/-Alora-/ From the darkness, there were only distant yells fading deeper, but a looming danger was as impalpable as the smoke. Tears welled up in my eyes as we began to notice each step, our feet submerged in the soft, wet mud of this forest's ground. Randall proceeded to the front, being very careful to watch every single step he took and to hunch his shoulders. From a corner, one could see the beginning of a smoldering anger well concealed from plain sight. “Are you expecting that they will return?” I said, changing the tense silence. “Of Lucius, it should be said – otherwise he is not – that he is not a man to nurse his hurts for too long. He will return and he will bring more wolves. It should have been a response that made me uncomfortable, but it didn’t. Rather, it created a sp

