The next dawn brought no relief.
The light arrived pale and yellowish, as if the sun had passed through a veil of dust before touching the clearing.The air felt heavier.The shadows of the trees stretched longer than they should.
Draven was the first to wake, sweating cold.
"I… I dreamed of the eye," he whispered.He looked around as though afraid it might appear again."It was looking at me."
Borin was already up, sharpening his axe—but without his usual morning confidence.Every movement was slow, deliberate.Like his mind was somewhere else entirely.
Lyra stepped out of the cabin next, her bow on her back, expression tighter than usual.
She stared at Ren.
"You didn't sleep, did you?"
Ren didn't answer.
He sat beside the box, staff leaning against the floor, eyes fixed on the fragment—which, for the first time since they'd found it, was completely still.
The White Spirit Flower beside him flickered with unstable light, as if something invisible were draining it.
Lyra approached cautiously.
"Ren… what's happening?"
He lifted the cloth where he had stored the dust.
It was warm.
"This," Ren murmured, "is reacting."
Draven crept closer, curiosity and fear mixing on his face."Reacting how?"
Ren tilted the cloth and let a pinch of the dust fall onto the ground, far from the box.
The effect was instant.
The earth vibrated.
Not like the calling from underground—not like the forest's warning.
It was smaller.Subtle.A quick, almost shy tremor.
As if something… had awakened.
Draven's eyes widened."The ground… answered?"
Borin took a step back."This stuff is alive."
Lyra quickly looked toward the fragment.
"And it?"
Ren approached the box.
Carefully, he opened it.
The fragment was still curled up—but not like before.
When the light touched it, Ren noticed something new.
The roots had changed color.In the center of the mass, mixed with the organic fibers, was a grayish tone—the same color as the colossus's dust.
"It absorbed," Ren whispered."Absorbed what?" Draven asked."A piece of the colossus."
Silence.
The forest didn't move, but it felt more alert than ever.
Lyra tapped the fragment lightly with the tip of her arrow—without touching it."So that means… it's changing?"
Ren closed the box.
"Yes."
The staff vibrated in his hand.Not from fear.
From… recognition.
Lyra noticed immediately.
"Your staff is reacting too."
Ren ran his hand along the wood.It was cold—but a cold filled with static,as if it were absorbing information.
"The staff and the fragment share the same origin," Ren murmured."But the fragment… is a lost piece."He inhaled."And now that piece is waking up."
Draven pulled his arms close."Is that good… or bad?"
Ren didn't respond right away.
If the fragment were merely reacting to the colossus, it would be bad.But there was something else.
Something he hadn't told them.
During the night, after the roar, when he finally managed to close his eyes for a few minutes—he didn't dream.
He heard.
A broken voice.A distant lament.Short, like someone calling to him from the bottom of a well.
And the voice wasn't from the creature.
"Ren?" Lyra whispered.
He finally spoke.
"Someone touched my mind last night."Lyra tensed."Who?""I don't know."He looked at the box."But it wasn't the colossus."
Draven went pale."Then it was the fragment?"
Ren nodded slowly.
"It tried… to speak."
Lyra took a breath, steadying herself."What did it say?"
Ren closed his eyes, searching for the memory.
Not words.Not language.
Pain.Fear.Urgency.
"He said…"Ren opened his eyes."'Don't let him return.'"
The phrase fell on the clearing like a weight.
Borin tightened his grip on the axe."Then we're screwed."
Ren stood slowly.
"We're being warned."He looked at each of them."And if the colossus comes back stronger, with more awareness…"He paused."…he might take the fragment."
Lyra swallowed hard.
"Or worse," she whispered."He might want you, Ren."
The staff pulsed in his hand—as if confirming.
And for the first time since all of this began, Ren felt something new.
Not fear.
Responsibility.
He looked at the three of them.Then at the flower.Then at the box.
And said, with a calm far beyond his years:
"We're going to figure out how to stop this thing."A quiet breath."Before it returns."