C226 A WARNING WRITTEN IN RED LIGHT
The figure did not hurry forward.
That alone made it dangerous.
It stood where the forest ended and the village began, as though it belonged to neither. Tall, too still, its presence pressed against the air like an unspoken threat. The villagers froze in place, carts half-packed, children mid-step, breath held in throats that suddenly remembered every story told by firelight
