The brave child

Previously

…But as the adrenaline began to fade, a new feeling settled in her chest – a profound weariness, and a dawning understanding of the true cost of her journey. Silas’s betrayal, the fear, the desperate gamble she had taken… it had all changed her. The naive child who had entered the woods was no more. In her place stood a girl who had faced darkness and emerged, not unscathed, but undeniably stronger. The path ahead, she knew, would be even more perilous, but she was ready. She had to be. Her grandmother was waiting.