Tear A Path

Jeff sighed, "Those who can"t cook don"t understand the difference in satisfaction of serving your own food and being served, although it is not the same the sensation is welcome nonetheless." He looked at Zhao Wei grudgingly for his last move.

Seeing that there were still several raw fillets left he decided to just go to the kitchen and make one himself, it shouldn"t be so difficult.

Just as he arrived behind the counter he spotted two steaming pieces waiting for him on a plate. He looked around wondering if there was another trick in place, there must be, the boy hadn"t ever shown him any kindness without a devious prank or twist waiting just around the corner, as he thought about this he heard a low rumble.

Looking in the direction of the source he realized it was his own stomach making the noise. Finally he decided to just cut into the meal, whatever retribution may come from trusting the devil... he"ll think about it later.

————————————————————————————————————————————

After several days of seeing sand everywhere, even the magnificent view began to bore the heck out of all the pa.s.sengers of the convoy. Little did they know that they would soon stumble upon something they"d never expect.

At first Zhao Wei thought that it might"ve been the next environment they needed to travel in, but it seemed a little too small. In front of their group was a jungle, if he could call it that, just about the size of a sports stadium.

Zhao Wei was conflicted on whether they should explore this place, there was something wrong about finding this mini forest in the vast desert. The unnatural state of this place was unsettling enough. And that wasn"t all.

Despite the blanket of foliage that covered it, this place was as devoid of all life, probably even more than the desert this little piece of heaven was nestled in, which should be impossible. With such a flourishing flora beasts should"ve come flocking here. Which begs the question, did they decide to avoid this place, or did they actually enter it... Either way there was something wrong with this place.

"What do you think is going on here boy?" Jeff appeared behind him in the first carriage.

"I don"t know... but you smell that?" Zhao Wei commented.

"Yeah..." Jeff"s face turned serious.

"Smell what?" Thirteen popped up, "I don"t smell anything."

Jeff looked at her ominously, "that"s the problem isn"t it."

True enough, with a forest this big there should at least be some scent, like the smell of earth or trees, but this had absolutely nothing.

"It"s your call." Jeff said to Zhao Wei.

"Ok..." Zhao Wei pondered for awhile.

Settling on a plan, they parked the carriages outside with Panda and Thirteen waiting on it. Even if they found a beast they couldn"t fight, he doubted that they"d meet anything that could outrun Panda even with Thirteen on her back.

Myra was always a good insurance in potentially dangerous situations, her attacks may not be the strongest but her skills were the best when simply trying to preserve their lives.

Jeff would go invisible as a back up measure as well. Their job here was just to figure out what was going on here and in the worst case scenario, get out as soon as possible.

With a crisp sound they made their first step into this thing, but as soon as they entered the feeling that everything was wrong got even worse.

As they stepped forward, the gra.s.s didn"t snap under their weight and the undergrowth didn"t scratch against their boot, all sound seemed to get drowned out which should be or was impossible for a time.

They could still feel them, like the trees, but even then the cold barks felt different despite their characteristic appearance. A few meters in and the wind from outside this micro environment died down.

Myra was visible disturbed by the lack of natural sensation despite the nature like surroundings. Her every step was slowly and steady, her fur bristled in discomfort.

Zhao Wei became even more confused as he kept moving deeper and deeper in. In one particular he suddenly felt like his life was in danger and jumped away while pushing Myra away as the ground underneath them caved. Leading down to G.o.d knows where and he wasn"t sure if he wanted to find out.

Just then a hand touched his shoulder and a voice spoke "You okay?". "Gah!" Zhao Wei shouted shocked by the sudden appearance, even Myra was ready to lunge.

"You"re a little too jumpy aren"t you, you"ve never gotten shocked by me before." Jeff spoke.

"It"s this place, gives me the creeps" Zhao Wei spoke, hand on his chest trying to calm himself down.

"What the h.e.l.l do you think made that?" Jeff moved forward and looked into the hole.

"I think it"s more of a who." Zhao Wei replied as he investigated the hole, the walls of it were way too clean and organized for any beast to have made it.

"Maybe we should get out of here." Jeff stated.

Zhao Wei agreed, but as they turned back, the path was not the same one they came through anymore.