Khalifa had always planned, and Ronan had always been reluctant to follow. He was of the idea that no woman should dictate his life to him. But when she suggested relocation after noticing the dark edges spreading in the horizon, he did not object. He had only noticed it a few hours ago, then it was thumb sized.
Now it was two fists side-by-side. Neither of them knew exactly was it was, and definitely not the grave importance behind it. But they both knew that the forest was not the same with it. It felt shackled, like something senseless was molding on the reality within its misty environment.
They walked with silence that had become second nature, listening to the song damp leaves sang when they cascaded to the ground, and the thin scratch of uneven branches under their boots. The path didn't seem long anymore, it seemed reoccurring.
And that was something that bored Khalifa all too quickly. She was a noisy machine, not someone who could read romance novels in quiet for hours. She began huffed animatedly every few breaths, muttering gibberish and sending pebbles flying in hope that she might ignite a conversation.
In truth, the only thing she got was a faint look of concern that rested at the lines of his eyes as he wondered whether the forest had finally stripped her of her sanity. Other than that, he remained distant, looking like an echo that threatened to fade if he existed in this purgatory any longer.
He had a solemn expression that made her wonder if it was still okay for her to speak. Finally he turned to her, showing sudden attention that instinctively straightened her.
"Since you arrived," he asked slowly, " did you ever think you would die?
The question struck her like lightning from a clear sky. Her straightened position instantly sagged with bitterness. Her mind flashed back to the second night they had spent in the forest, when nothing was making sense. To be fair, nothing still did.
They had made a promise then, under moonlight that was fought back by the same mist that had seeped out from their bones.
The promise was simple. No talk of death or failure, or the idea that one of them would not make it out. They agreed that if they were to die, they would use their last breaths to hope for the best.
And now Ronan had broken that promise so casually. And that wasn't like him. In the regular world, he was a reckless man, but even then, he was someone who upheld his own rules. Over the years she had known him, he had actually bent them a few times, but not without a cogent reason.
And if he broke this one now...
There must have been a serious reason. Something he knew that she didn't.
Khalifa's face paled, but she still shook her head. "No."
If the Pinocchio's rule were real, her nose would have grown, because she had lied.
Of course she had thought about death. She had never skipped a night, she had never failed to reflect on the culmination of her life every time she heard the roar of a predator. Death was her most constant thought, frequenting her thoughts more often than hunger.
She stared back at him, waiting for what bad news he had. Noticing her gaze, he chuckled quietly.
"Neither have I."
For a moment, Khalifa looked like something that her developers had discarded out of shame. Angry shot up inside her, feeling like impaling him with a screwdriver.
She didn't feel tricked, she felt betrayed, and all for a not so harmless prank. She clenched her teeth, resisting the urge to shatter his eardrums with an unhinged scream.
What had she done to deserve such a deadly joke? She has only decided to disturb the peace and quiet of their walk, nothing else!
She turned away and refused to let him see her displeased eyes. But it still to his benefit, as he could now freely grin were she could not see it.
His plan had worked a little too perfectly.
***
The walk continued for several more hours, and of course, in complete silence.
The light that penetrated mist grew less brilliant, waning more and more until the mist could now choose where it shone. That was the signal telling that the sun was descending.
And one point, they had stopped to gather food, which of course was the infamous berries. It had been the only safe source of food, as well as the only thing that looked like food in the forest. Blackish skin, filled with juicy and sweeter than any orange , it was a speed bump in the fast paced action that permeated every corner of the forest.
They sat for a while to soak in its entertaining taste, but eventually had to get moving again.
They would still have to find a place suitable enough to set up camp. A place with low visibility, enough space for a good sleep and low amount of rock so their spine would not tell on them in the next morning.
They kept pushing through the thick bushes, hoping to find one before burnout. Just then, Ronan noticed something.
Some shadows that loomed a little too high to be beasts, because even the forest should have limits. Unlike sunlight that fought to part the mist, shadows mixed with it, so he was certain that his mind was not playing tricks on him.
Apart from that, he noticed that terrain did not change here as often as it did elsewhere, as if the topography of this area had been locked in place. The earth too started to incline, but at a rate that was too gradual to be noticed.
He didn't say anything yet, because he wasn't entirely sure that he saw something real. He just kept towards it, walking with fear and cautiousness.
Khalifa just followed without asking, still scarred from his dark joke to the point that she did not want to strike a simple exchange of words no matter the reason.
With each step the shadow grew darker and the shape that cast it more defined. A few hundred metres later, they burst into another clearing that had a shade of more sunlight.
The shape finally revealed. It was a hill. But not one that was completely natural.
The slope was too smooth not to be carved. Hollow sections had been evened out with stacks of rock, giving the hill a uniform appearance.
And near the base of the hill–
Were footprints. Not giant ones or ones with six toes. But marks worn into the earth that awfully resembled humans.
Ronan stared at it thoughtfully. This wasn't a hill alone, it was also a dwelling place.
There was no doubt that someone had lived here, and maybe they still did. But realistically, they couldn't have. Anyone living there would be at least a few hundred years. There was no basis for that claim, but he just felt it was right.
And one more thing. He also knew that although this place had been built by humans, it had not been made by entrants.
He had no proof, but no doubts either.
***
Mira huffed and throw the rough stone in her hand across the irritatingly damp cave floor, or more specifically, her prison cell.
The usher called Neon had been revealed to have been the shadow trailing them, thereby leading them into the cave where the other Ushers had been waiting for them.
She had no idea why such a large number of persons would go through that hassle to capture her, instead of simply using overwhelming force.
After the talkative leader had finished lecturing her on how she was 'masterfully' captured, they then led her from that cave into the main Chamber hideout to be kept for forward questioning.
Since then hours had past and no one had even passed by. A single torch burned just outside it, almost so useless as to being for the sake of it.
Across from Mira, Thea sat with knees drawn to her chest. Neither of them spoke, and the building silence was becoming too deafening.
Thea felt guilty for fainting and putting Mira in the situation of having to prioritize her safety instead of the enemy at hand.
And Mira felt foolish for falling into another trap. And this time, not the one spun by an intelligent mystical figure, but by another human like herself.
And those two emotions, were enough to make them oblivious to the growing time.
***
Doeg walked into his room with a smile that scented the walls with relief. He two roommates had been assigned to an exploration mission earlier that morning, along with a few other Ushers to chart and map the forest, as well as search for potential relocation sites as the compression was approaching much faster than hoped. Still metres per hour, but even that was too much in the long run.
That also meant that they would soon have to abandon their almost perfect hideout and move deeper into the forest. That was something that could turn bleak in ways that they couldn't understand yet. And that was too worrisome.
But for doeg, this part of it had a bright side. With his roommates gone, the room would be his alone for almost a week before they returned.
He raised the unhinged door and clocked it against the falling hinge at the edge. Looking at his wooden bed, he found his arms stretch in a 'what if' satisfaction.
The room was quite simple. A couple of beds– almost a dozen in number –, a small stone shelf and a wooden crate made for storing non-breakable things.
Nothing special, just habitable enough not to keep him awake for three-quarters of the night.
He yawned and laid back into his bed, letting his mind drift to the happenings of recent. The tiger, the deaths, the mission report.
Then the cave room fell completely silent. And then suddenly –
He saw it.