"I'm not even going to ask." I decided out loud, getting to my feet. Without proper lighting, I couldn't tell how long Nikka had let us rest for, but I was already feeling anxious that it had been too long. "Alright, off to the gloomy places we go. Onward, outward and forward."
                              
I thought area one would take the cake for being the most outrageous and amazing thing I had ever seen but area two simply took my abused senses and drop kicked them off the cliffs of reality. The gloom was in all honesty a line of darkness across the land; one side was the eerie evening lights I'd endured thus far and the other proper darkness. Again, no real sourse of the darkness or what was causing it, it was just pitch black. In the distance there was a greenish yellow luminescence that strongly reminded me of glow sticks and black light reactive paint.  Ironically I had less trouble seeing in the darkness because I could look around all I wanted, I simply couldn't perceive anything through the murk. Nikka had me keep my hand on her shoulder and one on Alex, while Sebastian had his hand on my shoulder. That way if any of us lost contact we were all supposed to stop immediately; I think the only reason Nikka didn't just tie us together was because then I wouldn't be able to run away if we were attacked.
                              
The ground we walked on sucked at our feet, slowing us down and the air no longer smelled of incense but instead had the heavy scent of wet earth. It also felt too close, like a sauna on full blast but different too because it wasn't just air, it had a mist too so I ended up feeling saturated and sticky. The sickly green glow I had spotted in the distance turned into a stand of phosphorescent trees. These trees didn't move at least but they were definitely glowing and they cast enough light that I was quickly convinced that I really didn't want to be able to look around. The ground was rather like a sodden sponge and every time I stepped down a fluid that looked suspiciously viscous oozed to the top, which was probably why Nikka hadn't wanted us to drink the water here. We were forced to step over what I sincerely hoped was a maggot infested log but judging by the smell it was more than likely a corpse. All the verbal warnings in the world were far less effective at demonstrating how dangerous this realm was then that single solitary corpse; whatever it used to be was wholly unrecognizable as it looked like someone had turned it inside out. I fervently prayed to all five Aspects of the Goddess to keep us from meeting whatever creature it was that could fold a body like paper origami.
                              
On the other side of the glowing forest there appeared to be a rocky outcropping. Thankfully it didn't squish when we stepped onto it, though the footing was still treacherous and this was where Nikka called for a break. "We can't rest here long and I need absolute silence while we are stationary." she instructed as she passed out the water bubbles for us to drink.
                              
Even as I stayed silent and drank, I had the nearly overwhelming urge to take off running. My anxiousness translated itself into me fidgeting around, which was how I discovered that the rocky hill we were perched on was actually an old and carefully constructed pyre of bones. I'd picked up a rock to chuck and recognized it as the front part of a broken skull. With that recognition a tingle went shooting down my spine and I took off running. "Move!" I hollered, grabbing Nikka by the hand and gunning away from the top of the hill. There was still enough phosphorous glow for me to see Alex bound to the base of the bone hill only to get caught in some kind of netting. The snarl he let out made my knees go weak and I started to slip as the bone pile actually began to move. Nikka hurtled me to the sodden ground at the base and I rolled, coming to my feet to see Sebastian swearing in his beautiful native language and trying to pull an arrow out of his leg. As promised, I resisted my urge to stay and help and instead tried to run away. My obedience was short lived as I felt a net descend over me, tripping me up. I felt two boney hands grab my arms and haul me to my feet with surprising strength. I was then delicately slammed against a tree, which gave me my first view of what was attacking us.