The change of environment was a little less sudden this time.
The stone underfoot turned a little paler and a little more brittle. The air remained just as dry as it had been in the Dragon Clan territory.
Sparse golden grass replaced the volcanic terrain behind them, the kind that grew in places where fire had passed through more than once and the ground had learned to work around it.
Yoru walked slightly ahead, her previously erratic behaviour was long gone, replaced by the calculated calmness of the fierceful leader she was said to be.
The quiet of their journey broke only when they entered the inner territory of the Phoenix Clan.
They heard it long before they saw it. The dense sound of large scale ability and the shift in atmosphere that only happened when high volume of mana was being used.
They crested the ridge and stopped.
Below, three factions occupied three points of a rough triangle in the valley.
