At first glance, the wall of trees in front of Brandt was pretty uniform. As could be expected so far south, most of the trees were tall pines, growing tightly next to each other. Their overlapping, dark grey crowns shrouded the depth of the forest. A thick carpet of yellowed needles covered the ground. Even the tract Brandt and Anh arrived on was covered by decaying tree matter, but at least it was traveled on at least some of the time. Brandt suspected that the Katzburg garrison was having a regular pilgrimage to the monument and that kept the road traversable.
For the better part of a candle, ever since Trawins floated over the trees, Brandt was walking along the treeline, looking for anything out of the ordinary, a clearing, or some sort of irregularity that would signify a road branching off into the woods. At the start, everything looked the same. Trees differed very little from each other. Just a yellow-brownish trunk shot out of the ground, and as it grew, the layer of bark thickened and became darker, finally ending with an unkempt crown of branches and dark needles.
Brandt has seen those trees for the better part of two days now, it seemed that ordinary pine was the only tree growing south of Katzburg. Trawins would probably argue that observation, but he wasn’t there.
Finally, one particular bunch of trees was somewhat different than the others. They seemed a little … younger and shorter. After a closer examination, these trees were also not in line with the others. This offset was slight. Brandt had to look at it from several angles to notice it, but it was there.
He could also swear that there was a footpath, or very slight remains thereof, winding between those trees. It was very likely that nobody walked it for several months, if not years. But it was there.
Unless, of course, it was a path created by animals living in the area.
-” TRAWINS!” - Brandt shouted, as loudly as he could in the general direction of the forest - “FLY HERE PLEASE!”
It took the tanai a few moments to arrive, but obviously, he heard the calling. He was flying down with grace when Brandt asked him.
-” I think I found a very overgrown road.”
-” I think” - responded the tanai - “that is a very poignant observation. Dare I say even, accurate.”
Brandt raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.
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-” How come? Wait, you found something?”
-” Indeed. The tract starts about half a kimer southwest. It is overgrown, to a degree, but a cart could ride through.”- Anh put a finger to his lips - ”I think”.
Brandt paused for a moment, pondering something himself.
-” Is there a problem?” - asked the tanai
-” That was pretty smart!” - exclaimed the hoomin
-” Well thank you!” - replied the tanai merrily
-” They planted trees over the road to mask where it was!” - Anh’s deposition evaporated when he realized Brandt was not talking about him - “Mr. Trawins, how old do you think these trees are?” - hoomin was pointing at the pines that were slightly different from the others. Anh floated towards them, then for a good sixth of a candle was traversing from tree to tree, poking them, scraping a slice of bark and measuring them up and down. Finally he responded.
-” I’d say, about sixty years, maybe a little more or less. The surrounding ones are somewhat older. But we would need to chop some with a saw and count the rings to get a precise measurement. These, however” - Anh blinked and nodded in the general direction of trees he was examining - “are significantly younger.”
Brandt froze for a few moments, his gaze unfocused and eyes squinted. He crossed his arms and began to involuntarily and rhythmically bump fingers on elbows.
-” I have a theory…”
-” A hypothesis”- interrupted the tanaismugly -” I presume.”
-” Yes” - Brandt said with a hint of disapproval for being interrupted -” hypothesis. Regardless… I think that these trees were planted when they were constructing the monument. To hide the road towards… whatever is there.”
-” Makes sense. I was leaning toward the same notion. Considering these trees are about the same age as the monument.”
-” Indeed. It’s rudimentary, but honestly, If I didn’t expect something to be here, I’d miss it.”
-” Tend to agree. I’m not a treelogist, so likewise, nothing stands out all that much.” - Anh started to caress his goatee - “how are we going to get our cart through?”
Brandt took a sweeping look at the sky.
-” Whatever way we will, we’ll think of it tomorrow. It’s almost evening, we need to set up camp” - the hoomin sprung towards their cart, where the bored horse was slowly nibbling on whatever remained of last year’s grass. When he arrived, he unpacked their makeshift tent and started to set it. This labor took him some time, enough for be met by the encroaching dusk. Wanting to make it before the night, hoomin took a quick look around for some stones to make a fireplace. Only to find none, at least not in the vicinity. Cursing that he didn’t take their fireplace from the day before, Brandt checked what the tanai was doing.
Trawins was floating before the overgrown road in the same pose as he was when Brandt left him. Hoomin sighed.
-” What is he doing” - he said to himself while staring at the tanai from a distance, fascinated. Finally, he shook it off, realizing that their fire was not going to make itself on its own and even if it did, food certainly wouldn’t.