Lily's hand went up.
The scouts moved before she finished the gesture — years of drilling collapsing into reflex. Renji, Aya, Kaede, and Rei pulled toward the center without being told, the guards drawing tight around them like a closing hand, and the forest went silent.
Not the comfortable kind of silent.
The kind where the birds have already left and the insects have already decided this is someone else's problem.
No one spoke. No one moved more than they had to. Everyone was listening to the same nothing and arriving at the same conclusion.
Something was out there.
Then it wasn't out there anymore.
