Eldren’s POV - Leader of The Shadow-Woods
The Shadow-Woods remained restless. Unlike the arid, soot-choked plains surrounding Oakhaven, this northern expanse breathed with a primal, suffocating cold. The canopy of ancient iron-oaks blocked out the bruised plum light of the sky, casting the forest floor into a permanent, murky twilight.
I sat at the centre of the assembly fire, my hands gripping a staff carved from petrified mountain-ash. My bones ached with the familiar chill of the coming winter, yet today, the forest felt… different. A faint, harmonic hum vibrated through the roots beneath my feet – a steady, rhythmic pulse that defied the stillness of the woods.
"The Ley-lines shift," one of the younger scouts whispered, his eyes wide as he emerged from the gloom of the perimeter. H
