The jungle didn't get dark at night; it got loud.
As the sun vanished completely, plunging the Jade Reach into a suffocating, inky blackness, the bioluminescence woke up. Glowing fungi coated the tree trunks in pulsating veins of neon blue and toxic orange. Massive fireflies, the size of sparrows, buzzed through the canopy, their abdomens flashing with warning colors.
And the screaming started.
It wasn't human screaming. It was the sound of a thousand different species waking up to hunt, mate, and kill.
Mirabelle stumbled over a root, catching herself on a mossy boulder. Her legs felt like lead. They had been walking for twelve hours through mud that sucked at her boots and humidity that felt like breathing through a wet wool blanket.
"We need to stop," she gasped, wiping sweat and grime from her face. "Revas, I can't take another step."
