Bab 261: An inconspicuous tavern

(Soren's perspective)

"You are sure this is the place?" Kal whispers dubiously into his cupped hand as we walk our way down a narrow, beaten track through the dense thickets of woodland. "Because between you and me," he adds, picking off fallen leaves from his leather armour and scattering them over the ground carelessly. "It all looks a little empty."

That of course, is very much the point of the Enchanted Forest. The perception of a vast emptiness that lends to the presumption that one is travelling alone. And without keener senses, I too might have fallen into this trap and assumed that out here there was simply nothing but trees and dense thickets of greenery to snare at our clothing. But beneath the rustle of the wind and the low chirrup of nocturnal birds, another sound rises over the chill of the evening: a thousand beating hearts all synchronized as one.