Kai couldn't shake the feeling that time was slipping away from him—falling apart, like sand pouring through a cracked hourglass. Each day in the forest blurred into the next. Some moments passed in a flash, others dragged on forever, as if time itself was twisting and stretching around them. It felt like the forest had its own strange rhythm, one that didn't follow the rules of the outside world.
He had stopped trying to count the days since they arrived. It didn't matter—light and dark no longer followed any real pattern here. Days felt meaningless, swallowed by a place stuck somewhere between life and death. When the sun rose, it brought no warmth or clarity—just a dim, golden light smothered by the thick mist that never lifted. The shadows didn't retreat like they should. They stayed too long, like they were alive and unwilling to leave.
