Chapter 129: Through the woods
"Let’s descend carefully. It will take half a day before we reach the first village."
Hex and Hestia nodded at Althea who took the lead in the subsequent part of the journey. She had journeyed through these parts the most recently among their group of three.
After descending a few tens of meters, Hex noticed bushes and sparsely growing small trees. Another hundred meters brought them almost to the flat ground. This is where the forest started.
Hex watched slack-jawed at the giant trees before him. They were easily over a hundred meters tall. Even though he heard about forests, he still felt intimidated by the unending line of trees. As soon as they entered the forest, Hex sensed the sun’s heat disappear.
Looking up, he noticed the sky disappear, leaving the tree crowns above. It wasn’t hard to move between the thick trunks. The coverage with leaves above didn’t allow much sunlight in the forest, making it hard for other plants to grow.
The ground was damp in many places, with moss-like growth everywhere. Some areas were slippery. Even the mountain goats used to traversing steep slopes and narrow ridges nearly went to the ground.
Now and again, Hex heard noises from beasts, some seemingly close, some far. Some of the beasts sounded extremely strong whereas others seemed weak.
Hex was on his guard. ’This place feels similar to the dark chasms inside the mountains. It’s dark and damp, and you can hear many noises but never the owner of those noises.’
"Shouldn’t we take a break somewhere? The mounts are almost done for," Hestia said suddenly. With a glance, Hex knew she was right. The goats seemed parched. They had been going for hours. These beasts were not equipped for continuous travel.