Chapter 1125: Redspark Forest I
The outskirts of the Redspark Forest were quite peaceful. Wind poured in from the storm deep in the interior, but with so many trees in the way, it was little more than a pleasant breeze closer to town.
Leon led the push further in. Fortunately, though he had a pair of guides from the town courtesy of Yurkij, he didn’t have much need of them yet—so many pilgrims had come and gone through the Redspark Forest seeking the Stormborn Oak that their feet had carved a path through the underbrush. All Leon’s party had to do was follow this path.
As they walked, Leon called the older and stronger of the two guides—a middle-aged man at the sixth-tier—to tell him in greater detail some of the dangers to watch out for in the forest.
“There are many,” the guide began, his demeanor business-like. “In my experience, more powerful folk wanna try an’ fly into the forest. Bad idea, bad idea. If they ain’t torn apart by the winds—you can feel ‘em out here, they’ll get stronger further in—so if they ain’t torn apart by the winds, then they get torn apart by flocks of man-eatin’ birds an’ bugs.”
“Sounds delightful,” Leon said as he spared a glance back at Anna. A quick mental command had her moving forward to join him and the older guide at the front of their little marching column. “Are these flocks particularly large?”
“The birds? Aye, that they are. Hundreds of ‘em, lots more on bad days. Their males ride the storm winds in matin’ dances, but the time for that was a couple months ago. Now, they’re like to be too busy fuckin’ to fuck with us s’long as we stay on the ground. Them bugs are different beasts, though. Smallest are spiders the size of your head, largest are centipedes longer’n some of them great sea serpents, who’ll eat an eighth-tier mage alive in one bite.”
Anna smiled and excitedly asked, “Have you seen any of these bugs before?”
“Me? Nah, if I had, I’d be rotten bones out in the forest. I’m one of the smartest guides in all of Redspark. Wanna know why?” He leaned over and gave Anna a subtly flirtatious smile.
“Why?” Anna asked, playing into the guide’s game a little bit.