Jimmy POV
The fire still smoldered in the distance, its orange glow licking the trees like a slow-burning curse, casting flickering shadows that danced like restless spirits across the blackened trunks. Smoke curled into the sky in slow spirals, the scent of charred flesh and splintered wood still thick in the air. I stood at the edge of the destruction, my gaze fixed on the object in my hand the pendant.
I turned it over slowly, the silver shape gleaming despite the layers of soot and ash that clung to my gloves. The crescent moon wrapped in vines, a deceptively delicate thing. So small, yet it pulsed with a force that defied its size. A thing that should have been lost to time. My fingers curled around it like a vice, as if afraid it might vanish, as if I could will it into submission
