The thin mist stained everything ahead a dim gray.
A pungent, irritating smell flooded Kane's nostrils, like charcoal mixed with bat droppings and sulfur, then set ablaze.
It stank, but it helped Kane find his bearings.
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He ran on all fours through the dense forest, blood streaming from the wounds around his waist and abdomen. His body was sturdy enough that they hardly seemed to slow him down.
At last, after he passed towering tree after towering tree, the outline of the village came into view—
Brilliant yellow flames climbed the stacked bonfire like a pillar of fire thrust into the thick mist.
Its glow spread through the surroundings, illuminating houses built from logs.
But the dwellings were not all built on level ground. At the edge of the firelight stood the branches of towering trees, where nestlike shelters made from piled branches and straw perched in the treetops, their roofs pieced together from enormous fern leaves.
They were secured to the great trees and the houses below, with rather flimsy suspension bridges connecting them.
Beyond the reach of the firelight lay a dry well connected to underground caverns, though only the rats liked living in places like that.
Kane dashed through the woods and reached the pillar of fire at the center of the village.
His body gradually straightened, his fur receding into his skin as his frame shrank, until he finally transformed into a man two meters tall.
A brown-black beard covered his square face. His knotted muscles and powerful build made him look more like someone of Goliath descent.
But Kane was indeed human.
He pulled on the clothes left beside the bonfire beforehand. The mingled smells made him sneeze repeatedly, tugging at his healing wounds and drawing cries of pain.
Meanwhile, the