The watch that night was more strict than normal. There had been little to look out for in the grasslands, with visibility so low.
The chimera had scared them all, to varying degrees, and now to be in an unexplored forest? It set everyone on edge.
Mia insisted on taking a turn, constantly searching to see if there were a safer place to make camp for the night. There was nothing.
Ford's secondary pull was back in place, which was both a comfort and a distraction. When he turned everyone invisible, it disappeared, confirming her very strong theory that his magic interfered with her own.
That was irritating.
The grasslands had had their sounds at night, which Mia had grown used to. Now, on the edge of the forest, it was different.
No more was the steady rush of the tall grasses flowing one stalk against another in the winds of the night. The flutter of leaves was less predictable, less constant as the breeze filtered through the trees.
The absence of something is sometimes harder to notice, and sometimes, the hardest to ignore. Like the absence of stroopwafels in a home can be extremely hard to ignore.