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Aedrianna gasped softly when his hand closed firmly just beneath her knee. The surprise widened her violet eyes, but she did not pull away. Instead, her lips parted in a faint, breathless laugh, and she leaned further out over the precipice as if testing how far she could go under his hold.

Her gaze caught on something below—shadows moving against the cliff face. For a moment she thought they were people. She blinked, leaning just a little further.

[COLOR=Pink]“Funny… you wouldn’t think you’d see many people out here,”[/COLOR] she murmured, squinting to make sense of the shapes. But just as quickly they were gone, if they had been there at all.

Then her voice lifted, sharp with sudden excitement.

[COLOR=Pink]“Edwin! Look—there, I found one!”[/COLOR]

Her fingers brushed against a fragile stem, and with care she pulled back from the edge. In her hand gleamed a single Skythorne Blossom, its petals glowing with a faint, mana-rich blue.

She held it up to him with triumph in her expression, then sighed as her shoulders slumped. [COLOR=Pink]“Only one.”[/COLOR] The flower disappeared into her satchel, tucked carefully away. Her violet eyes flicked back to him with curiosity. [COLOR=Pink]“What did you mean earlier, about a beast?”[/COLOR]

She straightened, wobbling briefly from exhaustion before steadying herself again. Her hand rose to point toward a winding path that climbed higher into the jungle, the canopy thickening to shadow overhead.

[COLOR=Pink]“Maybe if we follow that trail, we’ll find more.”[/COLOR]

But this time she did not dart off ahead. Instead she came to his side, curling her fingers into his gauntleted hand. Her grip was light but deliberate, her smile tired yet fond as the two pressed on together.

The higher they climbed, the more unnatural the silence grew. The claw marks deepened, gouging cruelly into trunks. Bushes lay flattened, trampled under something heavy. Here and there, dark stains marked the ground and leaves—blood, long dried, yet enough to remind that the place had known violence.

At last, the trail spilled into a clearing where massive stones rose from the earth, gathered like an altar. Their faces were carved with glyphs, crooked and jagged, glowing faintly with a sickly light.

Around their bases, the Skythorne Blossoms grew in clusters—far more than Aedrianna could have hoped for. Their luminous blue petals glistened, but the soil that nourished them was dark and sticky, their stems tangled in it.

The truth revealed itself at the altar’s crown.

A beast lay sprawled across the stones, long-limbed and dark pawed, a mane like a lion framing its narrow muzzle and long triangular ears; its body stretched in unnatural stillness. Its white hide shimmered faintly with fading traces of mana. Its fur was matted dark with blood, wounds stabbed deep and many. The life had long been drained from it.

The blossoms, plentiful and radiant, pushed through the gore at its feet and around its ribs, their roots tangled in the blood-soaked stone.

Aedrianna stopped in her tracks, breath catching. Her fingers tightened around Edwin’s hand, her eyes fixed on the sight with mingled awe and dread.

[COLOR=Pink]“Edwin…”[/COLOR] Her voice was softer this time, and hesitant. The excitement was gone, replaced with unease as she stared at the unnatural altar and its offering.

What was perhaps a bit more concerning. Was the soft whining of something that was very much alive. The body of the clearly dead beast moved ever so slightly. As if something were moving beneath it. And after a moment, it became clear that the creature that was laying dead stop the rocks had been a mother. It's cub crying as it tried to nuzzle the corpse that had been it's care taker. 

Aedrianna made a sound, something between a strangled cry and shock. She almost moved towards the creature. Though she hesitated and glanced up at Edwin.