_Author’s POV_
It happened in the late afternoon, when the light had gone a bit dim and the sun was long, the forest had settled into the particular quiet of the hour before dusk.
Rowena had gone further from the main camp than she intended.
There was a section of the stream she remembered from childhood, a bend where the water ran over flat stones and there was a small natural pool that caught the late light in a specific way her father had shown her once. She had been moving toward it without fully deciding to.
Pierre had followed without being asked, which she had registered and not objected to.
They were moving along the upper stream bank, the ground slightly uneven, the undergrowth denser here than in the cleared sections closer to camp.
Rowena was two steps ahead,
