' Looks like I'll have to keep my guard up . ' Thought Alhan as he reached to his waist and pulled a large machete from a brown pouch .
He looked up and his eyes were not disappointed , he saw lush , tropical jungle .
The jungle was on a large slope that lead up to what looked to be a volcano , the slope was hundreds of feet high if not thousands , a meer glance of it was intimidating .
' Ight , looks like a good place to start . ' Smirked Alhan as he started strolling across the sand to enter the dark depths of despair .
Alhan tried not to stop on his quest and to only take breaks when he had to .
The densely humid and sweaty forest would drive anyone insane .
Large pinkish leaves with thorns on them were around every corner . A single sting from one of them was not fatal but resulted in hours of constant agonising itching . Alhan learned that the hard way .
Alhan hadn't seen any animals yet but he knew that an encounter would be inevitable so he kept his eyes peeled and ears open .
Alhan's mysterious energy that allows him to transform into a serpent man also heightens his senses one hundred fold and possibly even more depending on how much energy he channels but despite all this he still couldn't hear , see or smell a single creature .
' Kinda strange . ' He thought to himself .
Some hours of trudging through brambles and slashing through vines later the sun began to set and the night began to emerge .
Alhan was slightly confused , he arrived at the forgotten land just after dawn , he knew this because he watched the sun rise on Jaco's ship but he had only been trekking for a give or take three hours .
' Something definetly doesn't add up . ' He peaced together .
But he was so reluctant to set up a camp and sleep that he created a ball of green energy from the palm of his hand and used it as a lantern to see where he was going .
The ball of energy levitating in the palm of his hand which took his already incredibly sharp senses and heightened them even further .
Some green scales started to emmerge on his hand and on his wrist which was natural of course .
Alhan was almost at the peak of the hill when he started to hear growling , hissing , moaning , hairs rubbing together and scuttling around in the bushes .
Alhan got ready to defend himself , he took a fighting stance but all at the same time , a pack of about eight large dog like creatures leaped out of the trees .
Foaming at the mouth they looked feral and skinny , their eyes glowed eerily goldish white in the darkness .
Alhan was prepared to kill and eat these muts but just as they started to circle around they suddenly scattered and ran away back into the darkness .
' Wait I don't think they were scared of me - ' Alhan realised alarmingly as he turned his head to see an extremely large and muscular tiger that had blood dripping from it's jaws .
The tiger was about six feet tall standing normally on all four which was slightly taller than Alhan , it was eying him up and was standing so perfectly still .
It's bright aqua blue eyes glowed and pierced through the darkness .
' Looks like I have to fight this kitty head on . ' Reasoned Alhan .
' Haaaa ! ' Cried Alhan as he pulled out his machete and started running at the tiger .
The tiger didn't flinch , it just stood there and waited but in a blink of an eye it started sprinting at Alhan whilst boasting a ferocious roar .
The tiger stood on it's hind legs and towered over Alhan significantly .
Alhan , intimidated by this and tried to fall back but was caught off guard by a rock that made him trip and fall on his back .
The tiger struck and slashed Alhan with it's razor like sheering claws .
Alhan's face was bleeding uncontrollably and he wasn't thinking straight .
The tiger pounced with it's jaws wide open to finish the job by mauling Alhan to death .
The tiger was seconds away from savagely killing Alhan when suddenly Alhan pulled his machete out and stuck it through the tigers lower jaw .
The tiger yelped and was unable to do anything because the blade had skewered right through it's lower jaw and was forcing it's mouth to stay open .
' Ahhhh ! ' Alhan screamed as he grabbed the machete and pulled it out of the tiger , he then proceeded to punch the cat right in the face again and again until he yelled at the loudest he could . ' LEAVE ! '
The tiger looked at him and saw a fierce warrior so it admitted defeat and cowered in shame as it ran off towards the moon light .
The next day .
' I was pretty tired last night after I got in the scuffle with that tiger and because it slashed my face and all I just climbed the best looking tree , hung my stuff over a branch and nodded off . ' Alhan reminded himself as he pushed himself of the tree and back onto the main path up the hill .
' This place is very different to Elentos , the creatures and climate here is much harsher but it is something I will have to get conditioned to in order to find Rogue . '
He looked at the path closer and started to see marking and symbols . ' Is it possible that there could have been an ancient civilisation here thousands of years ago ? ' ' Or could it be something else ? '
' This is it , the top of this hill . ' He declared as he stood atop of the large volcano at the top of the hill , he could see for hundreds of miles , many rivers , mountains , volcanos and hills but as he looked out further he could see darker parts of the land , almost like shadow lands .
Alhan looked down expecting to see molting lava like from fire country but could only see bright blue plasma swirling around , this truly was a strange sight .