CHAPTER 3 - WHISPERS & CHOICES

Dawn in this world felt weird and quiet. Two moons were still up - a skinny silver one and a big one, similar to the one in our world - as the sky started to get bright. We were all in the barracks, feeling clumsy in our new gear. The squeaky leather armor didn't fit right, and the weapons felt heavy and awkward.

The mood was a weird mix of jokes you tell when you're scared and just being flat-out terrified.

"Right then," Olivia announced, holding her sword up like it was a dead fish. "Who's taking bets on how long before I accidentally stab myself with this thing? I'm giving myself ten minutes, tops."

"Don't be dramatic, Liv," Emma said, but she was methodically checking her own straps for the third time. "Commander Elara said these are for emergencies. We're just supposed to be looking around."

"Says the girl who looks like she was born for this," Lucas grumbled, struggling with a buckle on his chest plate. It was way too tight on his broad shoulders. "I feel like a sausage in this thing."

"You look like a sausage," his sister Bela added quietly from her corner, not looking up from her sketchbook. She was already drawing the strange sky. A small smile touched her lips.

Lucas shot her a mock-glare. "Hey, whose side are you on?"

Advik, leaning against the wall, just shook his head. "This feels rushed. A recon mission the day after we get here? Strange." He was tapping a light, anxious rhythm on his thigh guards.

Commander Elara entered, her own armor a perfect, silent fit. "The objective is simple," she said, her voice cutting through the chatter. "You will patrol the outer edge of the Whisperwood. You will observe, you will report, and you will not engage. I will be accompanying you, along with two of my soldiers. Do not disappoint me."

Her presence was intimidating, but it was also steadying. She wasn't like the old men who looked at us like we were a mistake. She was a commander, and we were her new, deeply flawed unit.

◆ ◆ ◆

The Whisperwood was definitely creepy. The second we walked under the weird, shiny trees, everything went quiet. No birds, no bugs, just an unnerving silence. And then, the whispers started. Faint, like rustling leaves, but they almost sounded like words you couldn't quite understand.

"Okay, this is officially freaking me out," Lucas muttered, sticking a little closer to Bela.

"It's just the wind," Emma reasoned, though she kept glancing over her shoulder.

"Yeah, a wind that sounds like it's whispering 'get out'," Olivia shot back in a low voice.

Takumi, who had been completely silent all morning, suddenly held up a hand. We all froze. He pointed to a spot just off the path, his voice soft but clear. "Trap. Tripwire."

We all looked. A thin, almost invisible wire was stretched between two trees, connected to a heavy log studded with sharp wooden spikes. We had almost walked right into it.

"Good eyes, Takumi," Elara said, a hint of approval in her tone. The two soldiers with her exchanged a look of surprise. "You take point."
Takumi just nodded, his focus on the path ahead. His quiet, observant nature, the same one that made him seem distant in the classroom, had made him essential out here.

We walked for another hour, the whispers rising and falling around us. It was Bela who stopped next. "Wait," she said, her artist's eyes scanning the undergrowth. "There's something... red."

We followed her gaze. Tucked away under a large, fern-like plant was a small, whimpering shape. It was a creature covered in matted grey fur, with large, pointed ears and canine features. It looked like a wolf pup, but it was clutching a leg that was caught in the vicious metal jaws of a hunter's trap. Its leg was mangled, bleeding onto the mossy ground.

It was a beastfolk child.

"Oh, you poor thing," Olivia breathed.

The moment the pup saw us, it let out a terrified yelp and started thrashing wildly, ignoring the pain in its leg. Its eyes were wide with a terror that went beyond just being trapped. It was as if it had been told stories about monsters, and those monsters were us.

"Hero, halt!" one of the soldiers barked, raising his spear. "That is a monster! Do not approach it!"

But Olivia was already moving. "It's not a monster, you idiot, it's a baby!" she shot back, holding her hands up to show she was unarmed. "Hey, it's okay," she said softly to the pup. "We're not going to hurt you."

The pup flinched back, pressing itself into the dirt, whimpering.

"I am ordering you to step away!" the soldier commanded, taking a step forward.

Lucas immediately moved between the soldier and Olivia, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "You take one more step, and we're going to have a problem."

"This is not a debate!" the other soldier snapped, leveling his own spear. "Our orders are to eliminate all monsters on sight!"

The clearing was thick with tension. Emma was trying to de-escalate, talking quickly about protocol, while Advik and Takumi had silently positioned themselves behind Lucas, a quiet show of solidarity.

"Enough," Elara's voice was sharp as steel. The soldiers immediately flinched and lowered their weapons. She looked at the scene: Olivia slowly inching towards the terrified pup, Lucas standing as a human shield and the rest of us ready to back him up.

Her face was unreadable. She watched as Olivia finally got close enough, her hands glowing with a soft, green light. The pup trembled but was too weak to move away. Olivia's magic flowed into the mangled leg, knitting the flesh and bone back together. When the leg was whole, Olivia gently pried open the trap.

The beastfolk pup, now freed, stared at its healed leg in confusion. It looked up at Olivia, its terrified eyes now filled with a dawning, hesitant understanding. It took a wobbly step forward, leaned in, and gave her hand a single, quick lick before scrambling away into the woods and disappearing.

Olivia stood up, a small, triumphant smile on her face as she glared at the soldiers. "See? Just a scared kid."

Elara finally spoke, her voice dangerously calm. She wasn't looking at Olivia. She was looking at all of us. "Your objective was reconnaissance," she said slowly. "You have revealed your position, exposed your healer's abilities and created dissension in the ranks over a single monster pup."

She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in.

"But you also showed me something else. You protected your own. You made a choice." She turned her gaze to the path ahead. "Let's see if it was the right one."