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Estella woke up to the unsettling cries of an animal—sharp and desperate, slicing through the silence of early morning and sending a chill down her spine. The sound made her heart jolt, her blood run cold. She slowly pushed herself up from the cold, hard ground of the burrow, her body stiff and disoriented. Her vision remained a little blurry, her mind still fogged with sleep.
The forest outside was eerily still, painted in shades of grey and green under the dim morning light, and save for that haunting cry, it was quiet—too quiet.
She turned her head, scanning the shadows in search of Aries, only to realize with a prick of unease that he wasn't there. Her eyes found the entrance of the burrow, expertly hidden beneath a blanket of fallen leaves. The same animal cry echoed again, this time louder, nearer, and unmistakably tinged with pain.
Estella sniffed the air, catching the faint, metallic scent of blood—or perhaps flesh—and that was all the confirmation she needed.
Tension settled in her chest as she stayed down, weighing her options. Her back still throbbed with pain from the wound, and she shifted cautiously to avoid aggravating it. "Aries?" she called out softly, her voice husky and low from sleep. She barely had the energy to raise her voice, her tone unmatching with the wild world outside.
The sound came again, closer this time, more urgent. "Aries?" she repeated, louder now, and her heart skipped when she finally got a response.
A heavy thud followed the familiar voice. "Finally awake, sleeping beauty?" Aries teased as he stepped into the burrow, wearing a crooked smile that was both reassuring and annoyingly smug. Estella blinked at him, still adjusting to the dim lighting and the weight of waking up in a war-torn forest. "How long have I been asleep?" she asked, attempting to gather some grip on time.
Aries shrugged, still visibly amused by the drowsiness clinging to Estella like a second skin. Her hair was tangled, her lips dry, and her movements sluggish, yet there was something about the way she blinked up at him—half-lost, half-aware—that made him hesitate before continuing.
"Well," he said with a playful lilt, trying to keep his tone light, "not sure how you'll take this, but I honestly don't know. Could've been an hour... maybe a full day. You know how the Gamemakers are—they like to mess with the schedule, distort time, confuse our sense of reality." He ended with a crooked smile, but the humor in his voice began to fade as his eyes lingered on her face.
Estella's brows furrowed, and that simple motion—subtle, instinctive—shifted something in the air. Aries tilted his head slightly, his grin fading into a softer, more contemplative look as he watched her. She didn't speak, but her silence was loud enough for him to hear every unspoken thought running through her mind. That expression—creased brow, lips slightly parted in confusion, the slight narrowing of her eyes—told him more than any words ever could.
