Mira didn't hesitate.
The moment the twig snapped and her voice fell silent, she stepped in front of Naera. No words. No dramatic reach. Just instinct, sharpened by memory. Her feet planted, knees loose, weight forward like a cat poised to strike. Her head turned slowly, scanning each shadow between the trees.
She'd moved like this before, in the old world. Back when Naera was younger, smaller, untrained. When Mira still believed that shielding one person could make the world safer. That belief hadn't died with Naera. Not really. She was still someone who protects
The jungle was quiet. Too quiet. Seconds pass, feeling like minutes that turn into hours. The uneasy feeling of being watched seemed to creep along their skin. Goosebumps seem to form, and heightened senses seem to take over.
Naera's breath caught behind her, she reached down for a rock, knowing she didn't take anything sharp with her.. Mira didn't glance back. Her hand hovered near the haft of a bark-split stave she had kept sharpened from earlier. It was more threat than a weapon. But Mira's stance made it clear, anything that came near Naera would meet her first.
Leaves shifted. Nothing emerged.
Then, a quiet tread. Measured. Deliberate.
Mira's eyes narrowed. Her breath slowly exhaled. Grip tightened.
A shadow peeled itself from the edge of the brush. Tall. Cloaked in mud and leaf-patterned grime.
Kael.
He stopped well short of them. His head tilted slightly, but his hands were open. Nonthreatening. Mira didn't drop her guard. Suspicion took place first. Why was he there? Why did he come out of the jungle? Thoughts spiral her mind until Naera places a hand on her shoulder.
Naera exhaled. "He's with us."
Mira didn't move.
"He helped me once," Naera added, softer now. "Before you. He was our scout. We were both a lot younger then."
That did something. Mira's shoulders shifted, not relaxed, but recalibrated.
Kael dipped his head slightly. His eyes didn't linger, but they did flick briefly toward Mira, measuring, cautious. Not unfriendly, but guarded.
"I didn't know him," Mira said finally, voice low.
"You'd have remembered," Naera replied. "He doesn't speak. Doesn't need to. He was taken… Then a couple of months later you arrived. I… I don't know what happened to him after."
Kael lifted a hand, fingers moving with sharp precision, a brief sequence of signs Naera understood at once.
"He says it's good to see me again. Says not to worry about what happened to him. Says it wasn't pleasant, but he also says," she translated, and then, with a faint smile, "And that I look like I haven't eaten in a week."
Kael gestured again, a sweeping motion from head to toe, then a small circle over his chest.
"He says I've changed," Naera added, her voice quieter.
Mira remained tense. "Do you trust him?"
"I do," Naera said. "He was the only one who never lied."
Kael turned to Mira then, hand placed briefly on his own chest, then held up, open-palmed in a universal sign of peace. His eyes met hers, steady and unblinking. A slight gentlemanly smile could be seen. Something trained.
Mira gave a stiff nod. "I don't trust people easily."
Kael nodded once, slowly. Then pointed to his eyes, then to her, then back to the trees.
Naera interpreted with a faint smile. "He says he'll watch your back if you watch his."
That softened Mira, if only slightly. She didn't reply, but she didn't bristle either.
Kael stepped slightly closer to Naera then, gesturing, a circle drawn in the air, then a sweeping arc to the south.
"He's been tracking something," Naera said. "Not just noise. Movement. Large."
Kael nodded again, slower this time. He tapped his chest once, then pointed to her. Then to Mira.
"He's glad we're here, says he trusts us two more than anyone. For now, at least," Naera murmured.
Kael gave her a rare, subtle smile, a twitch of the mouth more than anything else, more real than before, and turned toward the trees again, his stance already shifting into watchful stillness.
The firelight behind them cast long shadows. Mira finally stepped to the side, but kept her eyes on the jungle. Kael turned, silently taking a post near the edge, crouched low, eyes sweeping.
Mira joined Naera again. "You trust him?"
"I do."
Mira nodded slowly. "Then I'll watch him."
The quiet returned.
Across the camp, the fire crackled low. Syl leaned against a half-buried root, sharpening a stick absently. Hennick was stretched out nearby, already dozing, one hand still resting on the handle of his belt knife, caressing something that wasn't there anymore. Mira lingered near the perimeter, her eyes never fully leaving the treeline. The mood had shifted, not quite ease, but something approaching normal.
Goss sat on a flat stone, twirling a thin branch between his fingers. Rix dropped beside him with a casual thump.
"You always volunteer for night walks, or just miss being yelled at?" Goss asked without looking over.
Rix smirked. "Only when I want the company."
"That's the worst thing I've ever heard," Goss muttered.
Rix grinned. "You didn't object."
A pause passed. Then Goss said, quieter, "Been a while, hasn't it? You been… alright?"
"Since we were in the same place without a roof over our heads? Yeah, not bad."
Goss studied him now. "I remember you being more annoying."
"I'm pacing myself," Rix replied. "Can't overwhelm the audience too early."
Kael stepped back into the firelight. His presence, silent but grounding, drew their attention. Lira was returning from the treeline.
Goss shifted upright, readying his crutch.
"I'll go the next round," he said.
Kael stood without prompting.
Before either moved, Rix appeared from the shadows. "Actually," he said, too casually, "let me take this one."
Goss frowned. "You sure?"
"I want to get a better look at the south path. Kael knows it. I'd like to learn it too."
A pause. Goss hesitated.
"You're not trying to ditch work detail, are you?"
Rix held up both hands. "Perish the thought. Pure intellectual curiosity. Can't a man… wonder?"
Goss narrowed his eyes, then looked at Kael. He gave no sign of objection.
"Fine," Goss said. "But if you get lost, don't expect a search party."
Rix grinned. "Fair enough."
The two disappeared into the dark. Raif looked at them from afar and looked back at Goss, who shrugged his shoulders. He took mental notes of Rix's actions. They were deliberate. Calculating. Raif was different from Rix. Their thoughts would align and then split, before aligning again. It was different from Thomund. Different from Eloin. Raif ponders in thought as he watches the sparks in the fire.
They moved through the undergrowth with different rhythms, Kael all silence and precision, Rix half a beat behind, observant but not fluid. Rix was doing his best to keep up with Kael, moving where he moved. Learning.
"You don't talk, huh?" Rix said, voice low. "That's fine. I talk enough for both of us."
Kael ignored him. His eyes were focused in front. His ears, on the surroundings.
Rix tried again a minute later. "So, how do you communicate, then? Vibes? Moss formations?"
Kael made a flat slicing motion across his throat, not a threat, just a pointed 'enough.'
Rix raised his eyebrows. "Right. Crystal clear. The kid has slang that only deaf people can understand."
They moved another twenty paces in silence before Rix tried a third time. "You're good. Real good. You and Naera go back, huh?"
Kael didn't stop, but he lifted two fingers, then pointed to his heart, then behind him.
"Long time," Rix interpreted quietly. "Yeah. Got it. Goss and me, too."
Rix does the same signal, but stops halfway as he notices that Kael wasn't even watching.
A little further in, Kael slowed. He gestured a tight spiral with his fingers, then pointed ahead, a warning.
Rix followed Kael's direction and spotted it.
There, just beyond a cluster of overgrown fern, something moved. Slowly. Deliberately.
At first glance, it looked like a large shrub or collapsed vine structure, motionless, overgrown. But then the vines pulsed. One thick limb uncurled from the base, jointed like a misshapen arm. Foliage sloughed away, revealing bark-ridged plating that flexed and pulsed like a breathing exoskeleton.
A head lifted, or what passed for one. Fern-like fronds crowned the top, and beneath them, eyes blinked open. Slits of luminous green, angled and insectile.
The creature was listening. Not walking. Not hunting.
Growing.
Kael's hand shot out, pulling Rix to the ground with him just as the creature twitched. Stopping Rix's mouth from opening, even if the thought hasn't passed his mind.
It uprooted with a wet, tearing sound, vines pulling from the soil like tendons snapping. One leg formed, then another. Its gait was strange, inconsistent, a fusion of plant reflex and mimicry of beast.
Spores hissed from its back in pale clouds. The air shimmered faintly around it.
Kael's expression didn't change. He raised a hand and made a tight, twisting gesture, something old. A silent code.
Rix swallowed. "Tell me we're not standing in its nest."
Kael didn't move.
The plant-creature paused. Its head tilted.
Listening.
Then it turned, not toward them, but toward something further off. Its limbs shifted again. Readjusting.