The tree line swallowed them whole.
One moment there was sunlight and open air and the distant sound of the village going about its afternoon. The next there was canopy — dense, layered, the kind that didn't filter light so much as negotiate with it, letting through only what it decided was acceptable. The temperature dropped by several degrees immediately. The ground underfoot changed from packed earth to something softer and less reliable, roots threading through it at angles that required attention.
Lily moved without slowing. The scouts spread outward in practiced formation, two forward, two flanking, two trailing, the whole arrangement unfolding with the quiet efficiency of people who had done this enough times to stop thinking about it.
Renji stayed near the center with the girls and watched everything.
