Twisted Slough With a dare comes a promise.

Cry determined it would be a bit more less than a day for them to reach Shadewood's forest; the distance they had left was no more than a few miles, and they could easily take that. But with 'Kai being wounded', he thought turning against his shoulder to examine her gilded gait, 'I don't want to push it'.

There was a trek that lay much easier than the downward route the pair took, and weighting it against the sunlight they had left,  the dark guardian realized it would be a bit more fortunate to take it rather than the path they were currently on. Curving slightly to the left against the wall of rock and heave, he showed a much less steep ease of path, one potentially flattened by the multitude of other passengers years or even months ago. It was much more smooth and had less to worry about than tackling the steep decline. It would have taken an hour or two more to trace the down-winding trail, but he'd pick it over risking Kai being injured.

After said hour and a half, midday bled into dusk as they finally made it down the slough. Paws just hit grass and loam as the path turned into the meadow before them. And like an ominous swallow of shadow and unknown void, the Shadewood stood mysteriously at the end of it. With a proud huff, Cry looked over to Kai, and gestured to a small felled oak who's guts lay hollow and seemingly stuffed with some small debris and dired grasses. With a swivel of an ear and slight twist of his neck, he instructed Kai to wait there while he went to investigate. He didn't want to sneak up on some slumbering fool, thinking they had found a place of rest.