The legendary man was the first to notice.
It was getting darker.
He kept running, but his eyes were locked between the leaves.
The light was dying.
Not slowly. Fast.
Too fast.
He was already thinking ahead.
How do you run blind through a forest without dying?
How do you dodge a tree you can't even see?
He studied the rhythm of the trunks as they passed
right, left, left again, then right.
He tried again, left, right, left
No. That wasn't it.
It was still getting darker.
His plan wasn't ready.
He needed it ready.
Then he shouted:
"Everyone, soon you won't see a damn thing. We all run in one line.
And don't stop. Stopping is death."
His voice cut through the rustling leaves.
"This might be the first real challenge. The real games just started."
The dark thickened. Shadows became black walls.
Then, an idea.
Rough. Uncertain. But it might work.
He shouted again:
"Those on the edges! Every time you dodge a tree, say your position! Shout it!"
At first, just a few voices answered.
"Left!"
"Right!"
"Left again!"
He listened.
They were lining up with his own movements.
Same directions.
Same pattern.
It was working.
"Middle!" he called. "Do the same. Shout it as you move!"
Now more voices.
"Left!"
"Right!"
"Left!"
His focus sharpened. Tuning everything out but their footsteps and their calls.
He was building the map in his mind.
Tree by tree.
Step by step.
His voice rose again, loud and clear:
"At the next trees, it's gonna go fully dark. No more guessing. Dodge as I say.
One wrong move, and it's over."
They all heard the weight in his words.
No one argued.
No one slowed down.
He looked to his right.
"Someone grab the kid's hand. Help him through this."
Anya didn't wait. She was already moving.
He closed his eyes for a moment, just to feel the rhythm.
Remembered the spacing.
The gaps.
The sequence.
And then the dark came,
Not like a slow fade, but a wall slamming down.
His vision blinked out. Hands vanished. Footsteps sounded like echoes in a cave.
No shapes. No outlines. Just black.
"LEFT!" he shouted.
Feet shifted, bodies swayed.
"RIGHT!"
Branches whipped past them.
"LEFT!"
The rhythm held.
They were running blind, together.
His timing was perfect. His voice never shook.
No one knew if they were doing it right.
No one knew if they were about to crash into a tree and vanish.
But they trusted him.
And then,
Light.
Sudden. Blinding.
They burst out of the woods like arrows loosed from a bow.
The sun hit their faces, warm and blinding and real.
Someone laughed. Someone else cried.
They skidded to a stop.
And looked around.
From one edge to the other, they were all there.
Not a single one lost.
For the first time, they had proof.
They had done it.
They had beaten the rules.
And the forest.
Together.