CAMELLIA'S POV
I reached the forest far sooner than I had expected.
Finding the answer, however, proved far more difficult.
The villagers had given me only rough directions, and unlike the woods surrounding Ashkara, where I often gathered herbs, this forest was completely unfamiliar. Every winding path looked the same, and every towering tree cast long shadows that made one clearing nearly indistinguishable from the next.
I forced myself to slow down.
Rushing would only get me lost.
Six children were depending on me.
I searched every patch of undergrowth where children might have wandered, examining bushes heavy with ripe fruit, broken branches, tiny footprints pressed into the soil, and discarded stems that hinted at what had been picked.
Several times, I found clusters of sunberr
