"Not every chapter ends with a slam. Some close like a breath, soft and unfinished."
The distance had begun.
Not through arguments.
Not from hurt.
But from life — quietly unfolding.
Ameira had boarded her flight. Her last message:
"I'll message when I land. Don't forget me, okay?"
Rudren had moved into his dorm two towns away. His last call:
"Too many roommates. Noisy. But bearable. Take care of the village, Vikran."
Vikran stood in the middle of the empty school ground the next day.
Just him. The birds. The sky.
And the strange, quiet hollowness that only comes when people leave.
Vikran's Routine
His days now began earlier.
• Milk the cows.
• Feed the goats.
• Help his mother with harvesting.
In the evenings, he studied — mostly alone.
Sometimes with his sister humming nearby.
But something was off.
He noticed the wind didn't move unless he did.
That plants bloomed quicker near where he sat.
That sometimes — just sometimes — he felt the earth pulse faintly beneath his feet.
It wasn't frightening.
But it wasn't normal.
Ameira in a New World
Foreign land.
Foreign tongue.
But Ameira adjusted fast. She always did.
Yet, when she opened her windows, she felt… watched.
The wind didn't just pass through the curtains — it reached for her.
She whispered one night:
"Are you following me?"
The breeze swirled. Only once.
She didn't scream.
She just turned the light off and let it stay.
Rudren's Silence
Training was tough.
Schedules. Drills. Deadlines.
But Rudren never flinched.
Until one day, the lights in the entire block went out when he got too angry during a call.
"Coincidence," they said.
He didn't argue.
But he looked at his palms for a long time that night —
They glowed faintly, like veins of lightning trapped beneath skin.
Inside — A Stirring
None of them had met.
None of them had talked.
Yet within each of them, a calling had begun.
• The White Dragon's soul, hidden deep within Ameira, coiled with anticipation.
• The Black Dragon's power pulsed faintly beneath Rudren's anger.
• The Lion's will watched quietly through Vikran's silence.
But none of the souls spoke yet.
Because the time wasn't right.
Because something still needed to awaken first.
The Forgotten Photo
On that evening, all three opened their phones — perhaps by fate — and looked at the same photo.
The one from that last day under the school tree.
And again… something shimmered.
• Ameira saw leaves floating too high.
• Rudren saw a faint crackle between his shoulder blades.
• Vikran saw a golden glow near his heart.
And all three, from three different places, felt something pull inside them.
A string tightening.
A drumbeat growing.
Not yet loud.
But soon.
To be revealed