She didn't know how long they traveled. It felt like hours, but it might have been less. All she knew was that the air gradually grew warmer, damper, and the sounds of the forest changed from the dry rustle of leaves to the wet plop of things dropping into water.
When Qing Lin finally stopped and shifted back to human form, Xin Yi tumbled out of his coils and landed face-first in soft moss.
"Ow," she groaned.
"We have arrived," Qing Lin announced.
Xin Yi pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, spitting out moss, and looked around.
Oh.
It was.….beautiful.
The Python tribe's village was nothing like the Panther camp. Instead of caves and crude huts, there were elegant structures built on stilts over crystal-clear water. Warm mist rose from natural hot springs, and the entire place glowed with bioluminescent plants that gave off a soft, ethereal blue-green light.
