The next morning, Reve rose before the sun. He gently tucked the blanket around Mina, kissed Arel's forehead, and stepped outside into the cold dawn mist.
But the moment his foot touched the earth, he felt it—
a strange pulse in his chest.
Like a whisper echoing through his bones.
He looked toward the forest.
Not again.
But something inside him said it wasn't over. Whatever stirred last night… it had *noticed* him.
As he moved through the village square, familiar faces greeted him. Old woman Rika waved from her herb stall. The baker nodded with a sleepy grin. Normal things. Peaceful things.
And yet…
Every smile felt like a delay.
A thin curtain pulled over something massive behind it.
The old man sat on the porch sharpening an old blade.
"You're restless," he said without looking up.
"I don't know what I'm feeling," Reve replied honestly. "It's like something is pulling me... but I don't know where."
The old man looked at him for a long time. "Then follow it. But don't forget the ones who need you here."
Later that evening, as the siblings ate together, Mina tugged Reve's sleeve.
"You'll protect us forever, right?"
Reve didn't speak. He just reached out and held her hand tightly.
Because even if he didn't know what he was becoming…
He knew **why** he had to keep going.
And as night fell again,
the blade near his bed gave off a single faint pulse—
**as if something… had taken its first breath.**