Strax led the group as soon as they crossed the edge of the stone road and stepped onto the forest floor. The contrast was immediate. The light, which had previously spread freely across the open field, now filtered into narrow beams between dense canopies, creating long, irregular shadows that moved slowly with the swaying of the leaves.
He walked with calm steps, almost too relaxed for someone leading a potentially dangerous incursion. His dark cloak lightly brushed the ground, and his eyes scanned the surroundings with trained attention, capturing details that most would ignore: the way the birds avoided certain branches, the strange silence in some stretches, the very faint metallic smell in the air.
