Dawn crept in through the trees, brushing everything with soft gold, but none of the students looked rested. They had taken turns on watch after the attack, and though the monster had retreated, its roars had echoed across the forest for hours.

  Lance groaned as he sat up, hair messy, cloak half off. His muscles ached in strange places.

  “You look like a sad root vegetable,” Bella said, already dressed and sharpening a dagger. “Want breakfast?”

  “What kind of breakfast?” he asked cautiously.

  She handed him a warm leaf bundle. “Forest bread. Juno made it. Don’t ask.”

  Lance peeled it open, sniffed, and took a bite. It was weirdly spongy and tasted vaguely of mushrooms and regret, but it filled his stomach.

  Erik returned to camp with a bundle of branches. “We should move. That thing might come back, and I’m not fighting it with half a sword and no coffee.”

  “We’re low on traps too,” Aina added, checking their gear with quiet precision.

  Lance joined the discussion. “If we head east, there’s a ridge we can use. Natural choke point, better defense.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Juno arched an eyebrow. “Tactical suggestions? Color me impressed.”

  He shrugged. “My mom used to drag me on ‘nature training’ trips. I’ve built like ten thousand dumb campsites.”

  They packed up and moved before midmorning, settling by a stony incline with a shallow cave entrance. As they scouted for more monsters, tensions started to rise.

  “We need two more captures,” Erik said. “We’re not getting a pass with just one.”

  They split into two groups—Juno, Aina, and Erik heading one way, and Lance and Bella the other.

  While searching, Lance heard something. A soft rhythmic hum in the air. Faint, but familiar. He paused mid-step.

  “You hear that?” he asked Bella.

  “Hear what?”

  He frowned. It was gone.

  Before they could talk more, a smaller creature—a four-legged, bark-skinned stalker—sprung from a tree. Bella trapped it in flame while Lance circled with a tremor disrupt, disbalancing it just enough for her to cage it.

  “Well,” she panted, “we make a decent team.”

  Lance smiled, pride creeping in. “Yeah. I didn’t scream this time.”

  Bella laughed. “I’m a little disappointed.”

  Later that night, as they gathered for their final trap setup, William’s voice crept in again.

  "You’re hearing vibrations now. Feeling them. That thing in your lungs—it’s not fear. It’s tuning."

  Lance exhaled sharply. “I don’t want to be a tuning fork.”

  Bella gave him a look. “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  As they lay down for the night, two beasts captured, one day left, Lance stared up at the canopy above.

  Something about the forest had changed.

  Or maybe... something in him had.