The pressure eased as Hajin faced the rear shelves, listening hard past the hammer behind the curtain for that voice. It came back between longer silences, breaking apart whenever the workshop rang loud enough to swallow even his own breathing.
'Please, before he comes back, don't leave me here in the dark.'
"Okay, that's definitely not the forge talking," Hajin muttered, rubbing his wrist, "somebody's back there, and she wants out."
Juna followed his stare toward the clutter piled behind the shop's fitted displays.
"Somebody who?"
"No clue, but she's scared out of her mind, and she won't stop begging."
Her ears swiveled toward the shelving, twitching as she hunted for any ordinary breathing.
She stepped nearer the passage and sniffed beneath the lowest rack, "A pipe, tools behind the curtain, and nobody breathing in that corner, Master."
'Her ears beat mine every single time, but that voice isn't something anybody breathes.'
