Jaden looked ahead to take his mind off what he had felt in the ground. Most of the smaller structures seemed to be houses, with the larger ones appearing like temples of a sort, but the rest of the city was dominated by one grand structure towering above all others by four times their height. It seemed to be a palace, two gigantic courtyards suspended far above ground on enormous stone columns and a sharp rock face. He couldn’t understand why he had never heard of this place before, as it was surely as great as anything found in Ceahlin and Waikor. There must have been a reason why this place had been abandoned, and then forgotten for all these years.
Now that the thick canopy of the giant trees was gone, Jaden was able to see the sky. It was gray as he had expected, but the sun was high behind the clouds, revealing that it was afternoon and that he was travelling in the right direction, north. He was moving toward Corsec, but to get there, he would need to pass through the heart of the city.
He looked around nervously, to make sure that there was nothing watching him before walking forward. He had wanted to go directly through the centre, so that he would not have to stay in the city more than he needed to, but then felt that the open contained too much danger, and so he veered off to his right so that he could walk through one of the houses instead. The vine had cleared by the time he had reached the door, allowing him to walk freely without making too much sound, and he used one of the endobraces to light his way through the dark corridor ahead. The air was stale, a decaying aroma causing him to hold his nose. Finding no relief, he took the flower from the Daijuarn garments as he walked and now seemed to enjoy its bitter-sweet scent
There were doorways to either side of him now, each leading to a small room or another hallway. Faded paintings lined the walls, showing people at play and dining, throwing food at one another in joyous displays. The paintings were simple but warm, and used only a little green and blue, mainly of red, yellow, orange and black. He could not tell their race or culture by the paintings, but they seemed a pleasant people. He began to turn into one of the rooms when something caught his eye, and he almost jumped back when he saw that there was a skeleton leaning against the wall in the corner. Its jaw hung low, almost snapped off, while its legs were broken as it sat in a collapsed position. There were holes in its skull and many ribs missing.
Jaden moved back cautiously.
He didn’t know anything about this place, or its people, but he was starting to realise where he might have been. Few travellers had spoken of a great forest because none had ever been able to walk this deep and pass through it alive. He was not certain, but he feared if he were right, he was already in great danger.
Minutes passed by with Jaden too afraid to move. He stood completely still, staring at the skeleton crumpled in the corner of the room, as if it would somehow come back to life and tell him what he had to do. His mind was blank. Of the few stories he had heard, none of those who told them had ever gone past the edges of the dense forests in these parts, and even then they told of horrific attacks that left half of their company or more dead. They had said the creatures that lived in these parts were like no others in the world, but there had never been proof of their existence. Many of them had been tried in Waikor and found guilty of murder, but all had sworn that they had been innocent. It had been reason enough for no traveller to even go near these lands in decades, and Jaden wished for nothing more now than to be some place far from here.
He turned in fright at the sound of stones being kicked forward at the entrance to the hall, but he did not shy away too much, as there was no beast or horrific creature there, only the shape of a man limping into the doorway. Jaden shone the light of the endobraces toward him, but then readied to defend himself. The man wore an Alliance uniform. He was a scout, still giving chase to Jaden. How had they found him?
‘Oh, God, please help me!’ screamed the man, and Jaden realised that the scout had no weapons, and his arm had been badly torn open as it hung limply at his side.
Before Jaden could react, the man fell forward as a fierce roar sounded. A dark figure had lunged at him from behind, knocking him over and crushing him underneath its immense weight. Jaden heard the scout’s bones break and his scream end as the thing began to tear at his flesh with its claws and teeth. The light from the endobraces had dimmed, as Jaden knew there was nothing he could do, and he dropped the flower, turned and raced away without taking any time to study whatever it was that had killed the scout.
The shapes he had seen produced fearful images in his head, of a thing with long arm-like limbs the length of its eight-foot-high body, a skull that was humanlike except bigger and with a large plate curving upward on either side. Its thin, wiry body was barely able to fit into the hall, but the power it had used to crush the scout made it seem much larger than it had been.