Lina put her boot back on. Then she stood and brushed the dirt away from her trousers. Glancing around the jungle, she encountered a new problem. Which way to go? The canopy diffused the light of the rising sun. It filtered down to twilight near the ground, but Lina thought one side looked stronger. That'll be east. Last she recalled, the Dawnhawk was just west of Fengel's struggle when they'd been attacked. So, east it was. Lina nodded to herself, feeling pleased at this deduction. Then she struck out.
She didn't get far before the jungle thickened. The sparse ferns grew more common, appearing in clumps of twos and threes. Before long Lina was pushing her way through the things, their long and feathery leaves catching at her clothing and chafing her skin. Spores from the plants filled the air, and Lina found herself sneezing wildly. When she finished, she stood back up straight, sniffling, her eyes watering and red.
She wasn't alone.
One of the pygmy lizard-men, the Draykin, stood before her. Its scales were a soft green, and its maw was filled with dozens of needle teeth. It wore a loincloth and carried a spear tipped with a gleaming bronze point. It held a weighted cord in its other hand.
Lina started, then she relaxed. The Draykin was strange, but that was normal, right? There were still sightings of ogres back on Edrus, and all the tales talked about the bizarre things that lived on this strange continent. "Rastalak, right? You scared me."
"Yamana!" it growled in reply. "Cobar hastracki!"
"You are not Rastalak," she said. Too late, she remembered the fine 'mask' of green scales that the other lizard-creature bore. Lina realized that she had just made a terrible mistake.
The creature hissed, long, low, threateningly. Lina turned and ran. She only had one dagger, the Draykin had a spear. And though smaller than a man, the Draykin wasn't far from her size. She pressed through the ferns at a flat run, her boots pounding the earth beneath her feet. Behind, she heard the Draykin cry out and give chase.
She struck out at random and regretted it almost immediately. The ferns thickened, keeping her from running all out. The tall trees grew more closely together this way, spreading thick roots across the jungle floor that threatened to trip and doom her. Vines dangled. Still, Lina ducked, dodged and leapt as best she could to avoid these obstacles, driven on by the bloodthirsty cries of the savage creature behind her, and by the hammering of her heart in her throat.
Something whistled past her head. Lina had the impression of a dark shape whipping only inches past to crack against a tree just up ahead. Three stones connected by thin cord fell down out of sight, having dented the bark.
Lina paled. It was throwing things at her! She ran more desperately, ducking under a thick clumps of hanging vines and dodging to put the big trees behind her as soon as she'd cleared them. The Draykin howled in frustration and anger.
She made for a heavy banyan tree, with root-branches growing to a thick maze. Some of the paths would easily hide her, or give her the advantage for a moment. Something sailed past her to impact the nearest root-entrance and stuck, quivering. The hunter's spear now blocked her way. Lina cursed and dove left into another thick bunch of ferns.
The canopy ahead opened wide. Lina took it in at a glance, getting the impression of a towering pile of stones open to the sky. The ferns parted and she found herself at the cusp of a clearing past a thick tree. A temple ruin dominated the space. It was a stair-stepped pyramid, crumbling in places and vine-shrouded. Light underbrush surrounded it.
A wide and slick stretch of very flat earth was the only thing between the underbrush of the clearing and Lina. Instinctively, she didn't trust it. She pulled a great breath into her already tortured lungs and leapt from the highest root before her. Lina sailed over the bare patch, arms flailing like a windmill. She landed roughly, tumbling to the ground just beyond it.
A wet splash sounded just behind her as she came to a stop, and the outraged howls of the Draykin hunter. Lina glanced back to see the creature floundering in the bare space, the small bog revealed for what it was.
She thought to draw her knife, take the advantage. No. The Draykin thrashed in the muddy earth, but it was only surprised. Soon enough it would be back on its feet, and it looked both stronger and faster than she was. She turned her attention back to the ruin and looked for an escape.
The structure rose several stories high. Weird carvings of strange creatures and peoples covered the bare flat surfaces. Most were too eroded or hidden by foliage to easily make out. Up above, about the third story, large cracks and openings appeared. There was no other entrance on this face.
Her lungs were burned raw from the chase. She had to go to ground. Lina scrabbled to her feet and sprinted for the ruin. She climbed from one step to another, glancing back to spy the Draykin free of the muck and preparing to give chase again. As it crossed the clearing she made it to the third level of the ruin, where a crack maybe just large enough to fit through was hidden by the jungle vines.