There was no doubt in Feyrith's mind that leaving immediately had been a bad idea. And now that he thought about it, he wasn't even sure why he'd felt it was so important to leave quickly. Edwyr might have refused an order from the Council, and very quickly and harshly as well, but Sunwood, while not large, wasn't a tiny town. If he wanted to avoid having another argument with the elf, he could have very easily stayed out of Edwyr's way the rest of the night and leave at dawn.

Feyrith had gotten overwhelmed, though, he supposed, and there had been no reason to stay in Sunwood specifically if Edwyr wasn't interested in helping him. The only problem with that idea was that there was no other town or village anywhere close to Sunwood, which he'd only found out later, squinting at his map as he rode along the road on his quasir. It was already getting very dark, and he was starting to feel tired.

That was somewhat embarrassing for an elf, but it was most likely due to him not being used to traveling for such long distances. And the quasir wasn't likely to make it much farther either, given that it had had no proper rest for several hours.

If Feyrith kept following the road, it would take until daybreak to get to the next settlement, which was a village called Everward. He could most likely stop there, but he wasn't so sure the quasir would be able to make that after the long journey to Sunwood. And sleeping out here seemed unwise. He was fairly confident nothing could hurt him as long as he stayed awake, but he would need to sleep eventually.

But still, he was too stubborn to go back to Sunwood, even though that would be the easiest solution. He just continued staring at his map with a frown as the quasir trotted along the road. The longer he looked at it the more he was starting to dislike the long line of the road that wound itself around the jungle. If it just went through—

Feyrith's eyes widened as he realized that the answer to his problem was actually fairly simple. It didn't look like it would take that long to get through the jungle, which meant he would save himself a lot of time. He wouldn't be able to travel on the quasir's back, but given the fact that the beast was tired, he wouldn't expect it to run much faster than it was currently.

Feyrith doubted that anything in the jungle would pose a significant threat, especially since he wouldn't need to go very deep into it, hopefully, so the only thing he would have to look out for was not getting turned around. If he got lost, he might end up wandering the jungle for as long as it would have taken to use the road.

He was confident that wouldn't happen, though, and it was worth the risk with how much time he could save. He steered the quasir off the road and onto the now dark, grassy field, heading toward the towering trees. He looked back at his map, trying to figure out where the best point of entry would be.

He quickly decided that the best thing to do would be to go where the jungle was at its narrowest, even though that wouldn't take him directly to Everward. But that was a drawback he would accept because taking a riskier route might end up ultimately slowing him down even more.

With that, Feyrith put his map back in his satchel and rode the quasir along the tree line of the jungle, looking for where to take the plunge. Staring into the darkness between the large tree trunks was much more fascinating than intimidating, but Feyrith would have to resist exploring this strange new place for now.

He rode along the jungle until he reached what he hoped was a good place to cross, and that was when he made the quasir stop and jumped off its back, taking the reins into his hand. First, he would need something to light the way.

"Saris aenra," he muttered, frowning in concentration as he summoned the familiar ball of light into his hand. He knew it was possible to create a light that would hover above him and make it follow him as he walked, but he had yet to figure out how to do that properly. But this was good enough. The light illuminated the trees well enough, letting him see far enough into the jungle to spot a few vines hanging between the trees, and that was all he needed.

Next to him, the quasir let out a low squawk, staring into the jungle with much less enthusiasm than Feyrith. The elf patted the beast's side, running his hand over the smooth feathers, knowing that it would at least somewhat calm it down. The last thing he needed was for the quasir to get frightened and run away from him.

Thankfully, after this the beast let itself be led inside without much further convincing. Despite the thickness of the jungle, there was enough space for a beast as large as a quasir to easily be able to move around. It hadn't looked that way from the outside.

Perhaps it would be possible to ride through here. Or maybe the jungle would become less open and more difficult to traverse even on foot. But there was no use worrying about that possibility.

Deciding to go on foot for now, Feyrith led the quasir further inside the jungle. He needed to focus and only go straight as best as he could manage with all of the roots, ferns, and trees in his way. The night sky wasn't visible at all through the thick treetops, unfortunately, so he couldn't use it to get a sense of direction. At least his summoned light was strong enough that he could see far and well, so his best option was using the trees to remember which way he was going.

He flinched at a sudden rustle above him, breathing out when he saw bats fly out of sight. They actually seemed smaller than some he'd seen on Aendor, which was somewhat reassuring. But now that the rustling of their wings was gone, Feyrith became incredibly aware of how quiet the jungle was. The only sounds he could hear were his own hammering heart, and the snorting of the quasir who was now absently digging at something with its claws, only to strike with its beak a second later, pulling out a very long, white worm which the quasir proceeded to swallow whole.

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Feyrith supposed it was good that at least the quasir wasn't too nervous anymore, though he hadn't needed to see that.

He continued on, stepping over everything the jungle tried to throw under his feet. The earthy, fresh scent the entire place gave off seemed to get stronger as he went, though that was hardly a bad thing. The jungle was less humid than he'd thought it would be, which was good, if surprising. Perhaps it was simply because the sun had set, but either way, it was appreciated.

What wasn't appreciated was the constant silence. Not even insects were making noise, even though Feyrith could see a few on the trunks of trees and crawling on the ground, their shelled forms, bigger than Feyrith's hand, shining in the darkness. Feyrith had to resist flinching whenever he heard the leaves crinkle, or a branch snap beneath his boots. It put him on edge.

He kept looking around and behind him to see if there was something waiting to strike, but there was nothing. He'd only seen movement once, and it had been too far and too quick for him to truly make out. Whatever beast it had been had disappeared before Feyrith could even make an opinion on whether it posed a threat or not.

Even after what felt like a very long time, there was still no change in the thickness of the jungle, and with Feyrith's growing apprehension at being here, he finally decided to climb onto the quasir's back once again. If he could ride through the jungle, there was no reason not to try.

The quasir shifted its weight, watching something on its right with suspicion. Feyrith raised the hand he was carrying the light in, frowning as he tried to spot whatever had caught the quasir's attention. He couldn't see anything except for tall ferns and other plant life, but he could hear something when he focused properly. Something like the creaking of wood? But none of the trees around them were moving.

Feeling his chest tighten, Feyrith nudged the quasir to move, letting it go at a relatively slow pace. It didn't seem to have much trouble with the roots and rocks on the ground, but there was still no reason to risk it tripping over something and potentially hurting itself. Of course, Feyrith would be able to fix that, but if they were to spend significant time in this jungle, it would be unwise to use his energy on something that could be avoided.

His stomach rumbled as he thought about that, and he grimaced. He truly should have brought something with him to eat, but he hadn't thought he'd still be traveling at this time. He would just have to put up with his hunger for a while longer, he supposed.

He quickly forgot about that as something in the distance suddenly caught his attention. He frowned into the shadows, trying to make it out. Was that...something glowing? His eyes widened as he quickly realized that two small lights were rapidly approaching him. And a second later, Feyrith could finally see the creature.

It was a tiger. A tiger made of wood. Jagged branches stuck out of its form as it roared and pounced at them. Feyrith barely managed to drag the quasir to the right by the reigns to avoid it running off as it tried to bolt to get away from the tiger with a frightened caw.

Feyrith had not thought an indari would be here. Seeing an elemental so close to civilization was very strange, but that didn't matter right now. He pushed the quasir to run faster and not lose sense of the right direction. The beast didn't protest, galloping at top speed away from the indari roaring behind them. Feyrith threw a look over his shoulder, his eyes growing wide at how close the creature still was. It was running at lightning speed, only slightly slower than the quasir, and he could tell his mount was starting to panic as it tried to run even faster.

Barely able to keep the quasir from changing direction at this point, Feyrith looked back at the indari and its blazing, blue eyes, glaring at it. He knew what he had to do.

"Kinri se tah!" he yelled, aiming his hand at the creature. The ball of light immediately turned into fire, flowing from his hand and enveloping the creature completely, making it let out a roar and disappearing from sight.

Feyrith didn't slow the quasir down, though, and neither did the beast itself make any attempts at stopping, continuing to run as fast as it could. Feyrith summoned the light again, letting out a huff. He'd never used this spell with such intensity before, and it had left him tired. But then again, he was exhausted in general.

After a few minutes, he finally pulled on the quasir's reins, making it dig its claws into the dirt to slow down. Its eyes were wide, and it still looked very scared as it panted and trembled. Feyrith felt a pang of guilt for putting the animal into this position in the first place, but there was no going back. He settled for stroking the side of its neck again and humming to it, which did seem to help at least a little as the quasir's breathing slowed.

Feyrith wished they could stop and take a moment to breathe. Not only for the quasir's sake but also his own. But they needed to leave before something else attacked. The edge of the jungle couldn't be too far away now, anyway.

But before Feyrith could continue, a loud hissing came from the left. And before he managed to figure out what was about to attack him this time, the quasir darted off in a random direction, away from danger. Feeling his heart seize in horror, Feyrith yanked onto the reigns, trying to get the quasir to turn before Feyrith completely lost a sense of which direction to go.

His eyes darted around from tree to tree, trying to find out which creature had frightened the quasir so much. And when he finally spotted it, a while behind them, he frowned in surprise. A large snake with wings? Feyrith didn't think he'd even heard of that before. At least it didn't seem to be following anymore, and it quickly disappeared as the quasir continued its breakneck pace.

Feyrith made no attempt to slow it down, hoping that the Goddess would spare him from further encounters with the wildlife.

He kept looking around, his hand raised so he could see as much of his surroundings as possible until he finally caught a glimpse of the twin moons through the thick jungle ceiling of branches and leaves. He breathed out when they practically flew through the last line of the trees, the quasir clearly as excited to leave the jungle as Feyrith was.

It didn't stop until it got a considerable distance away from the jungle, and once it did, it stomped, making a loud, displeased squawk. Feyrith let out a deep sigh, looking back at the looming, dark jungle they had just left.

Using this route might have been a mistake after all, but it had worked and saved him a lot of time, so he would focus on that. He could see lights in the distance from here, on a wide but not very tall hill surrounded by the now almost familiar grassy fields. That must have been Everward. All he needed to do now was follow the road to get there and hope that nothing would go wrong on this last part of tonight's journey. He wasn't sure he could handle more of that without rest.