The next morning felt heavy, like the whole sky dropped down closer to earth. Yun stepped outside slowly, his eyes aching from not sleeping. The village was quiet again, but not the peaceful kind, more like the kind before storms or funerals, where everyone knows something but nobody wants to say it.

Shen Yu was already awake, of course, standing near the well with a bucket he wasn't actually filling. His eyes were bloodshot too, but he looked calm in a way that almost made Yun angry. How could someone be calm after hearing footsteps crawling on rooftops in the dead of night?

Yun walked over, his feet dragging. "You heard it," he said. It wasn't a question, because he already knew.

Shen Yu nodded once. His face tightened a little, the first real expression Yun saw on him since the day he arrived.

"It's begun," Shen Yu said quietly. Too quietly. Like the air would shatter if he spoke louder.

Yun swallowed. "What is it? Tell me. I can't— I can't just pretend anymore."

Shen Yu didn't answer at first. He looked at the treeline again, like always, but this time his eyes had something sharper, almost like sadness, or maybe regret. He let out a slow breath.

"There are things in this world," Shen Yu started, his words slow and unsteady for once, "that are not meant to walk during sunlight. Things born in old places, forgotten places. Not demons, not spirits, not beasts something between all of them. They feed on fear, on weakness, on spaces where the world grows thin."

Yun felt cold spread through his arms. "Why here? Why our village? We we're nothing. Nobody. We don't have anything special."

Shen Yu looked at him then, and the look made Yun's breath stop.

"You are special," Shen Yu said. "And they know it."

Yun blinked because that made no sense, absolutely none. He wanted to laugh, but the sound stuck in his teeth. "I am not special. I'm just… me. I chop wood and carry water and get yelled at for oversleeping. I got nothing."

Shen Yu stepped closer, voice low, no emotion but somehow heavy as stone.

"The stars know your name, Yun."

Yun felt dizzy, like the ground tilted. His heart hammered too fast. He opened his mouth but nothing came out.

Shen Yu continued, "Your bloodline is not ordinary. Your ancestors once stood higher than mountains, higher than the clouds. But your family hid you here, away from the world, so you could grow without being taken, or corrupted, or destroyed too early."

Yun shook his head hard, like he could shake away the words. "No— no that's...that's crazy, that's my parents are farmers, my grandparents were just normal people who they lived and died here. Everyone knows that!"

Shen Yu closed his eyes like Yun's words hurt him. "That is what they allowed others to know."

Silence. Heavy, suffocating, like a blanket thrown over fire.

Yun's hands shook. He didn't know if it was fear or anger. Maybe both.

"So the… the thing on the roof," Yun forced the words out, "it came because of me?"

Shen Yu nodded.

Yun's stomach twisted, hot and sick. "Then my village all of them they're in danger because of me."

Shen Yu didn't answer and that was answer enough.

Yun's vision blurred. His knees almost gave out. He felt like a child again, helpless and too small for the world.

"I didn't ask for this," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I never wanted anything big or great or whatever you're saying. I just… I just wanted to live here. Just here…"

Shen Yu reached out slowly, resting a hand on Yun's shoulder. His hand was warm, but somehow that warmth hurt too.

"No one ever chooses the sky they are born under," he said, voice rougher now. "But you won't face this alone. I am here. And others… others have been watching from farther than you know."

Yun didn't understand that part, not yet. He only knew his quiet life was gone broken, shattered by something he never asked for.

Before Yun could say anything more, the dogs began barking again loud, wild, panicked barking, louder than any other day. The villagers came rushing out of their houses, fear written clearly on every face.

This time, the barking was coming from the forest edge, not the village.

Something was in the trees.

Something big.

Shen Yu's hand tightened on Yun's shoulder.

"It has come closer," he said.

And Yun realized,

Everything was only just starting.

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