As the days passed, the camp appeared to tighten around its inhabitants like a coiled spring. The air was still, and every passage of wind through the trees sounded like voices plotting something. Warriors walked carefully, their gazes glancing cautiously from shadow to shadow, looking out always for signs oof betrayal.
Emily went around the camp with a sense of peace, her strides steady and her face determined. However, in the quiet times, the weight of their predicament was evident in the way she gripped her fists until her knuckles became white, or how her eyes, darkened by exhaustion, lingered just a little too long on the horizon, as if looking for an escape.