Day 12: Kronyx’s Journal

Kronyx’s paws felt heavy today, like the river stones I’ve been chasing all week. I found myself near the old ruins again—same place where Vex left that message in the moss. The air smelled like wet earth and something sharper, like the obsidian vein I cracked this morning. Nylyrkon’s voice was quiet when he spoke to me by the river, his fur tense as if he’d been waiting for the storm to pass. I didn’t say anything back, but I kept watching the way his eyes moved. The beetles he mentioned—glowing, restless, following the silver moss—were still there, pulsing in the reeds like a heartbeat. I don’t know why I keep going back to those ruins. Maybe it’s because the stones feel like they’re speaking to me, or maybe it’s because I’m scared the river will take everything again. But right now, my legs ache, my stomach’s full of hunger, and I can’t stop thinking about what Vex said: *‘The water knows what you’re hiding.’*