By the third day, the woods no longer whispered.
They watched.
The caravan crept along the narrowing trail, every wheel creak and hoofbeat swallowed by the thick canopy overhead. The trees were ancient and twisted, their roots like gnarled fingers rising from the ground, and every shadow held more weight than it should.
"We're close," Instructor Braedon muttered from the front wagon, eyes scanning the treeline. "Keep weapons within reach."
The students exchanged uneasy glances.
Eryon sat in silence, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. Across from him in the wagon, Alice sat with arms crossed and her back straight. Their earlier conversation hung awkwardly between them, unresolved but no longer raw.
Just tense.
As dusk approached, the caravan finally rounded a bend and the treeline parted.
There it was: Thalden's Hollow.
A small settlement nestled in the crook of two hills, its wooden palisade partly crumbled. A handful of watchtowers stood at odd angles, smoke curled from a few chimneys, and villagers stood near the entrance—grim-faced and heavily armed.
"They don't look relieved to see us," one student whispered.
Braedon dismounted first, stepping forward to speak with the town's elder, a wiry man with deep lines etched into his face.
The conversation was brief. Too brief.
Soon, Braedon returned, face dark.
"Three disappearances in the last week," he said to the students. "Beasts seen circling the outer farms, but no confirmed kills. Something's toying with them."
Eryon frowned. "A lone predator?"
"No," Braedon said. "They think it's watching. Testing."
They were assigned quarters inside the village's half-collapsed barracks. Basic bunks, thin blankets, no lightstones.
That night, Eryon couldn't sleep.
He walked to the edge of the palisade, staring out into the tree line. The forest stared back.
Then—movement.
Not far. A glint of eyes in the dark.
He reached for his sword.
But the shape vanished, silent as a breath.
Alice appeared beside him without a sound.
"You saw it too."
Eryon nodded. "It's watching."
"Then tomorrow," she said, voice steady, "we go find it."