For some time now, Setsurri had been staring at the back of some...odd youth that walked ahead of him some distance up the road. He thought the other odd because he had never seen his like before, though he knew that in this part of the world he was likely the oddity. His pointed ears and copper-red skin may not have been enough to draw curious glances on their own, but the trio of coal black horns poking through his wild hair certainly earned stares. For all Setsurri knew, the thing walking before him was of a common race in this region.
Other travelers approached and passed, heading in the opposite direction, though most of Setsurri's interest remained captivated by the landscape. This dreamlike, impossible landscape. From La'maari, he had set out south, and found the long stretch of forested land through which he trekked to be familiar, not unlike the wooded darkness he had called home for most of his life. South and east of La'maari the land gave to hills and the trees thinned. There he had turned north before reaching Zantaric, for he had heard of grand kingdoms to the north, with whole cities encircled by stone walls higher than a human man was tall, cities that could hold a dozen or more La'maaris with mighty castles looming at their centers. He could scarcely imagine a settlement of such size—how could so many live together and maintain harmony?—and he hungered to witness these marvels himself.
As he ventured further north, however, the land changed in a curious way. The hills flattened and the trees grew smaller, sparser. Then there were no trees, and Setsurri stared with wide eyes at something he had never see in his life—the horizon, unbroken from one edge of his vision to the other, one clear, steady line that made his breath catch every time he looked up at the vast miracle of blue sky and unending plain.
Soon, that blue sky disappeared behind a tower of thunderheads and this, too, sent a tremor of wonder through him. Would the world ever cease to shock him? Never had he been able to watch the gathering of a rainstorm without a tree canopy to block part of the sky from view. But there it was in all its grandeur, reaching out from the horizon to blot out the sun and cloak the land in gloom.
When Setsurri could tear his eyes away from the scudding, rolling clouds, he saw that the traveler who had been walking in front of him all day was backing up, and noises coming out of him that betrayed distress, fear. It raised the hair on the back of his neck and he glanced at the long grass around him with new suspicion.
He didn't even move when the stranger backed right into him, just kept his own feet and glared, wishing the youth would do something useful instead of cringing like a frightened pup.
"What is it?" he said at last, seeing no danger that he could recognize. It must have been something he didn't know of, some insidious thing unique to this place.
