The silence hung heavy over their first day back, thicker than the forest canopy above them.
Lena moved with her usual hunter’s grace, not saying a word unless she had to give orders. Lysa was much the sa, only she never gave orders, and the way she looked at Reidar was even colder than Lena’s.
Torren was the only one Reidar felt a little bad for. He’d been friendly at first, just like Jorik, but now he kept his distance.
Only Jorik walked beside him, his broad shoulders occasionally bumping Reidar’s as they went through the uneven terrain.
"You know," Jorik said, "my boy used to collect rocks. Had boxes full of them under his bed. Quartz, granite, even fool’s gold. It drove my wife crazy with the dust she had to clean every ti he ca back from an excursion."
Reidar kept his eyes scanning the tree line. "Marcus, my son, has this thing with rubber bands. He wrapped them around everything: doorknobs, chair legs, even the cat when it sat still long enough. Sotis, my wife found them weeks later."
Jorik’s laugh rumbled warmly, a sound that felt out of place in the forest but which Reidar appreciated nonetheless.
"Kids always find the weirdest ways to make a ss." His grin slipped away.
"If you don’t mind asking," Reidar said, "What happened to your son? Does he live far, or...?"
"My son..." Jorik paused for a mont. "He died, but far earlier than the apocalypse. I was 30 back then. My wife and I had him when I was 22. I was also more handso." He stroked his gray beard, laughing.
Then he paused.
"He was eight when a car hit him. He was running after a ball and didn’t look both ways."
Reidar glanced at the mage, seeing the old grief etched in the lines around his eyes. "I’m sorry."
At that point, it was Reidar’s turn to stay silent. "But what about your wife? Is she in Havenwood?"
"No," Jorik said. "The marriage didn’t survive it. She couldn’t look at without seeing him, and I couldn’t look at her without rembering that I wasn’t there to stop him." Jorik adjusted his shirt.
"Last ti I heard about her, she remarried. As for , I couldn’t find the strength to go through sothing similar again."
Reidar nodded. He would be the sa if sothing happened to his son, and that thought made him worry about his son’s and his wife’s health.
"Sotis I wonder if the Sleep was a rcy," Jorik said. "Waking up to all this... at least the pain’s different now. It doesn’t take away the one of the old scars, and it doesn’t keep new ones from coming. But we can fight back now, by growing stronger, saving people, and helping the community. It gives us a purpose, and over ti, that helps ease the pain."
Ahead, Lena’s shoulders tightened almost imperceptibly.
Reidar kept his voice low. "Marcus always forgets to look both ways, too. Martha’s constantly reminding him." He watched a Wind Rift-Sprite scout circle high around. "Now I have to wonder if I’ll ever get to see him again."
Jorik nodded, his gaze distant. "I’ll tell you this: I’ve been through it before, and I pray you never have to. But keep my words close: we must hold on to what we can. mories, habits... even the little things that used to drive us crazy." He glanced toward the others.
The path narrowed, pushing them into a single line. Reidar felt their suspicion like a weight on his back. Every rustle of leaves, every snap of a twig, just made the air feel tighter.
Jorik fell back beside him when the trail widened again. "They think you’re with Caleb’s lot. That you staged the cave-in and killed the Alpha alone for so reason. You admit that not saying how you did that is pretty suspicious."
Reidar figured that out already.
"And you?" Reidar asked. "What is your thought about the situation? Given you are talking to , I guess you do not think that, right?"
"I think you’re a father trying to get ho to his family. Sa as I would be if I had anyone left to go back to." Jorik’s expression was grim. "Just watch your back. Lena reports everything to Martin, and Lysa... she follows orders without question."
Reidar nodded. Jorik then walked ahead, and as he did that, Reidar said sothing.
"Just for the sake of being clear, I’m not with the church. I didn’t even know of their existence before coming here to begin with. I really was just passing by."
"I believe you."
Then Lena raised a fist, the signal to halt. She pointed toward a disturbance in the earth near the trail, where sothing large had recently passed through.
"What is it?" Torren asked.
"Soone is here," the woman said. "Draw your weapons."
Reidar had no idea how she was able to say that soone was there, but judging by her expression and her words, whoever was here, if there really was soone here, it wasn’t an ally.
Reidar didn’t waste a second and summoned his entire army. The Bone Militia went to the edge of the group; the Primal pack stayed close to Reidar, while the Rift-Sprites went each to a person in the group.
They’d used this formation plenty during the cave clearing, polishing it through blood and necessity until it felt natural.
What was chilling was how fast it all happened—just three days. One to reach the quarry, one inside, and now this one heading back to Havenwood.
In the anti, the skeleton soldiers ford a barrier of rattling ribs and rusted swords, while the wolves paced behind them, keeping Reidar safe in the middle.
The Rift-Sprites went near their assigned partners, two each, with the Lightning and Ice Rift-Sprites joining the group.
While the humans would fight lee against the enemy and grab their attention, the Rift-Sprites would attack them with their elental attacks.
The Bone Militia was there to form a frontline, not quite a ’at shield,’ for obvious reasons, but perhaps a ’calcium curtain,’ as their base power wasn’t much to begin with.
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