Three days had crawled by when a somber darkness descended from the sky. The group of horse-drawn carriages rumbled on, finally arriving at the fringes of the dry forest. The once vibrant green ground now wore a melancholic shade of dark yellow, marred by scattered animal corpses strewn along the main road, a grim testament to the desolation that awaited them.
A cluster of withered trees stood defiantly not far from the road, like ancient sentinels guarding the secrets concealed within the depths of the desiccated forest. The eerie silence was pierced by the shrill cries of crows, their discordant notes slicing through the air and causing the soldiers to tense up, every muscle coiled in anticipation.
