Rayma~
As I took in the faces gathered in the heart of the ancient forest, I felt it immediately—the quiet aftermath of a storm that hadn't truly passed. The towering oaks arched above us, their massive branches entwined like lovers who had forgotten how to let go, casting a lacework of shadows across the moss-softened earth. The forest breathed around us, heavy with the scent of damp soil and night-blooming jasmine, a sweetness so sharp it felt almost cruel, as though nature itself were mocking the tension knotting our chests.
Moonlight spilled through the canopy in fractured beams, turning leaves into sheets of silver and painting pale halos along familiar faces. Somewhere in the distance, a nightingale sang, its fragile melody threading through the silence like a promise no one was brave enough to believe in yet. This place had witnessed the rise and fall of empires, the birth of legends, and the quiet extinction of names no one remembered anymore—and now, it bore witness to us.
