[Midnight]
[Philip's POV]
The leather saddle creaked as I swung onto my stallion, the familiar weight of my travel bags secured behind me. The horse shifted beneath me, still warm from the earlier exertion, still carrying that restless energy that matched my own.
The mission was complete. That should have felt like victory. Instead, an odd mixture of satisfaction and restlessness settled over me—the peculiar emptiness that came when the work was done but the leaving felt wrong.
I nudged the stallion forward, hooves beginning a slow, steady rhythm against the dry earth. The night air slipped past me as we moved, the distance between me and the camp growing with each step.
Then I heard it—footsteps, fast and deliberate, crunching across the ground behind me.
