Larisa’s revelation brought forth a number of questions, as well as an immense feeling of hopelessness. The people in her little group had different reactions to this news.
“It doesn’t matter if what you said is true, Larisa. We still need to move forward and the ruins that Farre saw might be just what we need right now. Who knows what we might find there? Maybe the exact answers that we are looking for. And it will give us some time to look through the book you took.” Ha’na surprisingly proved herself to be the voice of reason in this situation. Farre didn’t look as devastated as Larisa had felt, but instead the frustration still boiled over her head like a cloud of a poisonous toxin.
“Seems like a good plan. There’s only four of us and we can’t let a fight happen. Before, we got lucky that it was just a scout.” Rowela added. She referred to the incident in which they met her. With an axe almost cutting a man in half. Larisa slightly shivered at the memory. Her good hand twitched.
“I’ll go. Of course, I’ll go.” Farre said exasperated. “I don’t want to die.” She added quietly. It appeared only Larisa got that, although, Rowela also looked at the redhead with some concern. Maybe she also had a good hearing.
“Then we move. Simple as that. Let’s gather our things and go.” Ha’na seemed to take on a leadership role here. Usually it was Farre who showed the most initiative and Ha’na would just agree or simply didn’t listen much to what was spoken. This time, however, Larisa felt that it was a good change considering that Farre’s mental state has been rocky these past couple of days. Ever since that day near the cave something shifted in her behaviour. She seemed more down, frustrated and overall discouraged. Even Rowela’s encouragement did not help. The two women were close, Larisa noticed, but even with the other nachtak’s support it did not help.
Having Ha’na take reins felt right to Larisa and even though there were moments of Ha’na almost being uncommunicative because of her tendency to let imagination flow, she apparently could get serious if the situation demanded.
The women gathered their things and started to trek through the vegetation. Ha’na came up first and set the tempo. It was languid to Larisa but she didn’t really expect much from Ha’na in terms of walking intensity. It was going to be fine, though.
“Larisa? Could you come here?” Ha’na asked from ahead the blond woman. Farre and Rowela walked behind them.
Larisa gave a small jog and came next to Ha’na who grabbed her good left hand.
“How are you feeling?” She asked.
The question surprised Larisa as she was never asked this before. How was she feeling?
The suspicion of the camp people setting fire to the jungle with the thing they stole, made Larisa incredibly frustrated. She felt angry at these people and no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t wrap her mind on why someone would do this.
She understood that turning back and walking straight into the danger, with almost no hope of succeeding at destroying these people’s disastrous plans, was a death sentence. It was not possible, but there was still some part of Larisa that felt she could do it. That she could fight all the people and beasts on her way and succeed in extinguishing the fire. The rational part of her brain disagreed.
In conclusion, Larisa was feeling lost and angry.
“I'm angry and frustrated. I don't understand why this is happening. I thought you said people thought the jungle to be sacred.” Larisa tried to voice her feelings in the best way she could.
“People are strange, Larisa. We shouldn't try to understand evil. What we should focus on is doing what feels right.” Ha’na squeezed Larisa’s hand and looked up at her with sympathy and a hint of anger on her brow. “You know, I think we are the heroes in this adventure and at first the heroes usually loose. But! In the end we will win, darling. We have each other, after all.” Ha’na looked to Larisa and back to the two women following them.
The blond woman felt she didn't fully grasp what Ha’na wanted to convey but she understood the sentiment.
They were together so they'll be fine. Larisa liked the sound of that, but she hoped it was true.
She looked back to Farre and wondered.
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“I'm not climbing a tree again! You do it, Larisa. Your arm is better now, isn't it?” Farre exclaimed as the women once again found themselves at the foot of a big and sturdy looking tree.
They have been walking for almost a full day, including resting at night. Now, when the vegetation was starting to subtly change and the ground has become more uneven, the women wondered if they were getting any closer to their destination. Unfortunately, there was no way of confirming if the ruins were behind the next tree or still many days of walking ahead.
Actually, there was one to find out and that’s why they stopped.
Once again, climbing up a tree was perhaps the best solution in this situation, but Farre did not want to do it again. That left Larisa.
“It is better.” Larisa confirmed what Farre said. It’s been a while now since she burned her arm, but she wasn’t actually certain how many days or weeks it’s been. But it was feeling better. At the beginning, the skin on her arm was viciously red and tender. Every movement and every stretch made Larisa feel an immense amount of pain from her fingers to up to her shoulder.
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Now, though, Larisa felt she could move it much more freely and without as much discomfort. Her skin was still feeling tender and Larisa needed to wash it regularly, so no infection was to set in. Which unfortunately made the process of healing a bit slower.
So, she felt like she could climb a tree if she needed to and now apparently was the time.
“Here you go! Larisa will do it.” Farre said with happiness in her voice. Larisa sensed relief.
“If you feel you can do it then I’m not going to stop you.” Ha’na said from her place at Larisa’s left. “It would be very useful for us to know where exactly we are right now.” She continued as she tried to convince Larisa some more.
There was no need for that as Larisa actually wanted to go and see for herself how the jungle looked. Considering these mysterious ruins and possible fire rampaging through the jungle, Larisa wanted to see it with her own eyes. She needed to.
“I’ll climb up.” The blond woman said as she made some preparations to climb.
She stretched herself a little and dried her hands from any sweat that might’ve gathered on her palms. She also took the rope they had left. It could be useful if she were to stay for a minute up top and look out.
“We’ll watch you.” Rowela said from near Larisa. Her voice was so strong with conviction that Larisa did not doubt that sentiment for even a second.
She walked closer to the tree and looked where she could step and grab.
“Be safe there, big girl. If I could’ve done it, I’m sure you can too.” Farre encouraged Larisa.
“Thank you.” The taller woman responded and ventured a quick look at Farre. What she saw filled Larisa with hope.
The cloud of toxic frustration and agitation, with a good dose of despair, was not as potent as before. It was still there, swirling around Farre, but on a lesser scale. There was even a smirk gracing her lips. She didn’t look any better than the rest of the women. As all of them had little time to clean and take care of their hygiene, but Larisa had a feeling Farre was working through some things that were bothering her. Maybe all she needed was a bit of a time and some company? Larisa could only hope if it was this easy.
“Here I go.” Larisa said as she took hold of the thick bark that encased this magnificent tree. Larisa wasn’t that much familiar with this type of tree as she mostly knew the ones that had medicinal and herbalist uses. It was called a Dini tree she believed, and its leaves did not make a quality ingredient but their height and thickness made them a great tree to cut down and build with. If one had enough time that is.
The climb up offered little excitement to Larisa. Of course, it was filled with some trepidation and stress but only because of the height at which one climbs.
The high crowns of the trees always felt mysterious to Larisa. She knew of the beasts and animals that lived there. Latavis and alkanosts being those beasts. But not much else.
It was true that Larisa possessed a great deal of knowledge about flora. She knew the plants and its uses as well as how to find and prepare them. Her knowledge of beasts and animals was also extensive, but not as much. She knew of the most dangerous ones and ones who could prove useful. But it all came down to where she got her knowledge from. Most of what she knew about this jungle came from books in the cave the three of them had been in recently. Some of the knowledge came from before. Vague impressions and strange instinct sometimes proved to be also useful in identifying a plant or a beast. The rest of what she knew came from experience. If she were to only know what she taught herself through the books, she would not survive in this place for long.
To survive in this place, or to thrive even, a person had to know what could hide under every rock or a leaf.
Some of the dangerous creatures in this place were not featured in any book. Whether it was due to an author simply not knowing about that beasts or simply disregarding its existence, Larisa did not know.
What she knew was that her knowledge about the upper crowns was definitely lacking. There were not many opportunities to venture up so high so the experiences she could gain and things she could learn were significantly diminished.
So she had to turn her vigilance up higher than before whenever she ventured high.
Thankfully, her road up to the top of this tree did not offer any scary or dangerous things. It was gruelling on her body. That Larisa could undoubtedly feel. Her arms were weak compared to their previous state. Probably because she didn’t have as many things to do with them now. One of her arms was recovering and Larisa could feel that with every exhausted tremble her hand made when it reached for a grip.
Even then, she managed to reach the top.
Above her the sky stretched far and wide with a tall and verdant mountain stretching its peak higher and higher. The mountain was on Larisa’s right and to the left stretched a wide and far piece of jungle.
It was after midday, so the sun was setting behind the flesh of the mountain, but still peaking out slightly to illuminate the jungle’s ceiling.
At first Larisa did not see anything besides the mountain and the greenery. Only after a moment she realized that the sky was not as blue as it should be.
She looked to her left and tried to see if anything was worth noting. Her eyesight could certainly be better, but there was no doubt that the grey cloud above her came from somewhere in the jungle. It was burning. Larisa’s blood boiled as she watched.
Such heinousness could not exist, Larisa vowed to herself. Ancient and beautiful pieces of her home were getting ruined for some people’s whims. It was unbelievable. A passing thought came to Larisa’s mind, that if she were the dragon on top of that mountain she would not let this slide.
Then, remembering her goal of climbing this tree, she looked to her right and tried to see if there were any of the ruins that Farre said she saw.
Again, at first there was nothing. But that could simply be Larisa’s bad eyesight. Then a strange structure in the landscape before her took her notice.
It looked a bit like the spur that housed the cave, but its walls were as if cut straight down with a blade and at its foot rocks of similarly cut edges laid down. It had to be what Farre said she saw.
It lay a good half day of walking ahead and Larisa thought that they truly might find something there. A place for a moment of peace, or a moment to scheme.
Whatever felt right.
Larisa got a good look all around her and started to go down. She felt they would soon get some answers. Larisa’s intuition has never failed her after all.