Ravenclaw had caught the smell of smoke before the people bringing news arrived. It stuck to their ripped robes, to their skin, to the fear in their eyes. As the gates opened and those who lived within them entered, the courtyard buzzed with whispers. They did not carry weapons, but children in their arms, soot in their hair.
Evelyn rushed over, her cloak sweeping over the stones as she bent to help a shaking woman. The villager's voice cracked as she tried to speak.
"They came in the dark," she whispered. "Fire everywhere. Wolves… and others. Not like us. Not from our clans.".
The words stormed through the gathered wolves like a storm through placid waters. Wolves and humans. Humans, hooded, fighters. Evelyn's chest tightened. She saw the name everyone was thinking and not saying. Fji.
