For the past three hours, Raya and Kaius had walked through the dense forest, the only sound accompanying them being the rhythmic crunch of their boots against the leaf-strewn ground and the occasional rustling of unseen creatures in the undergrowth.
Neither of them had spoken, their silence stretching between them like an invisible barrier, thick and unyielding. It was a silence neither of them seemed willing to break, charged with tension that had nothing to do with the challenge at hand and everything to do with the unspoken turmoil that simmered beneath the surface.
Each carried only a small backpack, packed with the few survival essentials they had been given before departing from camp, their only guide being the map with cryptic instructions. The first leg of their mission was sim
