[Aeron and Zenovia’s POV for the next four Chapters...]

Aeron had never liked forests.

Not because he was afraid of them, of course. He would never admit such a thing out loud, especially not with Zenovia walking a few steps ahead of him.

No, it was not fear. It was a healthy and very reasonable distrust of places where the trees were taller than towers, the shadows looked like they had invisible bodies, and every second root on the ground seemed perfectly positioned to trip someone who walked with too much confidence in this place.

Unfortunately, confidence was one thing Aeron had never lacked.

"Do assassins always walk like they are trying to stab you in the back when you are not looking?" he asked quietly.

Zenovia did not look back. "Do men always talk like they’re trying to make the world regret giving them a mouth?"

Aeron placed a hand over his heart. "So cruel."

"But completely true."

Behind them, Darin let out the faintest sound that might have been a cough, but Aeron was fairly sure the man was laughing. The two elven scouts ahead of the support unit did not react at all.

They moved lightly over the forest floor, barely disturbing the leaves beneath their boots, while the three human soldiers following behind looked as if they were trying very hard not to breathe too loudly.

The whole group had left camp a few hours ago, and already, the large camp’s sounds had long since faded completely behind them. And the forest, Aeron had quickly realised, was far too loud and far too quiet at the same time.

There were bird calls somewhere high above, insects buzzing beneath leaves, the occasional rustle of small creatures moving through the undergrowth, and the deep, almost breathing creak of ancient branches shifting overhead.

Yet somehow, beneath all that sound, there was also a silence that pressed against his ears. It was as if the Great Forest allowed noise to exist only because it found it amusing.

Zenovia stopped suddenly, and everyone else stopped with her.

Aeron almost bumped into her back, but caught himself at the last second. "A warning would be nice."

She crouched beside a thick root, her fingers brushing against the moss. "Quiet."

Darin moved closer, his eyes scanning the ground. "A trail?"

"Not exactly." Zenovia tilted her head slightly. "The moss is disturbed here, but definitely not by boots."

One of the elven scouts, Irel, knelt beside her and examined the spot. "Something was dragged across it."

"Maybe a cloak?" Aeron asked.

Zenovia shook her head. "Too narrow to be that."

"A tail perhaps?" Darin suggested.

"Maybe." She stood again, her gaze shifting toward the trees ahead. "Or something being carried."

That made the three soldiers behind them exchange uneasy glances. Aeron rested one hand on his hip. "That sounds unpleasant."

"Most things are," Zenovia replied.

"You are a bright ray of sunlight, you know that?"

"I try not to be."

They moved again, only slower this time. The marked route was not a proper path. It twisted away from the ordinary patrol line and slipped between thick trunks, over tangled roots, and through a shallow dip where ferns grew almost waist-high.

If the patrol had not found the cuts on the bark earlier, Aeron doubted anyone would have thought to pass through here at all. It looked like nothing. Just another patch of ancient forest trying to swallow the world quietly.

That is when they found the second mark.

Three angled cuts with one vertical line beneath them and a subtle notch to the side. Zenovia examined it without touching it at first. She leaned in close, her eyes narrowing.

"This one is fresh," she murmured.

"How fresh?" Aeron asked.

"Fresh enough to have been made today."

Darin’s expression sharpened. "After the patrol found the first set?"

"Likely."

Aeron’s earlier humour faded from his face. "So someone came back after they realised this route might still be useful."

"Or someone is maintaining several marks and doesn’t know one was discovered," Zenovia said.

Irel looked toward the deeper brush. "There are no obvious boot tracks."

"Then they know how to hide them," Darin said.

Zenovia stood. "Good."

Aeron looked at her. "Good?"

"If they were careless, this would be boring."

"You and Elion should never be left in the same room with a problem."

Zenovia glanced back at him. "You’re here too."

"Yes, but I complain. That makes me normal."

"No. It makes you boring."

Before Aeron could respond, she raised a hand, and everyone froze again.

Zenovia slowly lowered her hand and pointed two fingers toward the left. Darin nodded and gestured to the soldiers to spread out.

The elves melted toward the trees with frightening ease, while the three soldiers crouched low behind a cluster of roots. Aeron moved behind a thick trunk, his body suddenly still despite his usual casual posture, and as for Zenovia, she simply vanished.

One moment she was there, and the next, she was not.

Aeron clicked his tongue inwardly. "Wow, that’s impressive," he whispered to himself. Even though he had seen her do the same exact thing plenty of times already, it was no less awe-inspiring.

He suddenly noticed something had moved ahead.

A hunched figure stepped through the undergrowth, wrapped in a dark cloak stained with mud and sap. Its face was hidden beneath a hood, and its movements were strange.

It stopped beside the marked tree, looked around once, then crouched and reached toward the bark with a small blade.

They all watched as the figure carved one small additional notch beside the old mark. It suddenly paused, sensing that something was off, and slowly turned its head

Not toward Aeron or the others, but toward where Zenovia had disappeared. A low hiss escaped from beneath the hood.

The figure sprang backward just as a dagger flashed through the space where its throat had been.

Zenovia suddenly materialised from the shadows, her eyes cold.

"You’re pretty fast," she said.

The cloaked figure landed on all fours, its fingers digging into the ground as its hood slipped back.

One of the soldiers behind Aeron sucked in a sharp breath as they all got a good view of its features. It had a human face, or it had once been human.

The skin was grey and stretched tightly over the bones, the mouth split too wide at the corners, and black veins crawled up from the neck to the temples. Its eyes were human in shape, but with an unnatural colour. The whites were stained yellow while the pupils trembled like drops of ink in water.

Aeron stepped out from behind the tree. There was no need for them to try to hide from it anymore. "Well, that answers one question and creates about twelve more."

The creature’s eyes snapped toward him, and funny enough, instead of panicking, it smiled.

"Hero..."

Aeron’s brows rose. "Why do they always seem to know that?"

The thing, whatever it was, suddenly lunged at the nearest soldier.

Zenovia intercepted it mid-strike, her short blade cutting across its side, but the creature twisted with unnatural flexibility and kicked off a tree trunk, launching itself upward.

Darin fired a compact wind spell that clipped its shoulder and sent it spinning, yet it recovered before hitting the ground, landing on its hands and feet like some grotesque spider.

"Remember, we need it alive if possible!" Darin shouted.

"Tell it that!" Aeron shouted back.

The creature darted forward again, this time toward Irel. The elf scout drew a curved blade and blocked the first slash, but the force behind it was too much for him; the creature was far stronger than its thin frame suggested. Irel was pushed back, his boots carving through the damp leaves.

Aeron moved to support him before he was overwhelmed.