Repaer growled indignantly, slashing branches out of his way with a pair of swords, a deep frown carved on grim features. The dense thicket was a pain to navigate through, and little bugs kept crowding around his face. He would have just portalled to the city, but noooo. Apparently, portalling to a city instead of walking fifty miles in any direction through thick forest and muddy undergrowth was considered a form of escape. Jacobin walked behind him, an irritating spring in his step and an optimistic smile on his face. Grumbling under his breath about having enough happiness to destroy all evil, Rae didn't notice a rather steep decline ahead of him. Jac did, but called out a second too late, and Rae put his foot out over the empty air - dropping like lead to the leafy earth below. He landed with an echoing thud, limbs and wings akimbo, followed by a string of curses in his native tongue. Jac, standing at the top of the tall incline, laughed down at him. If it had been any other person, the winged boy would have run down to help them. But it was Repaer, so he simply mocked him from far away.
"Remember when I told you to 'keep a weather eye on the horizon' that one time, chasing Allira's fleet?" Rae glared up at his friend, brows knitted. Jac grinned. "That also applies to the forest floor." Rae ignored him and leapt to his feet, brushing himself free of leaf litter and dirt. "Well I was the one who wanted to stay in that village until we got us a couple of animals to ride. Do they even have horses here?" Rae resumed walking, swords swinging haphazardly along with his arms. Jac rolled his eyes and picked his way down the decline, running to catch up with his friend. "Yeah, they do. This isn't like, the dinosaur period. Mordred didn't send us back that far." Repaer shrugged, squinting to see through a thick band of trees ahead. "The fact he sent us back at all is what pisses me off."
Rae's hopes were shattered when they reached the horizontal row of trees, because it wasn't a village at all. It was just another clearing. Sun filtered through the thin canopy, dappling the shadow on the red earth. At the end of the clearing, six or seven horse-like beasts were stripping bark off trees. Repaer did a double-take, his one golden eye wide with bemusement. "What the hell are they?" The big creatures heard his exclamation and made loud, high-toned noises, thundering out of the clearing like elephants. Jac raised his eyebrows and pondered for a moment, and then snapped his fingers. "Ipolocath. They live in areas like this. They're harmless." Triumphant in his knowledge of the area, Jac looked up at Rae, who had an expression one would identify as having been slapped in the face. He remained this way for point three seconds before snapping back to reality and blinking at Jac. "So what do we do now?"
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word count
characters Jacobin & Repaer
notes this is where you come in, Inu <3
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