The earth shook with a deep vibration that resembled not footfalls but the pulse of a planet straining beneath an immense burden.
Reidar signaled for the ravens to descend, and the massive birds banked and dropped through the breaks in the canopy until they were hovering just above the forest floor. Until they landed.
The group got off the ravens quickly, and Reidar dismissed the summon to avoid detection, watching the bird dissolve into blue mist.
"This way," Reidar said, moving low.
He led them toward a cluster of mutated oaks whose trunks were wide enough to hide a car.
Pressing their backs against the bark, they peered around the edges in search of the source of the commotion.
In front of them, trees were being snapped. Not just the branches, but the entire tree, and the sound they made was thunderous, as if a storm had erupted overhead.
Something enormous was moving through the forest, pushing everything aside rather than navigating it.
