The forest opened up to something unexpected, Lucas said to Kenneth. Now what was this unexpected thing, really?
Could it perhaps be a hot spring? Maybe a flat patch of ground with a red "X" carved onto face of it? Ooh, the suspense was killing Kenneth.
Hurriedly they rode through the remainder of the forest. On the way to the exit, they noticed Aurelia and Midnight, who had stopped nearby.
As they were about to stop, Aurelia gave a wink to Kenneth, while simultaneously saying to him in the Link, "Go on ahead, my lord. I will follow behind, I am just inspecting the area."
So Kenneth gave her a nod, before continuing on through the trail that Lena and Aurelia had cut for them earlier.
A whole dirt road had been paved through the entirety of the forest, and had allowed Kenneth and the rest to navigate the rest of the way, even if the blinking lights were beginning to shut down.
Although it was bumpy in some parts, the journey the end was very much smooth, for now.
Now that they were even deeper in the forest, Kenneth took a minute to look around his surroundings.
His siblings did the same. They were breezing through since the start looked very much the same as normal forests, but as soon as they got deeper, the aura changed.
How did Kenneth describe it? Menacing, intimidating. The sheer weight of the air had become so heavy, and was pushing down on the siblings, akin to the time when they first met Lyra.
It wasn't as heavy though. The horses seemed to be fine with the added weight as well, and were only slowed down by a bit, not enough to a standstill.
And the area was also significantly darker. While the forest earlier could be described as dark, this one was even darker.
It was practically pitch black; the only sources of light were the glowing mushrooms that lined the bark of the trees, and the occasional persistent rays of light that had managed to get through the forest's roof.
The dimly lit areas of the forest would serve as places where the organisms, namely the insects of this place would stay in.
Who knows how many were hiding under the leafy floors? How many were there, waiting for an unsuspecting animal to walk through?
And soon Lena had come blazing back, her Blinks leaving lights once again.
Now that the area was partly illuminated, enough that Kenneth and the rest were able to see the trail again, they decided to speed it up even further.
Stop, Kenneth ordered. He had heard movement in the nearby bushes. The rustles had instantly alerted him to nearby adversaries.
Soon enough, multiple jaguars leapt out from the bushes, their speed almost impossible to gauge.
"We've got around three little friends who've decided to join us on this trip. How about we show them what's up?"
Just as they were about to charge in, Kenneth noticed saplings sprouting from behind the jaguars.
In an instant, the saplings had grown to the size of a tree, and had shot up. The tree specifically grew flexible branches that trapped the the jaguars in a three-pronged grip.
"Or nevermind. Was that you, Aurelia?" Kenneth turned around to find the elf, who had her hands to the ground.
"Indeed it was me, my lord. I figured I'd test out the power of this forest."
"What's that mean?"
"The reason had stayed behind earlier was to "scan" the forest. Gaia had told me about how out of touch I was with the world, and that I wasn't using nature's powers to its full benefit."
"So you borrowed some of the power from this forest specifically?"
"Yes. As you can see, the forest, being hidden under the road, has had gone through several mutations, and is definitely not a normal forest anymore."
"That's true. Everything looks way different from a normal forest. Good job."
"Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, I will be taking care of the three jaguars at once."
Kenneth turned away from Aurelia, expecting her to kill the trapped jaguars, who were struggling to escape.
But she did not. After not hearing any screams of pain, Kenneth opened his eyes to find that the trees had de-aged back to their sapling forms.
Now that the jaguars were free and that they knew the difference in power, they immediately fleed the scene, retreating back into the bushes.
"The jaguars, as much as bloodthirsty as they had been, were merely acting on instinct. They were hungry, and so they decided to hunt for food."
"They're still animals, that makes sense."
Once the jaguars had fleed, Aurelia gave the thumbs up for Kenneth and the rest to head on. She had said that she would be following them soon, this time saying she would be taking some time to be one with nature.
And the rest of the trail was clear. They had met up with Thanatos, who was waiting beside the road in the shadows, even if they couldn't see him at first.
"What's this unexpected thing that you guys found, Thanatos?"
Just as Thanatos was about to speak up, Lena answered the question.
"Thanny and I found it. You won't believe it. Mt. Burnmist is directly outside the entrance!"
"Burnmist, Mistburn, it's confusing. Anyway, are you sure its outside this forest? I mean, I did see many tall mountains, but none were the size of a volcano."
"That's exactly it! Come quick."
Under the usherance of Lena, we had quickly headed to the exit of the forest.
More light began to shine through, lighting up the once dark forest, and making it visible once again.
"There's the exit. Hurry." Lena pointed at the opening in the leaves.
"Whoa. This is definitely something." As they headed out of the forest, they were stunned.
The whole volcano, or what it should've been, was submerged in water. It's crater, barely over the lake in which it inhabited.
"Oh, now I know! The lava touching the water makes mist!"
"Did... you not read information about the volcano?" Kenneth looked to his older brother, who didn't seem like he knew a single thing about the place they were at.
"Nope!"
"I can never take you seriously. Anyway, we're finally here, I guess. The question is... how exactly are we going to find Hellnite in all this mist?"
