Chapter 57 The Return

• Lucy’s POV
• After regaining our lions, the next two days felt like a sacred rhythm — a dance between dawn and dusk. Each morning and evening, we performed our rituals, running deep into the woods and hunting beneath the golden canopy of sunlight or the cool shimmer of moonlight. The forest had become our playground and our sanctuary, echoing with the thunder of paws and the rustle of wind through our fur.
• Lira and Clara understood instinctively that where we were going, there would be no wild stretches of forest for them to roam freely, no open skies to roar beneath. They would need to contain their nature, to remain still and hidden until we could one day return to the wilderness and set them free again. That understanding sat heavily within us. I often wondered how Kenneth and the others managed it — how they lived day by day among humans while carrying such primal beings inside them.