Much more careful, running from cover to cover wherever a rock or meager tree allowed for it, we approached the forest. It took a walk of -what has it been, 15 minutes? - to reach the first shadows of the trees. They were smaller still, the giant trees loomed in the distance and soon were hidden by the canopy.

There was a small, clear river cutting through the rocks and leading to the sea we could follow. I was sure it would lead all the way to the mountains and - even more important - would give Ravenport all the freshwater it needed. It was too small for, say, river barges or sailing, but small boats, slim ones, would be able to travel up and down its lazy current.

We had entered the woods with the clear goal in mind to reach one of the giant trees. I would climb up and get a good look at the surrounding area, while the hunters evaluated the fauna of the forest. We were in the Wyld, after all, and could not expect anything, to be fair. On the contrary, we feared to find unspeakable horrors and creatures defying every description to come at us from the shadows of the trees themselves turning against us.

This was the future of Ravenport, though. The fertile land we needed to clear to farm and build. Sure we could build on the hills and cliffs near the ocean, but the wood had to come from the forest.

Under the shadows of the trees, Grim and the [Hunters] went very still, carefully placing their steps and their bows at the ready. I had invoked the shadows to cover me, using [Walk the Night Unseen], and followed them, as I had no Skill to muffle the noise of my steps.

Grim held up his fist and we froze where we stood, intently listening to every cracking and rustling we heard. Then, Grim disappeared around the trunk of a tree only to wave us along as he had investigated whatever he had spotted. He guided us to a scene of carnage, well, as you would expect prey to look after the predator had his meal. An animal, smaller than a horse, but not by much, was lying there, most of its flesh gone, offal eaten away and obviously very very dead.

The [Hunters] listened a while longer, gazing into the underbrush, but finally, Grim spoke up. ”Good sign.“ he pointed to the animal with his bow. “First good game I see since leaving the Empire. Looks like a deer to me. If you ignore the legs. And it‘s slimmer.“

The legs indeed looked strange. The joints looked to be...wrong somehow, and instead of hooves, it had...claws. Sharp claws, but well used and not as pointy anymore.

Another [Hunter] spoke up, a man named Eddin. ”Scratches on the trees, Grim. I think it can climb.“ We looked up to see the marks of claws in the bark of the surrounding trees, higher up than I had expected after he had said his piece.

Grim just nodded, pointing to different marks and a splatter of blood on a particularly sturdy branch. ”Got taken up there. Eaten down here. Again, good sign. Deer was too heavy to be dragged into the trees. Predator has to be smaller.“

Grim stared soberly into the canopy, then again at the surrounding ground.

“What is it Grim? You look more sour than usual.“

“Small predator is a good sign. But why do they avoid the ground?“

I shrugged. “Someone made them like that? Or the Wyld turned them?“

Grim nodded. “Maybe. But nature usually makes sense. Maybe it is the Wyld.“

I squinted at him, trying to read more into his words, but he was as stone-faced as always.

“Oh no, Grim. You don‘t get to make ominous statements at me and then leave it at that. That is my privilege. What do you think?“

He smiled the hint of a smile, that never reached his eyes. Then he mumbled ”[Nature’s Wisdom]“ and digested the information he received.

He shrugged again. “The Wyld is the Wyld, isn‘t it? Nightmares make no sense. Flying rabbits make no sense. Why should climbing deer make sense?“

“You have a hunch, don‘t you? Spit it out!“

“There is something driving the animals away from the ground.“

“What? How? The deer just grow claws and start to climb?“

“I don‘t understand it. It is what the Skill tells me. Just a feeling. And the huge fucking footprint we saw earlier.“

“Well, there is that, yes.“ I said. “Well, your feeling is more than I have. Should we press on?“

“If something with a foot that size comes around, we will hear it.“

Climbing the large tree we had found proved more difficult than I had anticipated. Because the larger the tree, the fewer branches it had in the lower part of the trunk as it turned out. Not a single one, in fact. As we looked up the tree, which was 100 feet around at its base at the least, we could neither see the canopy nor a branch, because they were clearly above the other trees which obfuscated the view. The sheer size of the tree was breathtaking.

But the bark was rough and gnarly enough for me, to climb the old-fashioned way with my fingertips, finding purchase in the rough barks, holes, and indentures I found there. Where I needed help, I used Zero, which could transform his head into exactly the tool I needed to reach another hold.

But it took time, of course, and was one of the longer climbs I had tried. But I did not even hesitate a second. A few minutes studying the route I would take and I was off. That was what the Core Skills gave me. Confidence and the ability to pull through, to improvise and do with unnatural strength and agility, what preparation would have given me in a much much longer time.

But I was sweating like a pig, as I reached the height of the surrounding trees, my field of view opening up to see much more of the forest. It was warm here, away from the coastal winds, despite it being autumn. There was a cluster of even higher trees in the distance, but here, a mile or two in the forest, there were just single giants standing among a sea of their smaller cousins.

I looked around, I was now at a height of 150 feet, give or take, and I was not nearly done. Not even halfway up the tree. What could I gain by climbing up even higher? A better view? Carefully I made Zero wedge tightly into a gap in the bark and secured myself, then took a good and careful look around. I would see better, but I would not see more.

With Zero holding me in place, I took out a small piece of paper and a piece of coal and sketched a rough map of the surrounding. Rocky cliffs and sparse vegetation at the coast. A sea of trees reaching to the mountains in the distance and unusually high up the flanks of those as well. I tried to indicate the position of the giant trees, but that was easier said than done.

The mountains formed a barrier to the north and west but left a valley north-north-west. From up high it looked like a mass of tiny green people pressing through a choke point, spilling out beyond. To the south, along the coast and finally reaching the waterfalls, the forest tapered off into less densely overgrown hills and plains. It was only a smallish stretch of land that surrounded the bay of Ravenport. Beyond that was the silver and blue shimmer of another body of water.

If we settled exactly where the river had met the sea, close to the Wreckage and the bay, we would have forest and later mountains to the north and west, and green hills to the south.

I let my mind wander a bit. If we could finish the pier and dry out the half of the bay, the forest could be reached by foot from the Wreckage within an hour or two, if roads would ease the travel. Distances were hard to judge by eyes alone, and we had taken longer with the boat, which was why I was doubting my judgment. Then again, I knew nothing about boats.

For all I knew, we could have been slower than a horse, and we had changed direction quite often, to catch the right amount of wind. So there was that. Had seen bigger cities. If you would rebuild the capital here, it would take all the space from the Needle to the mountains, if you included the sprawling farms, leisure palaces, and estates of the nobility ever trying to edge closer to the glory of the Emperor of the Sun.

It made sense in my head. The Wreckage and the pier as a harbor, a truly big one, to be fair, the sunken city, dried out sprawling south. Farms, workers, houses, and markets to the north and west. I was not quite sure where I saw myself inside this sprawling metropolis of the mind. I was the Lord Protector, after all, I had to sit in the center of power, did I not? That felt wrong, the thought just then.

I got thrown off my train of thought as a shrill cry pierced the sky and the clapping of wings thundered above me. As I looked up in astounded and imminent panic, I saw a shadow throwing itself off the crown of the tree I was sitting on. A bird, well, formed like a bird but much much larger, dove away, any color muted by the shadow it threw. It looked like an eagle to me or another bird of prey, but it was grey and blue in color and as large in proportion to the giant tree as a normal bird was to a normal tree. Which was humongous, in this case.

It began calmly flapping its wings and began to circle, higher and higher.

“Oh no,“ I said. ”Oh no no no.“

I scrambled down the tree as fast as I possibly could.

As the climb took far longer than the adrenalin could keep pumping through my veins, I calmed down, once the trees hid me from the eyes above. And I knew: It had been too big to see someone as small as me as prey. It would barely be able to grab a human with its giant talons.

That...had to be something supernatural. It could not be just an animal, could it? A mystical spirit beast perhaps? A divine being or something of the sort? Or was everything here just...bigger. The deer had not been, but the footprint...

If that bird would someday regard human-sized beings as a snack, our future was in dire straights. But how could you even kill something this big? The same way you killed anything. Enough men and steel to tire it out. Just like the [Whalers] did, hunting their prey the size of warships.

Suddenly, a blue box of text appeared in front of me, as I was mid-climb, and almost made me miss the next hold.

[New Title gained! Witness of the Elemental Guardians of the Wyld!

You have seen two of the four children of the Dragon of Life, Guardians of the Elemental Keys, and not only witnessed what no human ever has but already soothed the anger of one and made it an unstable ally. Sprung forth from the death throes of their mother, the four Guardians rule the elements of the Wyld with unchallenged might. Find them and bring them to your side or hunt them down to either gain their blessings or harness their powers. Gather the keys and unchain the Wyld! Claim the land and its elements for yourself!

Rewards: 100 EP, 20 Shards

Skill unlocked: Elemental Key of Water]