The trees got thicker and the air got warmer and Eren knew he was close because his Pathfinding skill stopped pulling him in a general direction and started pulling him toward specific landmarks he recognized.
That bent tree with the split trunk where he'd hid from a leopard on day four. The cluster of mushrooms growing on a fallen log that he'd eaten from twice before learning they gave him stomach cramps for six hours. The clearing where he'd first seen the fire birds and almost died from a fireball to the chest.
His territory. Not officially because no system screen had ever popped up saying "congratulations you own this patch of forest" but after twenty-nine days of sleeping in the same tree and eating from the same sources and running the same routes his body recognized every smell and sound and shadow in this part of the woods like coming home after a long trip.
Overhead something caught his eye and he slowed to watch.
