Another day is born and Alice continues on her way, it's been a week since she escaped the necroreality trap. She has already spent two nights on the road to Riverin, she tried to avoid killing animals on the way, but they seem to attack her for no reason, she can barely sleep these two nights.
Besides of the animals she hasn't spotted any intelligent creatures going to Riverin, either on foot or in carts, Riverin is her best option at the moment to get to Zackar's red mountain, this is the approximate spot she can deduce from her alcove notes where to go.
After going up a long hill she notices several smoke signals far away towards Riverin, she is still at least two days away at her current speed, it must be a huge fire, maybe it swallowed Riverin entirely.
Riverin may be a city of dwarfs, however it is immense, with towers reaching tens of feets above the ground, wide and well-organized streets, it is a city that normally exudes prosperity due to the large number of workshops of master craftsmen.
That's what Alice had heard at least. After a few more hours walking Alice starts to see fallen trees near the road, many footprints in the ground crossing the road, they extend diagonally across the road, heading towards Riverin.
A few more hours towards dusk she sees some of those tracks have come in far fewer numbers from the forest and attacked caravans along the way, it's still not clear what those tracks did.
The tracks follow the road leaving a trail of bodies along the way, there was no distinction or mercy, everything that crossed its path, that was summarily killed.
Alice has to camp away from the road tonight, she got some supplies from the bodies and other valuables, but most were destroyed, as were the former owners.
Night advances and only two tigers attacked her, much less than before, she is glad that she can sleep better, the most disturbing thing is not that she suffered fewer attacks, but the forest in general is very quiet.
One more day and she moves on again, she returns to the road, the tracks of the creatures mix with what must have been the tracks of the bodies and carts she found before, the number of bodies decreases and the tracks of those that were fleeing increase.
That was certainly an ambush to catch the fugitives and not let them get away, they didn't take their belongings so they shouldn't be wanting anything from the fugitives, besides their lives. Alice's deduction comes very close to the truth.
When Alice reaches the top of a big hill she can see some bigger buildings in Riverin, they are in sight in the horizon, the smoke is coming from there, but it's much smaller now, there shouldn't be much left there, Alice thinks.
Alice notices that some people have dispersed from the fugitives going into the forest by the tracks, she can hardly see the footprints on the ground, they are almost disappearing by aging, especially from pedestrians or smaller things, Alice walks more carefully, whatever attacked Riverin may still be around.
There are more items in good condition dropped along the way here, Alice now only collects what has more value, she regrets not having bought at least a horse again.
Alice hears some screams coming from the forest and let it go, it would be very difficult to find its source at dusk, she decides to camp at one our walk to Riverin, being a town close to a depression, from where Alice came from it is possible to see better Riverin, even at a considerable distance.
Alice is not attacked tonight, but spends most of her time on watch, watching the city, she sees one of the biggest buildings collapse on itself, at night Alice hears some more screams coming from the city and the forest.
In the morning when she is packing up her things to gets back to her journey, she sees some dwarfs coming towards her, they are scrawny and pouring fear through their eyes, their clothes are in tatters and serious injuries are in sight.