Breckan had climbed trees before, he did it for fun, sometimes to pluck the occasional apple or two, that experience could have in no way prepared him for the hell it would be to climb through the inverted forest, the trees while dense still grew far and in between the further he traversed horizontally across the mass of upside down trees, by god the tree bark was rough, he had developed blisters in record time from the constant 'monkey barring' across the roots which seemed to span across the ceiling of the forest. Breckan never let his guard down, believing that maybe the next gust to be more potent than the last, flinging him deeper into hell.
continually placing foothold after handhold breckan couldn't help from allowing his mind to wander, the ambience of the inverted forest was truly something unique, he couldn't hear much from the rising updrafts of air coming from some place deeper within the abyss, apart from the howls and screeches of creatures hidden somewhere out of view, the air was cool for such an area so densely packed with trees, a consequence one would expect from this would be high humidity, breaking expectations is something the abyss excelled at it seemed.
Wrapping his arms around a tree the circumference of a foot and half, he figured it to have enough structural integrity to support him.
sliding down the trunk he landed on the inner part of the outreaching branches, careful not to step on the edges as there was little support to be found from branches there.
Sitting with his back to the trunk tilting his head backwards meeting the wood, Breckan let out a pent out breath and breathed deeply a few times allowing his tense muscles to loosen, aiding in the removal of built up lactic acid from a day of exertion.
Idly as he took his break he raised his hand to observe the weird moss that made his skin itch constantly, sure enough it was still there, albeit thinner than when he woke inside the crevice.
"i wonder if they have herbicide down at the seeker camp" he chuckled to himself, "otherwise, ill have to burn it or scrape it off along with any contaminated skin" wincing at that breckan frankly had no idea how to solve his moss problem.
Closing his eyes he resolved on sleeping even if for just 15 minutes, that would be if it weren't for the branch slamming into his forehead splitting it, evidenced by the blood running down his face, snapping open his eyes, breckan was met by roughly 3 dozen of humanoid looking, furred figures bouncing and screeching resembling what a party inside an asylum would look like hanging from tree branches 40 meters away.
Growling at the stupid looking oversized chimps while picking up the discarded branch, flinching as precious blood ran down his unlucky forehead, he tested its weight, a sizeable branch, weighing what appeared to be 15 pounds, to be thrown with such accuracy and enough strength to jar him dizzy, the creatures weren't weak.
One of the braver inbyos ran out of patience of screeching at breckan, deciding to take matters into its own, volition it swung tree to tree at an impressive pace quickly closing the distance, "uh uh, WRONG MOVE BROTHER" rearing his arm backwards he threw the branch with a grunt with ease that surprised breckan, the whistling branch striking the mammal mid swing straight between its creepy red eyes with a sickening crack, at consequence it miscalculated his next handhold causing it to plumnet down flailing to its grizzly death somewhere along the abyss.
The rest inbyos grew quiet at this growing somber, the human had displayed quite the feat of strength, one of their bravest had just been sentenced to death from falling, or still falling to its death.
Breckan observing the now cautious inbyos he sucked in as much air as possible and bellowed, " ill leave your damned trees, throw sticks at me, and ill throw them right back at you" not waiting for a response breckan began hopping from tree bough to the next praying that the inbyos were somewhat intimidated by his yelling along with not slipping or landing on a fragile branch.
Peeking backwards he observed that the creatures had resumed their screeching and bouncing soothing ever so slightly his madly beating heart, apparently they considered his running away a victory, 'good for them' breckan surmised, as he traveled.
Of what he remembered from the maps and classes about the seeker camp found at the orphanage, breckan knew it was common knowledge that it was located in the cavern like indentation that circumfered the inverted forest's walls, not that far down from its jagged entrance, one would traverse horizontally more than vertically to find the camp curiously enough, it being situated on an enormous tree, one of the biggest in the layer also helped.
the reasoning behind building such a grandiose, risky, and certainly expensive project was leagues less difficult than the common citizens of orth made it to be, hardest task being getting the required tools for the operation at the site, the site being 'the great tree of porta', as the name implied it was a tree, a damn enormous tree which the government saw as a good opportunity to create a sort of pit stop, delvers would rest resupply and gather themselves here before ongoing with their expeditions since after crossing the first layer one passed the threshold leading into the forest of temptation here the danger level suddenly became much more prominent, corpse weepers overwatched from the skies while inbyos patrolled the forest down below, prompting one to stay vigilant or face an untimely death.
Still hopping from tree to tree breckan noted a change of state in the trees and atmosphere, the air felt heavier, colder along with the brightness dimming considerably, the trees were becoming smaller and more sparse, continuing to jump would become dangerous before impossible, which was a shame since he could see the looming figure of the enormous tree of porta, pressing his right shoulder to a noticeably thinner tree trunk, thin enough to actually bend to his weight, breckan scanned the area "the camp has to have a walkway, to access it easier during descent, right?" Surely enough while glancing up breckan discovered what he was looking for, sighing,"ofcourse it wouldn't be that easy, really, who am I kidding, its lucky enough that I stumbled upon this place to begin with" shivering at the implications of that, he jumped to another tree, edging closer to the camp, until finally reaching the trunk, glancing heavenward, the enormous tree towered in all its inverted glory, its roots digging into the earth in search for hydration.
But more importantly he could see a sliver of light peeking from an indentation on the tree, "that must be some sort of window!" With newfound vigor along with the prospects of seeing a human face again, breckan scanned the bark of the tree, noting that the rough skin of the tree had many grooves in it from where it had grown and split its skin as it dried, "there's always a first for everything" beginning his an arduous climb, not unlike rock climbing he recognized, he inched up foothold after handhold and handhold after foothold.
His stress increased as his fingers weakened, responding lazier after each clench, sweat and blood running into his eyes and unfortunately gasping mouth.
Finally, he reached the sill finding that thankfully, his observation was correct.
Hoisting himself upon the tiny window sill, obviously carved with hostile inbyos in mind he gazed upon the salvation laying past the window, not fully observing the contents of the room he was about to frankly, break into, just that there was a lit lamp, and that meant help.
Bracing himself he reared his hand.. And struck the glass with all his strength finding that it successfully gave to the force.
dragging himself through the window that was an approximately half meter circle he payed little heed to the thick shards of glass still fixed to the window frame that dragged across his body, it felt strangely numb.
"Heh, what's some more to add to my list of injuries, I'm safe now, that's all that matters, I thiUBLEUGH" emptying out whatever was left in his stomach breckan collapsed into a pool of his own vomit and blood.
Unfortunately or fortunately for himself, he didn't notice the tall, dark, figure glaring at him from the only bed in the room he had, by all accounts broken into, the figures face slowly morphed into a vicious dark grin.