Chapter 25

They watched from the coast as the Charlotte sped away, sails billowing in the mid-afternoon wind. They could still see the crew scrambling around as they repeated preparations to sail away. It was about three days since the monstrous storm nearly sunk the ship, they were lucky enough to have made it out alive.
Wyle fought the wheel through the night during the storm in order to ensure their safety and imminate survival. The next day, way before the sun rose, the storm passed to reveal a resplendent sunrise, the sky was blanketed in a midnight blue that slowly shifted into an orange as the sun rose in the east. Small feathery clouds hung high in the sky, undiminished by the pitch black thunderheads that had just passed overhead. Nolan remembered the sight of the glorious sun rising, its rays of golden light reflecting off the ocean surface, and then the cry from the crow's nest, signaling land. The long trip aboard the Charlotte was boring and uneventful, so when land came into sight, indicating the end of their sea-going journey, but also the beggining of a new one.
But it still took two more days before they left the ship. During that time Nolan often gazed at the evergrowing base of the mountains. They were said to be over ten miles high, the Beors were the tallest mountains in Salazier. The peaks faded out of sight into the clouds; all that could be seen was a giant wall of ice and snow. And as they drew closer, Nolan was speechless, the mountains sheer size was unfathomable.
"You ready to go." Asked Trey, bringing Nolan from his thoughts. Trey was standing in front of him where the waves crashed over his boots, reaching his ankles. Nolan nodded and took one last look at the Charlotte, before turning and leading his group up the beach. The shore was quite larger than it appeared on the deck of the Charlotte. Far from where they walked, a lagoon connected to the sea. It was, in good weather, a beautiful place-a near perfect semicircle of flawless white sand, perhaps a mile across, bordered by a curtain of tall, graceful palms. In the center of the curved beach lay two dozen or so massive, sea-smoothed boulders, some of them the size of a sailing ship, forming hulking jumble of rock that stretched from the trees to the blue-green water.
The lagoon was teemed with life-turtles, jellyfish, crabs, and vast schools of lavishly multihued fish. Normally these creatures were sheltered from the surge of the sea by a coral reef; it ran across the mouth of the lagoon from one side to the other, with only a small break in the center, through which the tide flowed in and out. But the reef was no match for the waves churned up by the storm. Every few seconds a towering wall of wind-driven water rose high over the reef and broke upon it with a thuderous crash, sending a surge of churning, foaming water rushing high onto the beach, then back toward the sea, leaving the surf-scrubbed beach empty for a few seconds, awaiting the next incoming surge.
Behind the beach, the landscape changed. The sandy expanse of shore suddenly altered into a large grassland that went on for a mile or two before ing into the foothills of the Beors. Beyond that rose a steep ridge thousands of feet high, jungle-thick with vegetation, forming a curved green wall that cut the plains off from the mountains.
When they rached the end of the beach they noticed that very small vegetation grew. Harsh weather forbade large shrubs to grow, only thick, green blades grew, forming a carpet over the loose sand. Many rivers flowed from the mountains and snaked over the plains and dumped out into the lagoon. Their feet stepped out of the sand, which was so unconstricted that their boots sunk under an inch of the topsoil, and onto firm, hardpacked, and grassy terrain.
Small oak trees crowned hills with a peak of leaves. Herds of gazelle bounded across the plains, chased by some large creature. Trey was curious to what the creature was, it resembled a large wolf, but never had Trey heard of a wolf so large.
"What is that?" He asked Nolan, pointing to the mysterious animal.
It was an immensely huge animal, roughly the size of a horse. Despite its size it was fast and agile and moved with amazing stealth. Large muscles rippled under its fur as it jumped above a gazelle, twisted in the air so that it was facing the frieghtened gazelle, and then landed in the poor creatures neck. The wolf-like creature and the gazelle tumbled over the grass until they stopped and the wolf roared his victory.
"Thats a Shrrg, they're native to the Beors and are very dangerous. They hunt in packs so keep an eye out, where theres one theres more." Nolan replied as they made their way down hill.
Connor hesitated before saying. "Are there other strnage creatures we need to know about before we travel into their territory?"
Nolan nodded. "There are Nagra, large boars that are very fast, Fanghur that resemble a twenty foot serpent with leathery wings"
Austin interrupted to ask. "Like dragons?"
Nolan shook his head, "No, Fanghur don't breathe fire and are smaller than dragons. They also attack their prey with a immobilizing screech with stun their prey. Then theres Feldûnost which are goat-like with long, curled horns that extend to their cheeks, but they pose no threat."
Trey nodded in confirmination, he had read of Feldûnost in an ancient script.
"Lastly there are the feirce and enormous cave bear, the Urzhad. They are said to be as large as a house, and like most creatures in the Beors, very fast."
"It is hard to have courage when you know what lurks out there." Said Connor.
"But isn't it better to know than to not know." Austin asked Nolan.
Nolan shrugged, "I don't know, knowledge is a powerful thing. If one did know everything, then he would try to change what would happen. You can't change fate, and if you tried to, it would lead to disaster. Its better to not know, so that you can learn what you need to learn."
The hours seemed to flow by too slow for Nolan's liking, adding mental wieght to his mind as he imagined traveling through the Beors, up the Az Ragni to Hedarth, then finally along the Edda river in order to find the Rider's home. They traveled for sveral miles and finally reached a good spot to make camp, half a mile from the foothills.
Nolan leaned agianst a nearby stump, panting. Trey mentioned that he would go hunt, all Nolan did was nod. Austin volunteered to help Trey hunt, but Trey replied with. "That is not needed. Make us a big fire, and i'll bring us food."
Austin complied as Trey strode off toward a thicket of beech trees north of them, Nolan untied the strap around his waist and, with a sigh relief, dropped the pack next to the stump.
Trying to ignore the discomfort, he set forth about gathering grass and dead branches for a fire, which he piled on a patch of dry, rocky ground. He often sent Connor or Austin off to find bigger branches.
The land they were surrounded by was wet and lush, with fields of grass that stood six feet high, through which there roamed herds of deer, gazelle, and wild oxen with black hides and wide, backswept horns. The riches of the area were due, Nolan knew, to the Beor mountains, which caused the formation of huge banks of clouds that drifted for many leagues over the plains beyond, bringing rain to places that would otherwise have been as dry as the Hadarac Desert.
Although the four of them had already traveled an enormous number of miles, Nolan was somewhat disappointed by their progress. Kicking at a branch that was in his way, he continued to gather wood, grumbling at himself the entire time.