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"There's nothing to see, Hee-ro. Now shut your mouth and look angry, like a real guard!"
He frowned, even though his entire visage besides his eyes was hidden underneath his hood.
The small party reached the checkpoint.

"BUSINESS?" the commander shouted. He was a very good soldier, and thus he always shouted.
"AND NAME?
I'LL NEED TO SEE SOME IDENTIFICATION PAPERS!"

Nihilian gave him a disinterested glance.
"Merchant."
He held out a small pouch full of gold.
"And I trust that my client will soon be forgotten."
He strode through with the others behind him.
This checkpoint would give them no trouble.

Mizu, long awakened from her deep trance, lay still with her eyes closed as she waited for their caravan to pass the check point. Hoshi was growing anxious and was no longer behaving for she knew now her master was awakened again.

As soon as they had passed the checkpoint and gotten far enough Mizu made herself known. "So..." She said quietly as she sat up and slipped off the moving cart to walk and strech. For someone who had apparently been sleeping the whole while she looked tired and weary. But she had not been sleeping, that she was unable to do so until the rare occasional night. "What did I miss while away?" She didn't say asleep because that would have been a lie. So instead she refered to the time she was unaware of her surroundings as 'away'.

She went and unhithced Hoshi from the line of horses and pulled herself up onto her horses back, riding with no saddle. She patted her horses neck and sat with both legs off to one side of her horses back for once. She'd listened carefully to everyone when they'd talked about her being the caravan's 'Leader'. She held herself tall and proud while keeping a watchful and silent eye on everything around her.

Anyara looked around, studying the scenery from behind the falls of her hair. It was familiar, this path that they were taking. She could have led them herself, if she were not 'just the servant.' Or at least, she could have led them to a Noble's home not far from the capital.
But even in their familiarity, this was not a place she liked. There was something inherently wrong in it's pretty stillness. Something not right about the way the wind rustled silently through the leaves of the trees and the grass. Something... off...
These were the Eladren Woods they were approaching, some three days deep, and three weeks wide. Beautiful... Silent...

She remembered what she had seen, passing through them, and it had been enough to nearly turn her back. Drathel's border was miles behind them, but this... These woods... They were the true border of Drathel. The kinder lords lived on the far edges and maintained the facade of peace, but beyond this forrest was the rest of Drathel. The Lords got worse, and worse, the further in one travelled, until one finally reached the Capital, where the worst of them all resided.
Not that anyone could tell from the outside anyway. Even merchants only brought back tales of strictness, of rigid laws and customs. They would not see the true side of Drathel except in dreams. nightmares.
For Eladren Wood was a place for the strong of mind.

"Interesting, yes. Deadly, more than you can imagine. Those are the Eladren Woods. Our destination is at the other side of it."
He frowned slightly.
"Pray to whatever gods and goddesses you like now, you'll be needing their protection in there."

"You don't want to stay in there longer than you must." Anyara said quietly. "Theses Woods are as old as the schism between the Asthellions and Drathellions. When the Guardians were created, Drathel raised these woods as his own contribution, or so the Priests believe. There is no record of their coming, only that one night they were not there, and another they were. If there are ghosts in your past, you will meet them here, and with all the force of an untamed mind.
"Many go insane, staying in these trees to long... It is a trial merely to cross through it, and it is not so wide as that--some three days deep for a slow traveller." She looked around at the healthy extrerior trees. Gene had wanted something that looked evil. He would get it.
As they passed through the trees would become more gnarled, more twisted in appearance, behind a neat facade of straight and healthy trees. And the mental side? Well... It was different for each person who passed through. She had lived through being caught, her parent's death, Kinnin's and his family's murder. And the fall of Asthel and the Gods. She could only imagine what she would face now.

At least it was supposed to be easier to get in to Drathel than it was to get out. Which meant, maybe, that it wouldn't be so bad. But they should not and would not stay longer than they must.

Anyara saw fit not to reply. There was little to be said. Nightmare knew. Nihillian must know. They would discover. To her, the sensation had been far more like the smell of metal heated red-hot in dark room... more than reminicent of a certain chamber in her former lord's home.

"What chill? The air is not even moving..." Ranpu was not sure if his feeling was confirmed or not, but he dared not accept it. He also was not afraid, but he would not deny the possibility of slight fear... he thought of it more as uncertainty of what was to come. Besides, if he was afraid now he would not be able to go all the way of the journey. This was only the beginning.

Mizu kept moving steadily onwards, though the woods brought a bonechilling cold with them she was not fazed and her red eyes kept looking ahead. Hoshi snorted and stamped the earth with her hooves anxiously, though made no other mention of her uneasyness. Her ears flicked back to Nightmares scream but she didn't flinch.

It seemed that everyone in the group had a reaction to the woods, Anyara and Nihillian being most familiar with theirs, Ranpu and Gene however not so. Mizu did not outwardly show how she felt about the woods but in the silence of her mind she detested the woods. Mizu didn't know what she thought of the silent forest just yet but she knew that when she found out why they unnerved her she'd despise them.