The road continued north.
Slowly, the open plains changed. The first trees of Rotwald appeared on the horizon. Then the forest swallowed the distance.
Mirabelle straightened in the saddle. Even after seeing it before, Rotwald was overwhelming.
The trees didn't merely rise. They towered.
Trunks wider than houses climbed toward a canopy so high above them that the upper branches seemed to disappear into the sky. Massive ferns and strange broad-leafed plants crowded the lower forest, some taller than Mirabelle herself even while she sat on Kaelith.
The air changed too. Warmer. Wetter.
Heavy with the scent of leaves, dark soil, flowers, sap, and something sweet she couldn't identify.
Kaelith's paws sank slightly into the softer ground. Lucien's tail brushed against tall grasses as he walked.
Mirabelle forgot about the cultivation Core.
Forgot about Pebbles. Forgot, briefly, about the Royal Hunting Grounds and the Queen waiting somewhere at the end of this journey.
