Ankyra Sound The annual parade of the mysterious hooded figures

He hadn't spent much time in the woods, and he wasn't sure how he felt about them. For a long time they had been a black swatch of color on the horizon and the path leading to them, and through them, was too steep for the likes of him. While he was a bit bigger now and more mobile, Reyes was not all that inquisitive of the world around him. It had been quite a shake-up when he had been introduced to the sand and the sea by his parents, for instance.

He liked the forest well enough, he supposed - although the boy remained rather stoic in comparison to Dragomir's flickering attention (judging from the frequent stops and awed expression on his face). Reyes wanted to get somewhere more familiar and hoped to lead his new friend through the woods and down to the beach, but... As he roamed to a small ledge overlooking the beach, he saw the dark shapes of the adults and thought he could hear shouting.

From behind him came Dragomir's question ( where are we going? ) but Reyes didn't pay much attention to it. He was trying to figure out who was down on the beach — but it was such a ways away, and so hard to keep focused — eventually he gave up and with a huff, climbed down from the ledge, leading the boy through the grove until the soil loosened and became a burm of tall yellowed grass. A few feet further and the grass was also thinning in to a loose mixture of sand, stone, and pulverized bits of bleached shell.

Where are we? Came the other boy's question, and Reyes looked briefly at him before trying to remember which direction led to the rendezvous site where his siblings were probably sleeping, or playing, or whatever - and shrugged without comment. As he was looking around he heard an incoherent shout from the opposite direction and turned to regard the blocky shapes of the adults. To get his mind off of the unease that brewed in his belly Reyes said, I wanna show you somethin', and then without further prompt, launched himself in to a haphazard run across the sand.