Heylel and Araziel arrived at an earshot away from the middle of the gigantic markings and were amazed at how vast and wide it is. "These ripples are endless," Heylel thought. He couldn't see the entirety of the ripples and the whole scene was far beyond belief for him. If this was an arcanic phenomenon, he had not seen anything this huge in terms of scope and at that moment, it dawned on him that whatever caused these ripples, was surely far stronger than an Iauntaur. "A humongous creature that could control arcana," he thought. Gabriel's last words rang back at him, "...a creature that big can easily harm both of you. Just try not to get in trouble."
"Heylel! Look closely at the ripples," Araziel said as she kneels down to touch one of the ripples.
Heylel did the same and examined the ground. The ripples weren't exactly markings but rather an intricate arrangement of dried leaves, dirt, twigs, and everything that was common on a forest ground. This intricate arrangement would look like markings if viewed from above. Heylel looked at Araziel who was tampering with a small part of the ripple in front of her and realized something. He was about to jump off and fly when Araziel interrupted him.
"Don't bother. We're the only living creature around here." She said smilingly. Heylel looked at her puzzled. His eyebrows demanded an explanation.
"You're about to look if other parts of the ripples were also tampered with, right? It isn't. And by then you'll wonder why it wasn't tampered with and notice that there are no other creatures around which is weird. But I'll tell you what's really weird, even the wind seemed to avoid the markings."
Heylel was surprised by what she said because the last two observations didn't even cross his mind. He slowly stretched his wings to feel the air. The air was definitely present but somehow it felt slightly heavy. The difference was so subtle that he wouldn't have noticed it unless Araziel pointed it out to him. He knew that out of all Iauntaur, Araziel was best in terms of tracking and hunting but this was the first time he had witnessed the prowess of her skills. "This must be the level of observation of 'The Gatherer'," he thought.
"Do you know what's causing it?" He asked.
"I don't. But what I do know is that high above us, the wind is back to normal."
"So it means that whatever's causing this should be near the ground."
Araziel nodded in agreement. He kept on looking and remembered that the ripples were placed at the end of a yerin-like spoor. He decided to take a look at the entire scenery from above, thus he leaped and flew. It was during the flight that he felt the impact of the strange air. His wings required more strength to lift him up.
Viewing the scene from above helped him realize why Araziel came up with the idea that the spoor was created by a giant yerin. The steps were made by a bipedal creature and the footprints are semicircular with jagged edges, very much like of those of yerins but the main difference of it from an actual footprint of a yerin was that the sole of a yerin was supposed to be made of an irregular pattern of roots which will create random pokes on the rich loamy soil of the ground. However, the soil inside the spoor seemed to be evenly smoothened which didn't make sense. Also, it seemed like that the middle of the ripples was placed where the last footprint should have been made. Without anything more to observe, he landed back to Araziel.
"Have you tried checking the middle of the ripples?" He asked.
"Not yet. In fact, this is the first time that I came down to touch it. When I first saw the marking, I was awed by its size then it dawned on me to check if it existed in other places and through the 'Eye' I saw the same markings at the other end of the spoor and I immediately flew to it. When I arrived at the second set of markings, that's when I decided to look for the creature instead."
"By the way," she continued, "this set of markings that were on is where I saw the trees moving wildly. But when I got here, everything was exactly the same right now."
Heylel looked at the nearest tree in front of him. He couldn't imagine how an extremely thick tree of at least three hundred feet in height wriggling wildly. "Perhaps the ripples caused the trees to move," he thought.
Heylel walked towards the middle of the ripples with an increasing amount of curiosity. Each step bore a small amount of anxiousness for he tried to imagine how all of this unusual scene took place: a gigantic creature walking in the middle of gigantic trees leaving a gigantic spoor and at its final step, it started to sink leaving a trail of ripples on the ground like a rock sinking slowly in a quiet lake. Heylel arrived and knelt on the ground. He slowly reached out to the ground with his left hand. Beads of sweat started to form on his forehead as his anticipation of the unknown continued to rise. When his hand was a few inches away from the ground, he closed his eyes and forced it down.
The ground seemed to pulsate for a brief moment and then it shocked him with a heavy sensation. Heylel knew that he was straightforwardly facing the ground but an odd vision came to his mind. A gigantic creature was staring back at him. The creature was so huge that he couldn't even fathom how big it was compared to him. He was about to tell Araziel what he had found when suddenly, a giant stony arm burst forth from the ground. He tried to jump and stretch his wings to avoid being caught but the grip was too abrupt for him to get away. He was stuck between its fingers, grabbing him from his waist down to his feet.
"Brace yourself!" Araziel shouted.
Heylel immediately covered his upper body with his arms for he knew what she was about to do. The timing was so abrupt that by the time Heylel's arms were in place, a dash of viridescent light burst forward at the lower part of the stony arm. Heylel anticipated an explosion but to his surprise, it never came. Both of them were perplexed at what had happened. They weren't sure where the enhanced arrow went. Araziel drew another arrow from her green orb and fired it with her bow. Again, the enhanced arrow vanished but this time they had a better idea of what had happened. It seemed like the arcana from the arrow was absorbed by the hand and the arrow itself reverted back to the orb since it already hit its target. The stony hand started to drag Heylel below the ground. The ground was like water against the hand as it passed through it like a rock slowly sinking into a steady pond. Araziel was about to fly and grab Heylel but he stopped her.
"Wait!", Heylel shouted. "Don't worry. I'm not in danger."
Heylel translocated beside her immediately. The giant arm continued to sink underground until it was fully submerged and in its place, a new set of ripples were created that overlapped the previous ripples they saw. Now they knew how the markings were made.
"Well, that was an unexpected encounter," Araziel said as calmly as possible. She could still feel the thrill and rush all over her body.
"You have no idea," he replied. He was almost smiling when he said it. He liked the flurry of everything that had happened. He was frenzied by it. "I saw it. Not that I saw it exactly but more like I felt its enormous presence. It felt like it was waiting for me to touch the ground."
Araziel was eager to listen more but the ground started to tremble violently. Heylel looked below them and saw that the ripples were moving like actual waves on water and at the center of it, a stony structure was slowly emerging. A jagged rock-like figure started to rise. Slits of green lights emanated across its middle section. It seemed to be a set of eyes brimming with pure arcana. This was when Heylel realized that they were looking directly at the face of the creature and to their surprise, it seemed to be gazing back at them. The creature continued to emerge and after a few moments, almost half of the creature's body was exposed above the ground. The creature's body was full of engraved runes. Runes that they had never seen before. Both of them marveled at what they were seeing and at the same time, Heylel sensed the increasing threat before them.
"We have to get out of here," he muttered.
She nodded as they struggled to stand while the trees continued to tremble. When both of them were ready to take flight, they concentrated their arcana on their wings. All of a sudden, the creature's eyes widened as if it detected their arcana. They saw its reaction and without hesitation, they took flight as fast as they could.