More of the projectiles arched and rained down, colliding against nothing. There were defiant and impatient growls from within the shadowed treeline that vibrated against my skin. But then it stilled. The silence was an unsettling one. It suggested a sort of ordinance, discipline in the face of someone. This silence did more to unsettle me than the entire horde of akar roaring in unison. Out from the shadows stepped a familiar figure—the ostensible leader of this marauding horde—as the light of the surrounding torches peeled away one half of the shadows that covered him.
