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As Jay was carried closer to the base of the mountain, he began to think about his next steps.

He wasn’t sure if he should simply just keep going south or stop by at another village and try to pick up any supplies he could – not that there were other villages further south of Losla.

In one sense, Losla was on the very southern outskirts of the south-western region of the kingdom, so it meant that there would be no mage hunters waiting along the way, but on the other hand, any settlements would simply be small hamlets consisting of a handful of houses – they wouldn’t have much to offer anyway, not a name for their micro-villages.

Jay made a decision, “The safer option is to just keep going south. Besides, the sooner I go south, the faster I can set up some sort of camp or base.” he nodded resolutely.

“With the skeletons working full-time, It shouldn’t take long to create some kind of clearing in the forest.”

The sun was beginning to come up, and as he looked around, Jay realised he was already being carried around the base of the mountain on his throne.

“Stop.” he ordered, before jumping down.

Looking around, he was now high up enough to see over the trees.

For a moment he hesitated as he turned around and looked towards Losla.

He didn’t say anything, he simply looked. Jay expected to feel something as he gave his home one last glance, however, there were no emotions at all. No emotional outburst. Nothing. He was almost disappointed in a sense.

He could see the small hill that the adventurer guild perched on – though the guild looked so small now that it was like a brown dot on top of the hill.

As for Losla, he couldn’t even see it; its buildings were hidden beneath the trees and the rolling hills.

Jay didn’t notice as he journeyed, but the terrain was not flat at all. The only signs of Losla were some plumes of smoke slowly trailing above it as people woke up and began to warm themselves by their fireplace or cooked their breakfast.

An odd smile came across Jay’s face as he remembered waking up in his warm bed, watching the elusive mist sheep in the field before getting up for the day.

There may have been no memories of good people, but he still had some pleasant memories, albeit small and fleeting.

Now, there was no warm bed. Jay was standing in the shadow of the mountain; a chilling wind blowing across his face as he glared at Losla as if he were a war general plotting his attacks on the settlement, and he stood there cold for a moment, both physically and in spirit as the tails of his molodus coat lightly waved in the wind.

With an exhale, he knew it was time to leave.

He turned his back to Losla and began walking.

“Move out.” he commanded mentally, deciding not to break the silence.

The skeletons carried the throne and followed their master.

Jay didn’t board his throne, but walked himself until Losla was completely out of sight. He didn’t understand why, but he felt like he had to do this part alone.

As he walked around the mountain, he noticed something strange…

On the other side of the mountain was a desert which seemed to follow along the back of the mountain range, continuing to his left and wrapping half-way around the base of the mountain, while it continued to follow along the side of the mountain range to the right for as far as he could see – and from where he was looking, the mountain range seemed endless.

It was odd to see though mostly because it only continued for a few hundred meters away from the mountain before the forest suddenly began again; it seemed almost like it was designed, as it was very unnatural to go from a sparse desert to a lush forest.

Before crossing the desert, Jay decided to sit down and have some breakfast first – thought it was really just some dried meat which he had to slowly chew his way through.

“Mmm delicious” Jay smiled, glad that he could make more of it and have at least one creature comfort. He might be living in the wilderness for the time being, but he still knew how to make some good jerky.

As he ate quietly, something began to happen in the desert sands. Movement.

Before his eyes, some small black points began slowly emerging from the desert sands.

Jay stood up, prepared to flee or attack, but to his surprise, all the small black points disappeared into the sand again as they responded to his motions, and it looked as if they were quickly sucked back down by something below.

“Huh?” he squinted.

He waited for a moment, but nothing happened.

Jay quietly sat back down again and kept watching – he made sure all the skeletons stood still too.

After a few moments, it began to happen again. The black tips pushed their way out of the sand slowly.

This time, Jay didn’t do some much as breath while the black points rose.

Slowly as they poked out of the sand, it was only up to Jay’s knee, then his hip, then soon enough it was much taller than him. About twice as tall.

It was like a whole forest of these little black points poked out, as they covered every part of the sand without leaving a single gap.

At first they looked like triangle shapes, but soon enough, they revealed that they were actually arrow shaped. A white shaft with a triangular head.

Suddenly, they all stopped growing. The next thing they did almost caused Jay to jump and choke on his breakfast.

In an instant, all of them opened up like umbrellas and created a puff of wind around their bases, lightly blowing some sand around.

They were like a field of mushrooms, but this was where the resemblance ended.

Below them hung some strange tendrils with a thumb-sized red fruit at the bottom, hanging just above the sand but not quite touching it.

Jay couldn’t help but lick his lips as he saw the red luscious fruits, they seemed to be almost bursting with juices.

Still, precaution was always necessary, and Jay waited and watched, but it seemed like these strange giant desert mushrooms were just happily absorbing the morning sunlight.

“Hm, ok then…” he shrugged, standing up.

This time, the mushrooms didn’t retreat back into the soil when he moved.

“Oh?” he squinted, “Perhaps they’re only fragile when they’re rising up?” he guessed.

Jay was about to send a skeleton in to investigate, but on the other side of the desert there was more movement. A glade deer emerged from the thick, still-dark forest.

Jay could tell the deer seemed startled and frightened as it panted. It paused for a moment as it saw the strange desert covered in giant mushrooms, but it quickly skipped right into the sand and began weaving through them.

It nimbly hopped between the mushrooms, and soon, behind it there was movement. The shadows shifted as something large appeared at the edge of a forest – clearly, it was what made the deer so startled.

Jay ducked behind a rock and kept watching as he saw the large green and red predator emerge – but something wasn’t quite right.

The large beast stopped at the edge of the sand, not daring to even step on it. Its large head looked down at the sand for a moment before it gazed hungrily at the glade deer while glistening drool globbed off its jaws.

The predator itself wasn’t what caught Jay’s attention though, but it was how it acted as it came to the edge of the forest and watched its prey.

“Hmm…” Jay gazed, “it won’t step onto the sand? But why…”

There was something sinister going on that even stopped a savage beast in its tracks.

Jay could tell it was tempted though as its large clawed paws thumped around the edge of the sand. It was barely holding itself back from charging into the desert.

Suddenly, the deer, which was jumping between the mushrooms, was cooing and crying as something tugged on its fur and stopped it from getting further away.

It’s fatal mistake? It touched one of the red fruits.

The red fruit didn’t look sticky at a glance, but once it touched the deer’s fur, it seemed like it burst and created a red patch on the fur – though still connected to the hanging tendrils of the mushrooms.

It pulled and pulled as its own skin was pulled tight, but it seemed like it wasn’t coming off no matter how hard it pulled. Jay thought the deers skin was more likely to rip away before its fur was free of the strange, sticky red fruit.

The deer cooed and cried as it hopelessly tried to get free, but its struggle only made it jump around aimlessly in a panic – but to its demise, it was only tangled up further as more and more red fruits stuck to its fur.

Soon enough, so many were on its fur that it could barely move around as the tendrils of the mushrooms became like strong ropes anchored to its hide.