

"It's the unknown that draws people."

—E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly, (Gadfly Saga, #1)

***

Later that day, when the clock strikes at 8 in the evening, Xenia snuck out of their house without his parents knowing.