The air twisted.
What was once a tranquil dusk now churned into something unnatural—ominous clouds spiraling overhead, thick and low like they were being dragged down by an unseen force. The winds that had danced softly moments ago now howled with a sharp edge, carrying with them the scent of scorched earth and something older… something feral.
Then it echoed across the sky.
A roar—guttural, immense, primordial—ripped through the silence, shaking the mountain's bones. It wasn't a cry of hunger. It was fury. Agony. A beast long buried, awakened before its time.
Luca's body stiffened. His head snapped toward the direction of the sound.
"No…" he muttered, eyes narrowing, a cold sweat breaking across his neck. "Those bastards—please tell me they didn't touch it."
A deep, gnawing dread unfurled in his chest. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. The slumbering beast—was it disturbed?
