The boisterous energy of the inn finally succumbed to the quiet hours. Morning found the common room still, the air layered with the ghost of stale ale. Near the heavy main door, the muffled sounds of the departing humans stirred Darno from his counter. He pulled open the door. Sunlight streamed in, silhouetting the Master and his team against the outside passage. Blocking the threshold, however, slumped a familiar figure.
Darno sighed from the doorway. "Koji. You're still drunk?"
Koji swayed, squinting. "Left yer cups half full!" he slurred. "Couldn't let them go t'waste…" He blinked at the group, each eye out of time with the other, then threw a wobbly arm around Darno's shoulders. "Darno's a real good guy, right?"
The Master gave a slight nod. "See you tonight, Darno." He turned and walked away, his team following.
"See you," Darno called back. He quickly turned and held out a pair of brass goggles to the Master. "You see that palace? In the distance there." He lowered his voice slightly. "That's where he stays." He gestured towards it. "The way there is through the Forbidden Forest." The Master's gaze shifted momentarily to the ominous treeline Darno indicated. A forbidden forest, huh? He thought. His expression remained neutral, "We appreciate the information," the Master said, his tone even. "And the warning."
"No worries," Darno replied, managing a final wave as they turned to depart.
Darno watched them walk away, his gaze drawn, almost magnetically, to Senen moving beside the Master. There was an unseen force around the man, heavy and strong, making the air itself seem charged. Darno stared, mouth slightly open.
Just then, the inn door creaked open. "Dada, come!" A small boy tugged hard on Darno's hand.
Darno chuckled, letting the boy pull him back towards the warm light of the inn. "Alright, Aoto, slow down." Inside, his wife waited near the counter, arms crossed, a soft smile on her face.
The door clicked shut.
With the inn district fading behind them, the scale of city Ten returned, swallowing the sound of their footsteps as they walked onward. Kin squinted, shielding his eyes as he looked up toward the distant cavern roof. Tiny crystals glittered across the rock, but one vast cluster blazed fiercely, mimicking daylight. "You think that's all crystal up there?" he asked.
Senen glanced up, then briefly at Kin, a sense of certainty in his eyes. "They must have woven countless crystals together."
Tiren murmured, gaze distant, "It really does look like our sun, though..." His tone held a note of wistful comparison.
"Whoa," Kin breathed, stopping short. He turned slightly, catching Sye's eye, sharing a look of pure astonishment. "Feels like we're back home."
Sye nodded slowly, her own wonder tinged with a faint unease reflected in her gaze across the view. "Yeah..."
Ahead, the tunnel mouth widened abruptly. The path spilled out from rock and shadow into a vast, open cavern space. Under the glare of the false sun, neat rows of leafy green vegetables and tall, grain-like stalks stretched away in startling patterns. It looked like farmland, meticulously tended, the dark, damp earth turned over between the rows. The air smelled strongly of soil and growing things, a scent utterly alien to the city behind them.
"Eyes forward." The Master didn't raise his voice, but the command was sharp, instantly slicing through their momentary wonder. "This place is still unknown territory. Expect anything."
The wonder vanished from Sye's face, replaced by focused alertness. Kin snapped his attention forward, shoulders squaring. "Right!"
They reached the edge of the cultivated ground, the path turning into a slight decline leading down between the strange fields, deeper into the unnatural landscape.
The Master angled his head slightly toward Senen, his voice no louder than a whisper "Senen."
Senen glanced over, a single white eyebrow raising in question.
"What do you make of Darno's warning?" the Master asked quietly.
Senen drew a slow breath, the kind that seemed to center him entirely. His eyes closed for a mere second, shutting out the immediate world, then opened again, fixed on the Master. "We lack intel" he stated. His voice wasn't just even; it was devoid of doubt. "it's too soon to make any conclusions yet."
The Master didn't just look; his gaze pierced, evaluating not just the words but the absolute conviction underpinning them. He saw it carved into Senen's eyes. No debate was necessary; the assessment stood on its own merit. His gaze fixed on the path ahead, his concentration narrowing solely onto what lay before them.
They stood at the edge of the woods Darno had called forbidden. Twisted, weeping trees formed a dense wall, their long, thin leaves hanging like dripping green curtains, obscuring the interior. A natural sweet smell drifted out.
Tiren tilted his head. "Doesn't look so dangerous..."
The Master took a step forward, breaching the curtain of leaves. "Let's move."
Senen didn't seem to register the visual entrance. His attention was locked on the shadowed depths between the trunks, his posture utterly still. He seemed to be sensing something else entirely—something off. A distorted note beneath the surface calm a faint, wrong texture to the air drifting out. It was the feeling of unseen eyes, of held breaths, somewhere within the forbidden forest. His eyes narrowed, pupils contracting slightly as if focusing on that unseen input. "No..." Tiren glanced toward the seemingly quiet trees, then back at Senen, his brow creasing for a moment. Senen clarified, the words spoken with the quiet finality of imminent danger "There are beasts inside."
Stepping inside was like entering another world. Light vanished, swallowed by the dense roof of long, weeping leaves overhead. The air was thick and motionless, deadening all sound. Pale, smooth bark rose like columns. Water condensed on the leaves like hanging green curtains, as random droplets fell onto the earth's floor below.
"Never saw trees like this on the surface." Tiren craned his neck, awe replacing his earlier skepticism as he gazed up into the strange, dripping canopy.
"Must be unique to this place," the Master stated, his gaze never resting, sweeping the area around them.
Then Senen stopped cold. His head tilted, nostrils flaring faintly. "Wait." A subtle shift in the air. The leaves above, once swaying gently, had stilled. Even the hanging droplets no longer fell. The forest had gone too quiet.
A sudden crack and rustle tore through the quiet – dry leaves skittering nearby, just beyond sight behind a thick trunk to their right. The forest's strange beauty evaporated. Tiren planted his feet, bringing his spear vertical before him in a guard stance, its point ready. Sye drew and nocked an arrow in one swift, near-invisible motion, the fletching tight against her cheek as her eyes swept the dense canopy above. Kin's sword cleared its sheath in a metallic whisper, held ready in a low guard. The Master's hands remained empty but poised. Senen alone remained statue-still, head raised slightly, every line of his body focused purely on listening.
Instinct took over. They closed ranks, shoulder-to-shoulder in a tight circle, weapons ready, eyes probing the dense weave of trunks and dripping leaves.
"Can't see them!" Kin shouted.
Sweat broke free on Tiren's forehead, cutting a clean track through the grime. "Where?" he breathed, voice tight with strain. "Where are they?"
Then, movement erupted all around. Not from the ground, but plunging down through the dense leaf cover. Shadows detached themselves from above – immense shapes crashing through the foliage. Creatures, half leathery-winged insect, half sinewy wolf, slammed onto the forest floor on thick, clawed legs. Each one stood easily the size of a small house, their skin a deep, bruised purple. Blank, ink-black eyes fixed on the group, devoid of light or reason. A low, clicking snarl rose from multiple throats, building rapidly. The circle tightened, talons gouging the earth. And then the closest one lunged.