The group leader emerged first onto the leaves.
It was an immediate relief.
The air was fresher here, untainted by the musty smell of old silk and spider territory. Visibility much better with actual sight lines extending beyond arm's reach. And they could move more freely without worrying about turning down the wrong tunnel, about getting lost deeper in a maze with no exit.
But he stopped, surprised by what he saw rather than the expected normal canopy.
The leaves were enormous and carpeted the ceiling almost perfectly.
"Now we just need to find Patinder," the leader said, scanning the area for any sign of movement or disturbance that might indicate another team's passage.
The canopy of these trees was like giant palm trees, but their leaves were enormous and flat, like some aquatic plants expanded to impossible scale. They created something like a flat green floor remarkably regular in surface, with few gaps between one leaf and another that missed little sunlight.
