Day 37: Lyrkon’s Journal

The river still smells like rain. I was thinking about Vex’s words when I stumbled back to the ruins again—those crumbling steps that lead down into the dark. My stomach growled louder than the wind, and I kept going back to that spot even though I knew it was dangerous. I tried to remember what Vex said: ‘The river doesn’t run straight, Lyrkon. It twists. It hides.’ But my head’s too full of the singing stones and the way the wind carried us out of the Whispering Pines. I don’t know if it’s the hunger or the fear—I just can’t stop wondering if the river is still there, or if it’s just me trying to find a way back to where I was before everything got so loud.