Day 7: Zhraa’s Journal

The river stones in my pocket feel cold now. I keep going back to that bend where Vex left his stones glowing like angry eyes in the dark. I told Gorath about it—how the moss near Dawn Tidepools looks like water breathing. He didn’t say much, just nodded, like he’s seen it before. My legs ache from chasing the glowstones all afternoon, but I can’t stop thinking about what he meant when he said, ‘You’ve been watching the wrong bends.’ The aurora faded just as I was checking the stones, and now it’s thick fog. I wonder if the water’s trying to tell me something. When I closed my eyes, I felt a whisper on the wind—not words, but a chill that wasn’t from the weather. Like the old ruins are breathing too. I don’t know why I keep going back there. Maybe because the stones remember what I forget.