By dawn, the forest was awake long before the sun.
Mist clung to the undergrowth in delicate tendrils. Birds cawed overhead in tones too guttural and strange for any normal woods. Here, deep within the Verdant Fang region, the forest was alive in ways most mortals feared to learn. This was not the outer ring they'd grown accustomed to this was the more deeper layer, where power stirred in roots more than Basic Tier. Yet Lucy and Alice, tow non-fighters came so far just to search for one person.
The group moved in tight formation.
Saira walked at the front, her senses tuned to every shift in air pressure and every whisper of moisture. Her robes flowed behind her like a stream, trailing faint glints of water energy. Just behind her floated Xingning, barely touching the forest floor. Her long braid swayed with the winds she summoned around her, a silent buffer that scattered pollen and spores before they reached the group.
