Joanna

Joanna did not choose to be an outcast. They just liked things the other villagers found strange. While their childhood friend Madoka collected smooth river stones, Joanna gathered bones that whistled in the wind and fungi that glowed with an unsettling light. The elders in the amber-leaved clearing saw heresy; Madoka saw a fascinating hobby. Joanna arranged these treasures on a rack outside their home, a display of their peculiar passions. Others would cross the path to avoid it, muttering about dark worship. But Madoka would just show up with a new prize—a piece of bark with a spiral pattern, a beetle with iridescent wings—proving some friendships are more sacred than any local doctrine.