When I stepped ashore, I saw the legendary Thickets before me. The black woods, the darkest place in the world above. Something that was not torn to shreds as the Scourge Fronts were, but still gave off equally the same impressions...
BGM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3zc6HZJodYI crunched leaves and sticks below foot, walking into the woods. The Sun was gone. The sky was drained. The woods were a chokepoint at every turn.
I was not claustrophobic at all, and I had never felt like it in my life, nor have I truly understood the point of view of claustrophobia before that mortals could have... But... I was beginning to.
There really was nothing but woodwork here. This whole island was a packed forest, and I'm not sure any amount of deforestation could clear it. Was I coming under the curse that made all here lose themselves? Distort their sense of direction? Could it be abated by ascending as high as possible and looking down on the island? And what stopped the Imperials from simply bombarding it from orbit or the sky? The Samurai airships could traverse the atmosphere easily, and Imperial vessels were even capable of space travel... so I wondered how it was that Beastkin could still make such a problem to them that they lock the island off instead of destroying it...
[MAJORDOMO] "Munny..."
'Yes?'
[MAJORDOMO] "We've been here for over seven hours."
'...We have?'
[MAJORDOMO] "Yes. I counted the seconds one by one slowly ever since we arrived."
'That can't be right. I feel like I've only been walking through here for but half an hour.'
[MAJORDOMO] "Perhaps an hour trek would have reached the County heart if things were normal here. Unfortunately, THEY AREN'T! AND THAT'S WHAT I TRIED TELLING YOU!"
'...I'm sorry, Majordomo. I thought reaching the County would be easier than this. But this curse is potent. It confused me. But, it can't keep us here, thankfully. I can leave back to the mainland.'
[MAJORDOMO] "Ughh... looks like we're not finding anything here. We'll have to seek sources of information some other way. Maybe a library in the Imperial Seat or something."
I nodded, and turned around, preparing to warp away from the island when-
