Leona led the others, armed with all manner of weapons, through the low shrubs along the coast. They replenished their water and gathered berries near a river, rested briefly, then crossed another stretch of jungle before finally reaching the central mountain range.
Only beneath it could they truly grasp its size.
The shadow of the sprawling range fell over them. Its towering peaks rose and fell like blades, nearly blotting out the sky, and a weight settled over their hearts.
None of them had ever seen mountains so vast.
If the flat summit of the sacred mountain where the Temple of Eternity stood inspired a sense of holiness and majesty, these sharp, blade-like peaks, covered in jagged rocks, inspired an unsettling sense of weight and oppression.
At the edge of the forest, Leona slowly raised her head and followed the shadowed mountain upward with her gaze.
The cliff facing them dropped straight down as though split by a giant axe, leaving a sheer wall streaked red and white. Clouds and mist curled around it.
Within the dim, shifting mist hung several gray-white stone buildings resembling temples. They looked like nails driven deep into the mountainside, half-hidden in the rock.
A long wooden walkway hung across the sheer cliff like a fine strand of hair.
The winding path connected each of the buildings on the cliff.
A few tiny figures walked among the dark clouds and mist.
"I never thought they really lived up on the cliff."
"Buildings on this scale must have taken decades to construct."
Everyone who looked up felt a jolt of awe.
They had thought the first crew members sent ahead had exaggerated, but now they saw that they had not exaggerated at all.
There truly was a cluster of buildings perched on the sheer cliff.
But