Morning settled slowly over the overlook. Fog drifted through the evergreens surrounding the ranger station while rain tapped softly against the roof in uneven bursts. The mountains below looked washed-out and distant beneath layers of gray cloud, though smoke still curled upward from somewhere farther down the valley.The world kept burning quietly in the background.Inside the station, the air smelled like damp wood, cold coffee, and wet clothing. Rowan sat near the window with the splitting maul resting beside his leg while he watched the tree line through a narrow gap in the curtain.Evelyn wasn’t sure he’d slept at all.Or maybe he had in the same way wild animals rested, lightly, never fully, always listening for danger.Across the room, the woman who’d arrived during the storm sat carefully wrapping a faded emergency blanket around the little girl beside her. Both of them still looked soaked through despite the dry clothes Evelyn had dug out of storage bins earlier that morning
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