[Danny]

not much to say. her's the next one.

CHAPTER 29

They were walking at ground level now. The trees were short enough that light could get to them. The trees were still taller than any they’d seen outside, but they were far shorter than the ones they’d been walking on earlier. The thickest branches out here were 2 or 3 metres across, rather than 20 or 30.

Drak, who was in the lead, held up a hand. “Shh!”

They froze. Greeb whispered to Drak: “You heard something?”

Drak nodded. “I think so. I’ll go on ahead a bit. It seems a bit lighter here.”

Greeb shook his head. “You stay here. You’ve taken the lead for too long. I’ll scout ahead.” And he disappeared into the undergrowth.

He was moving for less than 5 minutes, when he saw a clearing ahead through the trees.

“The forest shouldn’t end this suddenly.” He fell to his knees, and crawled the rest of the way to the edge.

The sight that greeted his eyes surprised him, and at first he wasn’t sure exactly what he was seeing, but then he knew. He was a looking at one of the largest logging operations on the continent. It was so huge that the tree stumps stretched right to the horizon. He could see machinery for cutting trees, machinery for shifting earth, and machinery for killing things that tried to stop them. There were corpses of creatures he’d never seen before, some of which had been killed and left to rot where they were. In the distance he could make out what looked like a Vykkers’ Labship, sitting on the clear ground. There were other buildings dotted around the landscape: buildings that resembled barracks, slaughterhouses, sawmills, and many other different shapes, several of which were entirely unfamiliar to Greeb. There were teams of mudokons and sligs pulling the huge trees and animal corpses to the sawmills and slaughterhouses, or sometimes to the Labs. Activity was spread about the forest edge, and Greeb was in between two logging teams. When he looked to his side, he could see the forest edge stretching away, raggedly.

He turned to return to the others, and was confronted by an angry-looking mudokon.

The mudokon shouted over his shoulder. “I’ve found another one!” And he charged at Greeb, swinging a large staff of wood at his head. The wood connected, and Greeb sank to the ground, unconscious.