Pāhonoa te oro

The air smells damp and unfamiliar, filled with sounds that don’t belong to birds or insects. Something is wrong here. Everyone feels it. That instinctive dread crawling up their spines, whispering that they’ve entered territory where humans don’t belong. The further they move, the tighter the formation becomes. Some recruits grip their weapons so hard their knuckles turn pale. Others glance around constantly, jumping at every snapped twig or shifting shadow. Panic spreads silently, passed f