"What?"
Kaoreish kept blinking, a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead. To him, Sato seemed restless and agitated.
That was rare.
"There's danger here."
The other's words were simple.
"Then we have to warn Ur."
Kaoreish replied, looking back up the slope. Ur and Hagrid had been crouching on that stone slab just moments ago.
But now, neither of them was anywhere to be seen.
Kaoreish turned back to Sato. The armed priest raised a finger to his lips, then grabbed Kaoreish by the arm and dragged him toward the edge of the ruins.
His strength was so astonishing that Kaoreish could not resist at all.
This was a woodland garden that had been blasted into a terrible mess, though it remained largely intact. The trees were dark in color, their roots gnarled and twisted. Their black trunks were slick and gleaming, while their ragged leaves resembled the broken wings of dead insects. Only from a distance could they barely be regarded as trees at all.
Some of the great trees were truly remarkable. Their swollen, enlarged branches had been rendered especially rough by the passage of time, and it was no easy feat that they had survived the artillery fire.
Kaoreish crept past them, full of confusion, and gradually became aware of their strange appearance. There seemed to be something wrong with this woodland garden, though he had not noticed it before.
The air carried the scent of dust and cinnamon. A layer of dark dead branches and rotting leaves carpeted the ground, while dust-fine flying insects gathered in clouds amid the shadows.
Kaoreish lightened his steps as much as he could, striving to use the tracking and stealth techniques Ur had taught him. Yet he still felt like baggage Sato was dragging across the ground.
The psychic