We often think we know the people standing right beside us. We know their coffee orders, their nervous habits, and the sound of their laugh from across a crowded room. But there is a difference between knowing someone in the safety of the sunlight and trusting them when the shadows grow long.

Eli, Mara, Jonah, Lena, and Caleb were five distinct pieces of a puzzle that had fit together comfortably for years. They shared a history built on inside jokes and easy silence. But comfort is fragile. It rarely survives the wild, and it never survives the truth.

This story isn't just about a journey to a place on a map. It is about the distance between people—how quickly it can widen, and how hard you have to fight to close it. It is about discovering that the hardest part of an adventure isn’t the mountain you climb, but facing the person standing next to you when the climbing is done.

They started as five. The only question was whether they would finish as one.

Would you like to proceed with Chapter 1, "The Ordinary Days," or would you like to flesh out a specific scene or setting for the opening

first?