Reaching the trading center had been far too easy.
Tessa slowed her steps as her eyes swept across the wide expanse ahead of them. The familiar ground—where trades, barters, arguments, and laughter usually clashed into one chaotic harmony—lay unnaturally quiet. The earth itself looked different, dry and cracked in places, as though even the soil had lost interest in the daily bustle.
No voices. No movement. No noise.
Just a few scattered figures lingering like shadows.
Her brows furrowed.
"That's strange…" she muttered under her breath. "Normally the lion tribe would be around here."
The lion tribe never joked with resources—especially not the ones belonging to the cat tribe. If anything, they were usually the first to arrive and the last to leave, hoarding and negotiating like their lives depended on it.
But now?
Nothing.
