(motioning at the sky)

Now … They’re expecting you.

Rustling in the foxgloves. White Fox steels herself and approaches them. A little head pops out from inside the foxgloves, then a second. Beaming, gorgeous little angels with eyes like saucers.

THAÏS

Coocoo!

Then two sets of hands, bearing tiny compresses stained with the juice of flower buds.

MANON

They aren’t perfect, but they should work.

MANON mimes placing the compress in her mouth, and White Fox does so, bemused. THAÏS and Manon then take White Fox’s hand and pull her inside the foxgloves, then through the overgrown grass, and up the ladder, set with twinkling lights.

INT. MAGICAL FOREST GARDEN CABIN — NIGHT

Inside the cabin, there are beds made of the finest down, rows of prized chocolates saved for her, and saucers set with her favorite teacups. They guide her toward the cushioning by the cabin opening, which looks out into Limatra and beyond. It glitters in the dark. Even the sea is visible.

WHITE FOX

I can see everywhere I’ve been.

MANON

And everywhere you haven’t been yet. See, over there? It’s the three of us, knee-deep in the sea, about to dive for more freshly cracked sea urchin, since Tai has gobbled the first up.

THAÏS

And over there, we’re visiting the shore as old ladies with our children! Look how my daughter beat Noni’s son in a race to the deli. She’s a quick girl.

Manon grins.

THAÏS (CONT’D)

(sighing)

This is a very special spot.

MANON

(pointing at the row of foxglove sentinels, and CLIENT 2 / MAN ON THE MOON tending to the memorial)

And a safe one.

They settle onto the cushions, and White Fox feels at her mouth, still bulging from the compress. The bleeding hasn’t stopped—it won’t stop—but it has lessened.

That’s when the Vampyrrhic Boy appears, climbing up the rungs of the ladder and peeking into the dark of the tree house.

VAMPYRRHIC BOY

(shyly)

I’ve … come from the cemetery. The shadows, they … I understand now.

WHITE FOX

Me too. I’m sorry, dear one. From now on I’ll have the courage to call you what you are, and face every shadow with fresh calm, together.

The children watch her intently. Thaïs reaches up to dab at White Fox’s face.

WHITE FOX

(blinking fast)

Do I look a fright?

THAÏS

Beauty isn’t that which is beautiful …

MANON

It is that which pleases us.

White Fox’s face softens.

EXT. MAGICAL FOREST GARDEN — NIGHT

Drifting over Viloxin’s lights and forests, among the stars.

WHITE FOX (V.O.)

It is a good treatment, this kind and patient love, if I tend to it. It grows with me. I have no master anymore—no master but myself. So I will gratefully devote myself to this project: To tending our love.

THE END