BERTHOLD POV...
"We are almost surrounded!"
I swear, in that moment, my heart didn't just skip a beat—it attempted a full-blown escape from my ribcage. My brother and I stood there like statues carved from pure disbelief, even though every primitive instinct inside me had been screeching, Run. Run now. Don't look back.
And yet, absurdly, almost mockingly, the world around us still felt drenched in a lazy sort of calm. Several of the cursed children were still scattered about, minding their embarrassingly private business as if we weren't teetering on the razor's edge of annihilation.
"A pack of vicious wolves has almost closed in on us! Earlier I noticed their tracks," I said, injecting just the right amount of urgency into my voice—careful, deliberate, controlled. I had to sound alarmed, but not suspicious. Panicked, but not informed beyond reason.
