The sky was gradually getting gray where Fern found himself. He tramped within a thick wood, trying to find a reasonable place he could start off from.
He walked within the dead woods without getting to a terminus till he began to think that Helen's mother actually wanted them to suffer, or there was a twitch in the order of where the portals should have taken them.
He was already getting tired and thirsty, his gaits were getting languid, and his muscles were already pulling on each other. He fell to the mishmash of leaves close to the foot of one of the trees and leaned there, breathing deeply, with his head leaned against the tree trunk.
Few minutes later, he opened his eyes to the sounds of hooves walking within the woods, it sounded like that of a lost horse, rambling aimlessly. He sat up and looked side to side, then he heard it draw closer, coming from behind. He looked behind, and from one side of the tree he saw a grotesque beast, having the body of a horse, but the torso and head of an orc, it was an orc version of a centaur, they were called centorcs.
Fern's heart bobbed within his body, he felt it bounce down to his bladder, up to his head, and back to it's position. He couldn't tell if it was a product of his tired view or a real blood thirsty animal. His body grew hot and he began to sweat. He quietly slid up from where he sat and hid behind the tree, with his heart thumping so hard, almost jumping off his chest, but he fought his anxiety and tried to keep calm and quiet.
The beast walked along the woods, making grunting sounds and sniffing while it passed by the tree where he hid. Fern gently turned around and began to walk, hiding from tree to tree, so that he wouldn't be heard by the beast.
After he made it out of the beast's circumference, he looked back one last time and sighed, before looking forward to behold another similar beast, which saw him immediately and began to race towards him, grunting heavily.
"What in God's name," Fern uttered when he saw it, but took off towards the opposite direction with a speed that surprised him, panting heavily and frightfully.
While he ran, he saw the other one that passed him by, it turned around and grunted, then it began running after him. Without waiting to think, Fern ran off towards the perpendicular road. They were now two centorcs chasing him.
While he ran he heard their hoof sounds getting more audible, and he knew that they were catching up with him, his fear intensified, and he got weaker, but he used the last vestige of strength in him to run.
At a point he felt his body failing him, he could no longer keep up, and he heard them approach him the more.
He ran until he stepped upon some piles of leaves covering a ditch and he fell into it with a loud yell, which got fainter and fainter to the beasts. They stopped, afterwards, and lingered around the ditch.
Fern fell into a morass which splashed up mud, splattering it unto his face and besmirching his entire body with slimy, wet mud, patched with leaves. He got up and beat the muds off his body.
He looked up and saw the beasts tarrying above, using their hooves to kick in few leaves into the ditch. He saw their level of determination and desperation to gobble him, and he got glad he fell into the ditch. He turned around and began to walk.
The place along which he walked was dark, except for a faint glow of dull light he saw by a corner. He walked within the place, stepping into peats from time to time, until he arrived the corner. He walked through and saw an exit which was covered by drooping branches covered with green leaves.
He hurried towards it and finally emerged into an outdoor environment where he saw the sky. It was grey, and the atmosphere looked like it was evening. The area looked like a desolated hamlet, similar to a place where the inhabitants within had all perished, or ran out of the place.
He saw the trees dilapidated, the entire surrounding was like it was engulfed by a highly temperate fire. The tree trunks were black, and the branches were close to being charred. The ground was smirched with soot, and the stream by the side looked like what had dried up to the size of a little pool. He went to the pool to drink some water.
After drinking he heaved a sigh, then he took up water with his palms and began to cleanse himself off the patches of the morass where he was previously plunged.
At a point, he stood and looked far, almost outside the boundary of the hamlet, and he got a hint of a cottage, which was halfway charred. He left where he stood and began to walk towards it. He passed by several rubbles, soot piles, and fallen trees while he walked towards the cottage.
He made it inside and saw soot on the three corners of the walls, but the fourth was already rubble.
He walked towards the open area, and he passed by a frame with three protrusions. He drew back and looked at it, and he saw a long, slender spike hanging on one of the protrusions. He dropped his brows on seeing it, it was soiled with soot as well. Without wasting much time, he took it out of the protrusion.
He rolled the spike between his fingers, rubbing soot off it gently, then he rubbed it with his wet clothes and it's silver sheen surfaced.
He looked forward and walked out of the cottage, then he looked far and saw a glow hinting at an area which seemed as though it rained there.