Roland and Haf led the way into the jungle, following a path that had been haphazardly hacked through the vines and trees. Both had borrowed packs, their own belongings lost with the ship.
The Rhone prince tried to guess how recently Edmar's men had been through, but his tracking experience was not as extensive as he would prefer right now. The closest he could say was that it was fairly recently, definitely within the past several days… that is, the amount of time that would constitute a day in his own world.
Haf let him take the lead as the path narrowed, since the younger man had more experience tracking on land through his experiences with the Klain army, and then his Rhone training.
Roland chose his steps carefully. Thick vines and roots made it hard to even see the dirt that must be underneath their feet. It was like walking on a living creature instead of the ground, there was so much growth in every direction.
The sounds, too, intensified as they crept deeper into the jungle.
A purple and gold-colored bird jumped from its cover on the ground and flew into the trees, warbling a haunting song.
Roland stopped to look at the bird, with its peculiar crown-like plumage.
It paused its song to look deeply at him, tilting its head at an angle to better examine the man. Stretching its neck toward Roland, it gave a soft 'coo' before Haf pushed through the leaves to come into view.
The odd parrot screeched at him in alarm and fled out of view up into the trees' higher branches.
"That was strange," The prince said, more to himself than to Haf.
"We have seen no creatures here before except for ocean-dwellers," Haf commented idly. "Anything new will inevitably be strange."
"I suppose," Roland replied, though he had been talking more about the bird's behavior than its appearance.
His gloves were making his hands sweaty, but he pressed onward, hacking at stray leaves and vines to try to widen the path a little for the Cetoans behind him.
He saw another of the strange bright flowers with the thorns, and cut it with the large knife low at the stem, then used the blade to flick it out of the path and into the underbrush.
He didn't want anyone stepping on it, even if they had managed to all find shoes.
The cut stem oozed a weird greenish jelly, but there wasn't time for horticultural curiosity just now. They needed to find Edmar and the rest of the Cetoans.
A sound like a roar from deep in the forest made him shudder. The ground seemed to shake slightly. The Leviathan had been larger than any creature he'd ever seen. If that was what occupied the seas here, what manner of things might there be on land?
He didn't have too long to wait to find out.
A creature scampered across his path. About the size and shape of a large pig, it ran on paws instead of hooves, and spared him a startled look. Its nose was long and drooping, allowing it to snuffle at the ground without lowering its head at all. Its large yellow eyes observed him briefly, as its nose huffed a snort.
Roland had stopped when it came into view, holding his hand up in a fist to indicate that anyone behind him who could see him should also stop.
The movement of so many men through the jungle was a fairly noisy affair, and would attract plenty of attention by the time they were done.
The creature moved onward, apparently unconcerned about these invaders.
In the stillness, a new sound caught Roland's attention. Was that a stream?
Hesitating a moment, he decided to follow the path already cut rather than try to venture into the wild. As it happened, whoever had cut this way through the jungle must also have detected the sound, for the direction curved suddenly towards it.
The roar in the jungle sounded again, and Roland imagined it to be a little more distant than it was before. Perhaps that was wishful thinking.
He tried to keep his eyes and ears open for anything strange. As the head of a single-file line through what might very well be extremely dangerous terrain, he felt a heavy weight of responsibility to spot any dangers before they caused a problem.
His foot disturbed a pebble, and he looked down just in time to avoid a grave misstep. Stopping suddenly and grabbing hold of the nearest vine despite a solemn commitment not to touch anything unnecessarily, he drew back his foot from where it almost stepped…
Into nothingness.
The line between the jungle and the nothing was so sudden that Roland hadn't even noticed it, thinking he was coming to a clearing. Even the trees leaned out over the edge, as if to try to block the sunlight from going into it.
Crouching, Roland removed his pack and tried to get a better look without giving into the vertigo that wanted to claim him.
Footsteps behind him stopped, and he sensed Haf also hunkering down to come closer.
A chasm in the earth stretched before them, sort of a warped oblong shape, almost like a footprint. Like the land at the edge of the sea, it stretched down a few meters before abruptly ending.
Just an enormous hole with no sides and no floor that they could see.
Roland looked around, then flattened himself to his belly and crawled closer to the edge.
"What are you doing?" Haf whispered.
"I don't know," Roland whispered back honestly. Something was compelling him to figure out the mystery of the strange gaps in the land and sea. He reached the edge and hung his head off to look downward.
The darkness stretched below him, and he glanced up at the sun's angle. It hadn't moved much in the sky in a long time. He tilted his head, trying to follow the angle that the sun's light would shine into the hole.
Down, far below, he could see something. He squinted, but couldn't quite make it out.
"What do you see?" Haf asked from behind him.
"I'm not quite sure," Roland said.
"Here," Haf tapped on his shoulder and pulled something out of his pack. The Commodore's spyglass, used to magnify far-away things.
"Thank you," the Rhone prince took it from his uncle, and turned back downward, holding it carefully.
He used both hands not to drop it, but that also made him feel a little less stable in his perch on the edge.
"Trees. There are trees down there." Roland blinked.
"In the hole?" Haf seemed perplexed, and Roland scooted away from the edge and shrugged.
"It's strange, isn't it?" Roland responded.
"Indeed, but so is everything else about this world," The Commodore responded. "I suppose we should move on."
A shadow fell across Roland's face, confusing him for a moment. He looked toward the shadow and realized it was a tree branch.
"Did that tree just–" He paused mid-sentence as the shadow was gone again. But the branch remained in the same place. It was the sun that was moving, rapidly, towards the horizon.
Haf turned towards the men behind him. "Quickly! Prepare for nightfall! Light torches!"
A flurry of activity followed. The men were not used to setting up shelters on land, but everyone realized the need for light over all else. Branches were quickly gathered, though setting fresh wood on fire proved a challenge.
The men got as close together as they could, clearing an area that would provide more protection than being sprawled out along the path. In their world, the worst predators were active at night.
It could easily be the case here. And who knew how long the night would be? A few hours? Far longer?
Roland took his sturdy knife and helped clear the area, checking as carefully as he could for plants that might have thorns or be otherwise dangerous. Odd little bugs, like ants wearing thick armor, marched in groups towards the hole.
By the time the sun's light disappeared entirely, a makeshift camp was set up. It took all of twenty minutes from being high in the sky, almost directly overhead, to disappearing.
"Do the nights usually last the same length of time as the day preceding?" Roland asked as he added more wood to a campfire.
"It is impossible to say. We will rest in shifts now. If the night stretches, we will find a way to move on in the dark." Haf said. "Sleep now, you'll be woken when it's your watch."
The younger man nodded, and noticed Jimmy on the periphery of the rudimentary camp. He had a long stick and was poking at the undergrowth with it.
Roland sighed, refusing to give in to the curiosity that prodded him to ask the quarter-halfling what he was doing. Perhaps he didn't really want to know at all.
He moved his pack closer to one of the smoky fires and laid out a bedroll. Closing his eyes, he tried to ignore the strange sounds of the jungle at night.