The underbrush pulled at their legs as they moved deeper into the forest.
Each step was deliberate, slow, and as silent as possible. The soft ground muffled their footfalls, but it also gave too easily, and every misplaced step threatened to sink them knee-deep in twisted roots or strange, sponge-like moss.
The deeper they went, the more the forest seemed to watch them.
Miles kept his eyes ahead, sweeping the strange terrain for any signs of movement. Sarissa flanked him, eyes flicking from tree to tree, her mind working through half-remembered tutorials about tracking, back from a time before she ever had her Perception stat higher than twenty.
There were no tools here. No Skills, no perks, only hunger and instinct.
"Something's been through here." Sarissa whispered, pointing to a faint line in the soil, a place where the moss had been crushed in a curving arc.
