Kael
The longer I looked at the settlement, the less I knew what to think.
Not long ago, standing on the road below, it had been easy. The Purists were the enemy. The people who had spent generations attacking packs, sabotaging alliances, and clinging to old hatred like it was some sacred inheritance. The same people who had tried to assassinate a pregnant soon-to-be queen.
Simple.
Then I climbed a mountain and got a better view.
Now I could see children racing between cabins while a woman stood on a porch yelling after them. I could see smoke curling from chimneys and laundry hanging from lines stretched between buildings. Somewhere below, somebody was chopping wood. Somewhere else, a dog barked.
The sounds didn’t reach us from this distance, but my brain filled them in anyway.
It
