THE ECHO OF A THIEF
The mist did not just hide the shape of their world.
Tonight, it carried its voice.
"Run," Jalatta hissed.
He didn't wait for Safsan to argue.
He grabbed Safsan's shoulder, forcing his broken, heavy body forward into the dense, white thicket.
Behind them, the small wooden house vanished into the grey void within three steps.
Safsan's feet dragged through the wet earth.
Every breath felt like hot ash in his lungs.
He wanted to look back.
He wanted to see what kind of power could stop a flying blade in mid-air.
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But the forest refused to let him see.
It only allowed him to hear.
CLANG.
The sound of metal biting into invisible thresholds echoed through the trees.
It was sharp.
Perfect.
STEP.
STEP.
STEP.
Jharaa's sequence was repeating.
Faster now.
The rhythm was so flawless it didn't sound like a man running;
it sounded like the steady, terrifying ticking of a clock
that was counting down to their deaths.
SCRATCH.
Another sound tore through the fog.
A sound of something dragging violently
across something that refused to give way.
Not cloth.
Not flesh.
Something harder.
"Don't look back!" Jalatta warned, his teeth clenched as he bore Safsan's weight.
"In BAAČ, if you look at a shadow for too long, it learns your name."
THUD.
CRACK.
Enormous trunks splintered in the distance.
The shockwaves traveled through the damp soil,
vibrating beneath Safsan's boots.
The hunt was happening.
A sequence of perfect death
against a woman who had stopped carrying her pain
like she did yesterday.
But perfection was winning.
A heavy, wet impact echoed from behind.
A low, stifled gasp.
Halkan.
The footsteps of the hunter stopped.
The sequence had reached its final movement.
Safsan stumbled,
collapsing into the mud.
Jalatta fell with him,
coughing into the cold air.
Through the white silence,
they could hear her breathing.
It was shallow.
Weak.
Halkan lay upon the wet earth.
The mist was settling over her eyes.
The coldness of BAAČ was no longer just around her;
it was entering her.
And as her vision began to fade
into the grey twilight...
the forest grew quiet.
The sounds of the hunt disappeared.
And she remembered.