Zazu's quiet words—'the path to a quiet life is a very loud one'—seemed to hang in the air, a perfect, sad end to my team's brief celebration.
The triumphant mood that had followed their last victory was completely gone, snuffed out like a candle in a cold draft. It was replaced by a thick, heavy silence, the kind that feels heavier than noise. The dread of their next match had officially arrived.
The entire team was gathered in the main lobby, but the energy was different. FaeLina wasn't zipping around frantically. She wasn't scribbling on her chalkboard. She was just hovering in the middle of the room, her wings drooping, her bright pink aura a dim, worried lavender. It was the quietest and most defeated they had ever seen her, and that was more terrifying than any of her usual panicked shrieking.
