Tale's End

Chapter 19: The Shatter Fields

Fog obscured the path back to the Capital, but Rookly was able to lead ahead with ease. The region's flora thinned out more with every passing hour, but the mist thickened to compensate. The afternoon sun was nigh invisible beneath the white shroud, but at least the group had Rookly's music to listen to as they walked in a line.

The bard played a homely song in perfect sync with his footsteps. Meanwhile, Ambrose danced just behind him as they walked, bouncing up and down and waving his arms like a fool. Leona was next in the order, and Rookly was in the very back of the group to keep an eye on the newcomer. Leona knew Rexical was staring but wasn't threatened in the least. 

She was more concerned with Ambrose's potential to single-handedly conquer Castle Dragonspine and take away the town's most lucrative source of links. The mayor pondered on the situation if they were to succeed. Archimare fulfilled all of the Dragonspine's demands, and the castle provided links and an incentive to keep living in the village. Kyrion might receive his prize and save Tifan, but Archimare would be abandoned as a result.

Leona was pulled out of her contemplation by the Demigod's shout. "The Shattered Fields are ahead, my friends! Say hello to Father Thunder!" Leona blinked and finally took notice of terrain ahead of them. 

Even within the thick mist, the group could see hundreds of natural stone chimneys surrounding a massive tower of grainy bleached stone that resembled an upside-down wise man's beard. All relatively similar to one another, the stone chimneys, including Father Thunder, possessed breaks in their ends that revealed deep holes burrowing beneath the compact and ashy sediment.

Rexical pushed past Leona and demanded to know, "Bard! Why are we here? You were supposed to take us east back to the Capital!"

Rookly ignored the Prince of Blades, tucked away his lute in its case, and began to carefully step past the countless pillars, always paying attention to where his feet would land next. "Call it a shortcut to Archimare," answered Rookly, thrusting his body past another spike. Ambrose clunked along with the same steps that his partner blazed, but neither Rexical nor Leona were inclined to press forward, especially the former. Before he traveled too far in, Rookly turned around and saw Leona standing on the edge of the stones. He called out, "The fields stretch on for miles! Just follow us, and don't touch the rocks!"

"What are these stones?" asked Leona.

Rexical mindlessly answered, "It doesn't matter. I only know how dangerous this area can be from stories. I once heard of an adventuring party that wandered in before Chronicia was properly mapped. The nearby village that found their remains could only carry them back as sacks of ashes."

Leona performed a doubletake at Rookly and Ambrose, who were already well into the Shattered Fields. Then, Rexical began to follow their path, in his mind knowing that their destiny lay in Archimare. However, Leona had nothing to push her forward, no foolish inclinations towards adventure nor strong belief in survival like the men, but she had to follow for Archimare's sake.

Stepping around the stones wasn't hard, but Leona was wary of any detail since she knew nothing of this place. She focused on moving forward. Her only objective was to follow the others without touching the rocks, and she performed quite well for the first few minutes. Unfortunately, the deeper they walked, the more clustered the stones were becoming, first being more than wide enough to walk between, later forcing her to turn her body to fit. The others seemed to have no issues with the limited space. Even the massive Ambrose was able to find large enough gaps between the stones, and Leona knew that if he could do it, she could as well.

The group was making good time through the fields, but Leona was falling behind. She could see the rest, but couldn't retrace their steps between the thickening stone maze. In front of her were two distinct gaps between the chimneys. One was wider and a safer option, with a small nest of a tweeting bird atop the adjacent spire's break, but the other was more narrow and would prove more challenging to maneuver around. Her prudence took her foot to the safer path, and sure enough, the space was easily accessible, but she had gotten too close to the nest.