The forest dampened, rain drizzling through the canopy, dragging with it a clogged stench harsher than before. Regardless, Kage, Talia, Marcus, and Lian Feng pressed on together down the forest path.
They trekked for a while before hunger clawed at them. Kage distributed meat, but without fire—alerting every danger in these woods was suicide—they had to rinse their portions with swampy water and choke them down raw. Better that than let starvation bleed them dry.
All thanks to Talia, who couldn't stop thrusting meat and food at anyone within reach. But also thanks to her, they at least had fresh water to drink instead of the fetid swamp.
Their journey continued until they reached a section where the forest trees wove together like tangled thread, a mesh of nature's own making. Kage and the rest had to bend and crawl through the gaps, navigating carefully until they finally cleared the Hanging Trees without incident.
