In the wake of losing his magic, Feyrith struggles to adapt and survive the new and constant onslaught from the feral jungle beasts, trying to keep himself as well as Sunwood alive. Something unnatural has disturbed the beasts and though it's danger...
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"Did we get transported? But to where? And how?" Ayd theorized almost feverishly as he jumped off his quasir, running a hand over its feathers as he looked around. Feyrith climbed off his own as well, having no idea what to say.
How would they even begin to understand what happened to them? He had no experience with deserts, they were simply incredibly rare, located almost exclusively in the mountains in the east. But he had read about them enough to know that they were also very dangerous. There was no water or shelter from the glaring sun, which meant they might die before they could even get to relative safety, not to mention the kinds of beasts that could be living here.
Except it wasn't hot, as if the sun wasn't heating the landscape at all. And the more he looked around, the more everything seemed to shimmer and grow hazy. Even the sun itself was much easier to look at than it should be, barely forcing Feyrith to squint as he stared up at it. He could almost not see the horizon with how blurry everything got the farther he looked. He didn't remember reading about anything like that, but given the way they had gotten here, perhaps he shouldn't assume this desert would be at all similar to the ones elven explorers had talked about.
He was about to say something to Ayd, even though he had no idea what, but that voice he'd heard all of a sudden spoke to him again.
Not real.
He blinked, knowing that Ayd was looking at him now with concern, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. Instead, he focused on the voice and only the voice.
What do you mean?
This place. Illusion. Reflection.
Oh, this desert was an illusion of some kind? That would explain the oddness of it all. But it didn't explain how to get out of here. Or how they entered this place in the first place. But now that Feyrith knew this, he couldn't even manage to be worried about either of those things next to the profound fear that was now threatening to overwhelm him. If this were an illusion, then magic was at play here—a show of magic on a scale he had never seen before. And that shook him to his core.
"Fey? Are you okay?"
Feyrith blinked again, focusing on Ayd who was now holding his shoulder. How had he completely missed him touching him? He'd been so focused on the voice that he hadn't even realized Ayd had come up to him like this.
He nodded, even though he wasn't sure he was okay, but how he felt right now was not important. He needed to explain what just happened to Ayd.
"A voice just spoke to me," Feyrith said, bracing himself for Ayd's reaction as the other elf took his hand off his shoulder. He needed to explain as fast as possible because he wasn't sure how Ayd was going to react. He wasn't sure how he'd react if someone told something like this to him.
He saw Ayd's eyes grow wide with shock and alarm, but Feyrith didn't let him say anything before continuing. "It spoke to me once before. In the jungle. It warned me before the attack that made us rush to the ruins."
