"Let us move now."
The strap hitting the ox’s body resounded before the carriage started moving forward.
Inside the carriage were Theo, Clara, and Elias. The atmosphere was a little tense, but Elias and Clara tried their best to make it less abnormal.
But no matter what they did, everyone in the carriage knew where they were going this time.
"Has the mantis been comfortable in the beast space, young master?" Clara asked with a forced smile to change the atmosphere. She herself might not have been tense, but seeing the look on Theo’s face that he himself didn’t realize, it felt like the right time to change the mood.
"It sleeps all the time in the beast space, the glutton," Theo said with a snicker before his gaze went outside.
He saw the glimpse of the town’s walls from afar and felt a smile creep over his face. In another few months, he was going to be eligible to go there.
Talking with Bram, Theo had realized that he would be introduced in front of the whole town when he reached 10 years of age, which he had been looking forward to for a while now.
The carriage was quiet for some time when Elias started an interesting topic to keep Theo’s mind active.
It took them a whole hour for the carriage to halt. Theo took a deep breath and stepped outside the carriage.
"If you’d like, I can come with you, young master." Warren spoke from the front with a serious face.
Theo gave his best poker smile and just shook his head before looking at the forest again.
In all the time he had been to the forest, never had he ever seen a road in it.
It was not a road per se, but a pavement where the land was grazed down, and a layer of rock and sand seemed to be placed.
"This path will take us to the middle-deep forest without encountering many lower-depth beasts, young master." Clara spoke while tightening the leather strap on her waist. A set of potions and small bottles were kept all around it.
The same was with Elias and Theo.
"What territory are we going from?"
"The Thornhide Vipers, young master," Elias stated.
"That will be fine, I am good at detecting their presence now." Theo spoke and sighed before he moved forward.
Lights flashed behind him as all the beasts materialized and moved forward.
The boar was in the same position as it always was, beside Theo. The pup, now not so much a pup but a full-grown direwolf, stayed with Clara as the formation started.
The ape stayed right behind but close to the group to take care of any back attacks.
So far, this formation had worked really well. The ape, boar, pup, and chip were good at sensing the beasts that tried coming close, so they worked like beast trackers for the group.
Theo grazed his hand on the thick metal hide of the boar before he stepped forward, making the others move alongside him.
They all got on the pavement and walked with tall grasses, soon starting at both the sides.
Walking on the pavement gave the group the convenience that, at least, Theo had not experienced before. There was no need to pave their path through the tall grasses or chug it all to the side of the ground in order to make their small territory.
They kept walking for minutes until the first snake was detected by the ape.
The ape’s long hand grabbed the viper’s neck and twisted it even before anyone saw it—perks of having a big body alongside long limbs.
It bit off half the body and chewed it before getting the sac from Elias and chugging half the body inside it.
The ape was the one that carried the sack in its left hand as the group moved.
It was a lot quieter after that.
Many minutes later,
"We should be reaching the border by now."
"Hm." Theo nodded, he had already researched about the infamous stone carving that they would see soon enough that helped hunters know when the middle forest started.
The beasts knew the border on their own and passed it when the time and level were right.
But only the most experienced tamers felt the change in the pressure when they reached there.
They kept moving forward until Theo halted and saw something like a few texts written on the pavement’s middle.
He reached there and flicked all the sand and the small rocks off it to see big letters stating ’BEWARE’ at the top and then ’Middle forest beyond the warning’.
Theo looked at Clara and Elias, who only nodded in determination and came closer.
The group became a lot more packed, with the beasts and humans trying to protect each other.
Theo took a few steps forward, and they were able to move forward. He was waiting for something that he could feel.
And soon enough, he started feeling a heaviness.
"Are we here?" Theo whispered, but Clara and Elias shook their heads.
Theo knew it, all that thinking was making him psychologically feel things when it was not happening in the real world.
They took a few more steps forward and Theo had that same pressuring feeling the whole while until finally, the boar’s body shook for a moment, the pup whined for a mere second before going normal, and chip chirped a few times from a tree above.
Clara tapped Theo’s arm, making him look at her, and that was when Theo felt a shiver in his spine. Her nod had finally made him know that they had entered the middle-depth forest.
Theo felt a little annoyed that he was not able to know when it started, but at the back of his head, he also could tell that maybe Elias and Clara also didn’t feel it, as the beasts were the first to react.
Moving a lot slower now but still forward, Theo heard a few noises ahead. He looked up to the trees that were a lot thicker and bigger now.
Only to finally freeze when he saw a few big silhouettes just hanging around among those branches.
"We are in the Petrastone Ape territory now, young master..." He heard a whisper from the back.