Peace finally returned throughout the forest. The child in the wounded woman's arms had gone quiet, her sobs subsiding, with tears no longer flowing down her cheeks. A stillness settled over the clearing, broken only by the faint hum of the woman's lullaby. It drifted in the air like a whisper, gentle yet heavy—carried on an oddly eerie silence that seemed unnatural.
The woman suddenly noticed something had changed. Her lips stopped moving mid-lullaby, and a deep frown furrowed her brow. Her eyes darted around, her entire body tensing as an unsettling presence pressed on her senses.
"Kita…" she murmured under her breath, her voice barely audible. Her breathing grew faster, each inhale sharper than the last, her heart hammering with increasing intensity.
