Book 6. Chapter 34: Location of interest
Past the burning section of forest and up the natural valley hills that had contained the burning, we found the original purple and violet trees, along with a thin mist that seemed nearly luminescent on its own. White flowers around the area intermixed with twigs made the rocky forest ground have some life to it, despite it being mostly chunks of heavy rock.
The armors were heavy, so stepping up the hillside had been a hassle against the loose rocks. Lot of it would start breaking into chunk on a too heavy footfall, and then the whole thing would start to slide down. We had to slow our pace down and actually crawl a few times just to make sure the armor’s weight and our sack of goods from the airspeeder weren’t going to screw us over.
But once we got past all that, the mist and forest beyond welcomed us in.
Compared to the complete flat and empty wasteland of ice and snow on the surface, the underground was amazing, filled with life and oddly cohesive. Old human era forests that I’ve seen in media showed all kinds of colors to flowers and foliage, with a general bias to green for photosynthesis.
But there weren’t any other flowers that seemed to compete besides white ones, and they all looked like different species. Some kind of convergent evolution where everything in this grove happened to work better with white pedals? Or were the plants here bioengineered from the start to never change from the main theme?
And why did nothing adapt to grow on the rocks under me? Not even moss or anything, just sterile gray rocks with dirt in between and the odd flower patch that managed to find root. Given the slowly thickening mist of vapor that hung like a blanket around the area, there should be plenty of moisture for life to work with.
The deeper we got past the charred vale, the deeper the fog and foliage grew. Soon the rocks were fighting roots for dominance, and half our steps was over thick bark, which was far more stable to run over.
“What are you thinking about Winterscar?” Drakonis said off to the side, keeping pace with me. “You make me nervous when you’re quiet like that.”
I gave a quick and elegant scoff, the kind a Shadowsong would be proud of, if they ever could admit that to a Winterscar. “Earlier you were complaining I wasn’t clan-knight-ish enough and too chatty. Now you’re upset I’m not chatty enough? Make up your mind already.”