CHAPTER 11: SOMETHING IN THE CLARO

CHAPTER 11: SOMETHING IN THE CLARO

I. THE AMBUSH

Footsteps cracked through the humid silence, shattering the claro’s fragile calm. Minh and Kael stepped from the jungle’s shadowed edge, their forms stark against the fading starlight.

A high-pitched whine, insect-like and intrusive, sliced the heavy air. Minh’s glasses glinted, his brow furrowed with unease…