Chapter 131: The Ashen forest

Chapter 131: The Ashen Forest

The trees were large and old, grey and heavily branched, and the branches elongated into stunted shapes. The air felt threatening, the kind that gave Anita chills down her spine. Bearing her sword tightly, she and Jace stood on the edge of the Ashen Forest.

“Can it be that I am the only one to feel this?” she whispered. “This place seems to be full of life.”.

‘It’s not just you,’ Jace answered, though he kept observing the darkness of the woods on the perimeter. I noticed his tail flicked about nervously, and he did that more than anything else. The ait here has negative connotations: It is echoed in such phrases as pares la birra (the bottle for spirits) and yarañana ananani (the restless spirits). They don’t like outsiders."

Anita looked at him. ‘You have been here before, have you not?’

Jace nodded slowly. "A long time ago. I got out almost with my skin and kicking.”