Chapter 1

Ava often felt a warmth in her hands, a thrumming energy she couldn't explain.

Once, a neighbor' s dog got hit by a truck.

Everyone said it would die.

Ava knelt by it, her hands hovering over its broken body.

The warmth flowed, and the dog, against all odds, started to mend.

She never told anyone what she felt, not even Chloe. It was too strange.

Chloe was different.

She felt things.

If someone was sad, Chloe felt a shadow over her own heart.

If someone was joyful, Chloe' s spirit would lift, almost like she was sharing their exact feeling.

She had this old wooden bird, a cheap thing from a county fair.

Chloe loved it, and sometimes, Ava swore the bird felt... more alive, more vibrant than simple wood should.

Chloe called it her "echo charm."

They lived in a small, quiet town tucked away in the hills, the kind of place where everyone knew your business, but no one really understood you.

Lately, a string of bad luck had hit the community.

A blight ruined the crops.

The small lumber mill, the town's main employer, shut down.

People were leaving. Hope was thin.

Ava and Chloe felt it too, a quiet desperation, a yearning for something more, something better.

Then, travelers started talking about a place called "The Hearth."

They said it was a community hidden deep in a mountain valley, a sanctuary.

A place of peace, of shared purpose, where people lived in harmony with nature and with each other.

They spoke of empowerment, of finding your true self.

Marcus, the leader, was described as a man of vision, someone who understood the deeper currents of life.

"Maybe we should go, Ava," Chloe said one evening, watching the sunset paint the dying fields in shades of orange and purple.

"There' s nothing for us here anymore."

Ava looked at her best friend, saw the hope flickering in Chloe' s eyes, a hope she desperately wanted to share.

"What if it's just stories, Chloe?"

"What if it's not?" Chloe replied, her voice soft but firm. "What if it's real?"

The idea took root. A place to heal, to belong, to perhaps understand the strange things they sometimes felt.

They packed their few belongings a week later, a shared sense of nervous excitement and a desperate need for change pushing them forward.

The road to The Hearth was long and winding, leading them away from everything they knew.