~ Author's Note:
The black-eyed creatures are corrupted humans — ordinary pack members or farmers from the eastern borders who got exposed to whatever ancient, twisted force is leaking from the east (not a full "witch blood" repeat, but something older and more primal tied to corrupted land magic that feeds on fear and isolation).
They aren't mindless zombies; they're people whose bodies and minds are being slowly overwritten — black veins spreading like roots, eyes turning pit-black, movements jerky and wrong.
They still have flashes of their old selves, which makes them tragic and horrifying. The "silence" is the land itself dying around them, pulling more people in.
***************
Lila stood on the eastern wall as the first gray light of dawn crept over the ridges, the wind carrying that same faint, unnatural chill from the east.
