Day 2: Gorath’s Journal

I keep going back to the river. Not the one by the ruins, not the one where Vex stood, but the one that bends like a snake under the moonlight. I can still feel the way his voice was — low, like stones grinding in the water — when he said, ‘You don’t have to be alone.’ I thought I’d forget. I thought I’d stop. But my head keeps spinning, and my stomach feels heavy, like it’s trying to remember something it shouldn’t. Yesterday, I caught a fish. Not a big one, but it was enough to make my legs ache and my hands shake. I didn’t eat it. I just sat by the water and watched how the moonlight broke the surface into pieces. The air smells like old water and wet leaves. It’s the only thing that feels real right now.