{Isabella}
To stay warmer, Isabella nestled into a crook where two charred wooden beams met, their once sturdy form now buckling into a warped embrace. The scorched remains of the barn whispered of the chaos that once reigned, the air still holding the acrid tang of wet burned embers. A cold draft snuck through the splintered planks, carrying the biting scent of frostbitten earth and something more with an iron tang.
She drew her hunting cloak tighter around her slender frame. Each breath formed a ghostly wisp in the frigid air, the stillness so pronounced that the sound of her breathing seemed like an intrusive rustle in the overwhelming silence. The cold bit through her gloves, numbing her fingers as they pressed against the damp, soot-covered ground, the texture gritty and abrasive. The shotgun resting in the crook of her arms.
Isabella closed her eyes, seeking the warmth from within, the calm center of her being. As she inhaled deeply, her senses began to stretch beyond the immediate sensations of cold and discomfort. The distant howl of the wind through barren fields became a gentle hum in her ears, a stark contrast to the silence within the barn. She could discern the soft, uneven patter of a solitary rat's paws as it scavenged through the debris, the tiny heartbeat a rapid pitter-patter in the quiet.
The faint creaks and groans of the barn settling became a language she understood, the building's lament, its resilience, and its fatigue. Each groan was a story of a day under the sun, a night under the stars, of laughter and life now extinguished. The scent of burnt wood, a poignant reminder of loss, was underlaid with the subtler, sweeter hints of hay that had been stored for a winter that would never come.
Her metaphysical senses unfurled like nocturnal blooms, reaching into the ether for the familiar strands of Aramis’ life energies. The air around her seemed to vibrate with potential, charged with the latent power of the earth and the unyielding spirit of those who had Resisted. In this space between breaths and being, Isabella found a profound connection to the land and her cause…
The sounds of heavier movement broke her reverie. She swung the shotgun around that direction.
| 
