From the Shadows, We Rise
Caleb’s Point of View
The dawn was slow to break over the forest, as if the sky itself was reluctant to face the day after the bloodshed of last night. I sat quietly on the ridge, the weight of the pack pressing down on my shoulders more heavily than any wound from the fight. My side throbbed where the rogue’s blade had scraped me, but it was nothing compared to the ache inside—an ache born of years spent alone, of a past full of rejection, and the fragile hope that maybe, just maybe, things could be different now.
Rowan stood beside me, his broad frame silhouetted against the soft light. His eyes, always so intense, were softer this morning, and I caught a flicker of exhaustion mingled with determination.
“We can’t keep going like this,” I said quietly, voice
