(Adelaide)
The moment Adelaide’s feet hit the forest floor, the cold stabbed up her legs like knives. The shock of it ripped a strangled gasp from her chest, nerves flaring as if she’d plunged into a river of ice instead of leaves and loam.
Dirt. Roots. Frost. Stones.
Barefoot. No protection. No time. Every texture imprinted itself into her skin—slimy moss, jagged pebbles, the slick sting of frost-slick bark—until her soles felt flayed raw within the first dozen strides.
Her legs pumped on instinct—pure, feral, blinding instinct. Breath tore from her throat in harsh, uneven gasps as branches whipped at her arms and stung across her cheeks. Bristling twigs raked her shins, snapping against her skin hard enough to raise welts, the air tearing in and out of her lungs like she was breathin
