The dense, unnatural mist didn't just roll over the borders of the Blood Moon territory; it slithered. It moved with a terrifying, deliberate sentience, wrapping around the towering pines and snuffing out the moonlight wherever it touched. The celebratory bonfires that had burned so brightly in the courtyard just hours ago were extinguished by the suffocating, freezing dampness.
At the eastern perimeter, two heavily armed Blood Moon sentries stood back-to-back. Their wolves were whimpering inside their minds, a primal instinct screaming at them to run. This wasn't the natural chill of the approaching winter. It felt like the breath of an open grave.
"Do you hear that?" one of the sentries whispered, his silver blade trembling slightly in his grip.
From deep within the encroaching grey f
