Why, you're not a hummingbird. [Graham/Savannah]

Tragically beautiful, this time of year. Fall was lonely. Trees shook their limbs free of leaves, there was a foreboding chill in the wind that swept through the valley, creatures departed in search of warmth in some tropical, unknown paradise...

Graham sighed. Then again, everything was tragically beautiful to him. He viewed the world through cracked lenses. Regardless of season, there would be beauty. And there would be accompanying pain. There would be loneliness, and sorrow, and loss. But didn't those walk hand-in-hand, anyway? Life is a carefully balanced scale, after all. Light and dark. Yin and yang. Good and bad.

The pond area seemed empty to him as he made his way through the carpet of shed leaves on the ground. He bit his lip and sighed once more. Even when he did dare to venture out of his house, which had been rare in the last few seasons, admittedly, he could not seem to find warmth. Literally, he noted as he shivered involuntarily and pulled his jacket closer to his thin body, or...figuratively. No company, no friendly touch...no friends at all, actually. And whose fault was that, in the end? He had no one to blame. He wasn't even sure if he was looking to point fingers at all. It was only him in the end.

On a whim, he altered his path and decided to scale a nearby tree. The branches were already barren; one snapped as he made his way up and whipped across the backs of his knees. He hissed and cursed under his breath, and flung himself onto a sturdy branch. Rubbing the backs of his kneecaps and muttering, he surveyed the valley from under heavy eyelashes. He reached out a hand...and brushed his fingertips against an empty nest.

He frowned. This was no time of year for any birds to be nesting. He peered into the straw basket and saw cracked, empty shells. Must've been a late mating season this year, he mused, befuddled. He glanced around, as if he was expecting a tell-tale song to ring out through the quiet, alerting him to the presence of a feathered guardian. Birds were respected in this place. It was calming to watch them, when one could. So he looked around, trying to see if he could find one.