You got to know your limits. Once is enough, but you got to learn. A little caution never hurt anyone. A good woodsman has only one scar on him. No more, no less.

let the wind change direction a little bit, and their cries turned to whispers.

The sad truth is that certain types of things can't go backward. Once they start going forward, no matter what you do, they can't go back the way they were. If even one little thing goes awry, then that's how it will stay forever.

[...] Shimamoto had her own little world within her. A world that was for her alone, one I could not enter.