Separated

It should be a crime for a forest to be this silent.

We rode our horses into the woods, and though the earth is dry and arid, the gentle thuds of hooves landing on the ground have been muted away by Lavi's magic. Even the sounds of our breaths were completely sealed off. We had to wade through the Screaming Forest as silent as possible to avoid unnecessary attention from the creatures that lurked within the shadows.

The trees were malady-brown, staring at me like silent ghosts, and had become larger and bizarrely haunting; their branches squeaking even with the absence of the wind, also keeping the sunlight from reaching the land coated with dead leaves. An acrid odor hung the stuffy air. Spider webs shimmering like metal dipped into silver had increased in numbers as we delved deeper into the forest.