CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The open sky vanished behind a thick mess of tree limbs and the world around us was plunged into a shadow-covered existence. The tall, slender grass was replaced by thick brush and bramble bushes. The ground became covered in needles and rotting leaves, and a thick air of decay permeated my nostrils. We slammed through a wall of brambles and came out the other side with scratches and cuts.
The cursa weren’t quite as fortunate. Their rough fur got caught in the thorns, and the more they struggled the more entangled they became. None were spared, and I realized that the wall we had raced through was actually a barrier that stretched across the perimeter of the woods in both directions, growing beyond where I could see the ends.
The men, however, were less daunted t
