The shadows stretched long and soft as the afternoon leaned into evening, the sky turning a mellow amber through the canopy overhead. I lay under the lean-to, my body curled halfway in a bed of blankets that still smelled faintly of ocean salt and iodine. The pain in my ribs had dulled to a slow, grinding throb. Not enough to keep me fully still, not enough to let me forget.
So I watched.
It had become my new occupation. Observing. Noticing things I hadn't needed to before. With my System on cooldown and all my jobs locked away behind blinking red notices, I didn't have instinct or deduction or observation to fall back on. Just eyes. Just ears. Just me.
