The reports regarding a forest on the outskirts of Republic City had started weeks ago.

Citizens came back lightheaded, scared, some never even came back. Metalbending patrols were sent to chart the forest’s border stopped checking in. Equipment malfunctioned. Compasses spun uselessly. One squad returned pale and shaken, refusing to speak beyond a single word passed between them like a curse: haunted.

Lin Beifong was the Chief of Police, and the Chief didn’t believe in curses.

The forest swallowed sound the moment the patrol crossed the boundary. The wind died first, then the insects, until even the soft clink of metal at Lin Beifong’s wrists felt intrusive. Towering trees pressed in from all sides, their twisted branches knitting together overhead, blotting out the moonlight.

She led from the front, an irked expression on her face, boots steady against the damp earth, coat collar turned up against a chill she refused to acknowledge. Spirits. Superstition. Civilian hysteria. None of it mattered. Something was interfering with Republic City’s patrol routes, and that made it her problem.

Behind her, the metalbending officers that had been accompanying her moved in disciplined formation, lanterns casting long, wavering shadows across the path. Their faces were professional, but their eyes betrayed them , flicking too often toward the treeline, lingering on shadows that didn’t quite behave.

One of the officers cleared his throat, voice low, but ever so slightly shaky

“Um...Chief… the sensors just went dead.”

Lin didn’t slow, but delivered an eye roll and a snappy retort

“Then rely on your training,” she said evenly, but the annoyance that laced the older woman's tone was hard to miss. “This forest isn’t special. It just wants you to think it is.”

A branch creaked overhead. Not from wind, seeing as there was no wind, but from slow, deliberate pressure.

Lin’s jaw set. Her metal cables slid an inch from their housings with a familiar, comforting whisper. She scanned the forest for disturbances in the earth, in the iron-rich soil, in anything she could ground herself in — anything solid.

Strange, eerie noises coming from wild animals were heard everywhere. The forest loomed, silent and intent, and for the first time since the reports crossed her desk, Chief Beifong allowed herself to consider that this expedition might not be routine after all. No less, she and her metalbending officers continued on, traversing deeper into the eerie forest grounds, in the dead of night.