*Shadow Pack ---- Pre--Dawn*

The world inside Crystal's dream was eerily silent at first. It wasn't the comforting hush of the forest or the steady lullaby of crickets she knew. She stood barefoot in a field covered with ashes that stretched farther than her eyes could reach. The ground crumbled under her toes. The sky above was colorless, stripped bare of stars... as though even the Moon Goddess had abandoned this place.

Wind slid through the emptiness, stirring faint curls of ...