The plains continued long after the castle. It didn’t change, but now there were sparse trees. These were the kind of trees that split at the trunk, either by chance, or by two close-growing individuals. Regardless of how, they all looked the same anyway.

“You think this place had anything to do with ecological succession?” asked Pernie

N-3 shook its head.

“Can’t be sure.”

When the group walked past the first of the trees, a foreign sound finally met their ears. It wasn’t quite a sound, per say, rather it was wind blowing past their ears. The wind was instantaneous and strong, strong enough to nearly through the Traveler off his feet when it caught his wings. Despite its strength, the grass did not rustle. Oddly enough, it was only the trees that moved and even then, they made no noise.

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“Stop for a moment,” stated N-3.

The party obliged and watched as their pilot turned around and began retracing its steps. The Traveler asked something.

“A hunch,” it answered.

It stopped a few meters back then turned around.

“There appears to be a barrier that encloses this wind. It stops abruptly here.”

Little Man walked back as well.

“Well I’ll be damned!” he exclaimed. “The automaton is right.”

“Make sure this ends up in the report, Pernie,” stated N-3.

“R-Report?” she stammered.

“Yes.”

“No one told me I had to do a write up!”

“I just did.”