Title: Whistling Away The Dark
Fandom: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Rating: G
Length: 200 words
Content Notes: n/a
Author Notes: Title from the Henry Mancini song.
Summary: Hermia in the woods, searching for Lysander.



Hermia awoke with a scream. She could still feel the serpent's teeth on her chest until she twisted around and the branch that had pressed into her skin shifted.
Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and searched for the flash of white from Lysander's clothes, but it was nowhere to be seen. Carefully she moved to the spot where he had lain down to sleep. She searched the forest ground with her hands, but she only got hold of dry leaves. An insect crawled over her hand and startled her into a full-body shake.
She must not stay.
She listened to the sounds of the forest. Suddenly, she heard a tiger in every crack of the branches, a wild boar in every rustle of leaves.
She must find Lysander, find out why he was gone from her side.
She pursed her lips and began to whistle, softly, to herself. It was a lullaby her mother had sung to her when Hermia had been very small. A way into the darkness then; now it seemed to lift the shadows before her.
She moved deeper into the forest, a tune her only weapon against whatever lurked in the dark.