CHAPTER 29: THE NEXT HORIZON
Summer blazed warm and bright across the valleys, turning the hills deep, lush green and gilding every mile of open road that stretched out before us. The network we’d built grew faster than any of us had dared hope — new chapters joined from the eastern foothills, remote hamlets tucked between ridges sent word asking to be linked in, and riders came from far beyond the state line just to learn how we’d stood together and won. What had started as one valley fighting for its home was becoming a movement of people who refused to be ruled by fear.
One sweltering afternoon, we gathered at the sawmill clearing, where stacks of cured timber waited to be loaded onto trucks bound for towns that needed building supplies. Kael leaned against the side of a flatbed, watc
