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Morning sunlight filtered through the treetops like golden lace, casting patterns across the mossy floor of the ancient grove. The camp stirred slowly, the scent of roasted roots and foraged herbs wafting through the air. Lumi poked at the fire with a stick, yawning loudly.
"Elira," she called without looking up, "you're not doing your eerie morning stare into the void again, are you?"
"I'm communing with the natural flow of mana," came Elira's serene reply from a patch of mushrooms glowing faintly blue.
Lumi snorted. "That's just fancy talk for zoning out while pretending to meditate."
Elira ignored the jab. Her hands hovered over the mushroom patch, her eyes half-lidded. The mana pulsing beneath the ground whispered like a song. It wasn't aggressive, nor welcoming—it was... testing her.
*The forest remembers something,* she thought. *Something that frightens it and reveres it at the same time.*
She reached deeper with her senses—and abruptly flinched.
A flicker.
Crimson eyes. An overwhelming presence.
A heartbeat not hers.
She gasped.
"Okay, you definitely just saw something again," Lumi said, now at her side.
"It was… the dragon." Elira's breath caught as she tried to steady herself. "He's closer."
Lumi looked around quickly, hand instinctively dropping to her dagger.
"No," Elira said, "he's not attacking. He's watching."
"Because that's not creepy at all," Lumi muttered.
---
### **Meanwhile – A High Perch**
Yuki sat coiled on a vast ledge of stone and bark, vines dangling like curtains from the boughs above. Sylvaeria floated beside him, her translucent form humming with a pulse of wind.
"She felt you again," she said.
Yuki's tail twitched. "I didn't even reach out this time."
"Then your aura is resonating with hers," Sylvaeria mused. "Or maybe she's just sensitive. Elira's not like the others."
He said nothing. But part of him remembered being human—watching people across a crowded room, waiting for someone to *notice* him. To see beyond the surface. Elira's gaze felt the same.
"She's not afraid," he finally said. "Even when she should be."
"You admire that?"
"I… don't know." His voice softened. "But I think I understand it."
---
### **Later – Spirits in the Trees**
By midday, Brann had agreed to scout deeper. They followed Elira's lead cautiously. Lumi stayed close, scanning the trees with practiced wariness. Her thoughts, however, were less guarded.
*This is ridiculous. We're following spirit-whispers and hunches. This place should be marked as cursed and left alone.*
Yet she couldn't bring herself to leave. Something bound Elira here, and if Lumi had learned anything in their years together, it was that Elira didn't get stuck on things without reason.
A branch cracked overhead.
Lumi's dagger was out in a blink.
Then, silence.
Elira held up a hand. "Not hostile."
From the shadows, a creature emerged—its body part wood, part mist. A spirit beast. One of the forest's sentinels.
It sniffed the air, then bowed.
Brann muttered, "Okay, what the hell is going on?"
Elira stepped forward, voice calm. "It's an escort."
"To *where?*" Lumi hissed.
But the spirit was already turning, gliding through the undergrowth with them following close behind.
---
### **Far Above – Watching**
Yuki watched their approach with a thoughtful frown.
"They're coming," he murmured.
"You knew they would," Sylvaeria said.
"Yes. But I didn't expect her to lead them *here.*"
Sylvaeria tilted her head. "Will you reveal yourself?"
"…Not yet. But maybe it's time I showed them something."
He extended a claw, drawing a faint sigil in the air. A whisper rode the wind—one only Elira would hear.
---
### **Back Below – A Message**
Elira froze mid-step.
"Did you hear that?" she asked.
"Hear *what?*" Lumi looked around sharply. "Don't do that—this place already gives me goosebumps."
But Elira's eyes gleamed. "He spoke. Not words, exactly… but I *felt* it."
She placed a hand against a tree. It responded—leaves shifting, branches curling upward, revealing an ancient path long hidden by the forest's magic.
She looked back at Lumi. "He wants us to follow."
"Oh great," Lumi sighed. "We're listening to invisible dragon breadcrumbs now. What could possibly go wrong?"
Yet she followed all the same.
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