We moved through the forest. I noticed something as we ran—the birds weren't random. They were following Mara. Circling overhead, landing in branches ahead of us, watching with eyes that reflected light like mirrors. They didn't attack. They didn't flee. They just... observed.
Mara noticed too. "They're watching me."
Elara nodded. "Rainbow may be using them."
"No." Mara looked up. "They aren't."
"How do you know?"
"They aren't afraid of me. They don't act like trained animals. They act like..." She searched for the word.
"Like family. Like they're waiting for me to join them."
A bird landed on a branch ahead. Large, black, wrong. Mara walked closer. It didn't fly away. It tilted its head, studying her with eyes that were too aware.
She raised her hand. I grabbed her wrist. "Don't."
Mara looked at me. "I wasn't going to touch it."
The bird tilted its head again. Then flew away, heading deeper into the forest, always staying visible, always just ahead.
Mara watched it go. "It wants me to follow."
Elara frowned. "That's impossible."
Mara smiled faintly. "Maybe."
We followed. The bird led us through the forest, always staying just ahead, always visible when it shouldn't have been. Eventually we reached an old concrete bunker, its doors covered in vines, its entrance half-buried in earth. The air here was different. Still. Heavy. Like the world was holding its breath.
I looked at Elara. "What's inside?"
She looked terrified. Genuinely, bone-deep terrified.
"The original laboratory. Where it all started. Where the first Beast was made."