We kept moving until the sound of the platforms faded into the deeper trees. Greta's presence stayed with us, cold and steady, holding the other wills from closing in again. It felt like running under a borrowed sky. The moment her interest ended, the weight would come back twice as hard.
Vale found a better place than the first cut we had used. A low overhang of rock where the roots of two old trees had twisted together and made a natural screen. It was still temporary. It would not hide us from a full search party for long, but it gave us space to stop without being completely open.
We crawled under it and dropped.
