Twilight of a Hybrid, стр. 42
The terrain of the wasteland the three hills were located stretched to this mountain point, and this was thought to be part the Greenwood Forest. At the moment, the small group seemed to be leaving the forest and entering a new territory with open land and valleys. In the far away surroundings of mountains and hills was stashed of green leaves.
Apparently, the small group was still in the Greenwood Forest with a bigger portion converted in a wasteland. Remnants of tree bark and roots rose several feet from the ground, which meant this part of the wasteland was once blooming with leafy green now has been reduced to lifeless.
The wasteland Flarefur and Valverno were flying over takes up a fifty mile diameter in the middle of the Greenwood Forest. Beyond the three hills, they passed over a long, thin gorge was crated deep underground, plummeting thousands of feet into a great darkness. The two flyers had no worries of falling, but only if the two passengers the Griffin were carrying would fall into that black hole.
Valverno led Flarefur passed the gorge and take greater chances with the sludgy mountain. When the mountain grew larger in size and higher in altitude, the two flyers had to fly higher above the mountain’s highest point.
Valverno drew to a halt when he saw the entire portion of the mountain’s top. The top had four rocky, towering points curved across the mountain’s waving top. A small area of the mountain was flat with strange stones that had been stacked as if built like a staircase for a fifty foot man. Valverno flew for a closer look and he gazed upon a great ruin built onto the mountain and dug deep.
Remnants of a mighty fortress had lain in ruins. Many stones had been built in a staircase-like manner, which would have mean those were once high walls. Toward the inner core of the ruins had square-like openings built next to another square hole with a ground made flat for a living room or a bedroom. There were small buildings that remain intact, also built in square shape. Those remaining stone huts, or stone houses, served as homes for any ancient inhabitants who once lived in this high point of a mountain.
At the far western point a large circular stairwell served as stone seats, which went up to fifteen rows and circled around a small arena. Three big arches seemed like entrances and at the arena’s end is what remains of a stage. A small wall with two door-like holes served as exits and entrances to the ruined, stoned stage: a ruined theater.
Valverno dived to the mountain’s lower walls and saw a small city built halfway down from the mountain’s top ruin fortress. The city built on the wall were built with many buildings overlapping each other and made these look like one building: a building combined with another building like a house built to be combined to another house, if this was like a shopping district.
The ruins on top the mountain and the city on the mountain’s cliffy side were amazingly built through some hard winds and a high pressure of strong humidity. Yet alone how these ruins had been built by people who had to dwell on a straight, vertical side of the mountain and the top with many steep cliffs and edges.
Valverno seemed impressed with these ruins of how they were built and how long what’s been left behind manage to survive for so many years. But now was not the time to be a tourist gazing at ancient ruins; it was the time to search-and-find instead of star gazing at the place. He soon enough rejoined the Griffin at the mountaintop, in the stage center of the ruined theater and folding his wings on his back.
He saw that Geraldus and Marina dismounted from Flarefur. Valverno saw himself in front of the fifteen seating rows, if he could be seeing ghostly figure siting on those rows waiting for him to put on a show. “Well, we’ve made it,” he said. “Now to find an entrance to this dark chamber so we can be on our way out of here.”
“This place looks amazing!” said Marina. She gazed at the place so gleefully. She grew a strong curiosity of what secrets this place may hold, how long the ruins may have been standing, and what purpose the place was original built for. “What knowledge could be hidden here and waiting to be found?”
“Hey, we’re not here to window shop for ruins,” said Geraldus.
Valverno softly gave a dragon groan and shook his head; Marina was acting like a city girl wanting to spend money on the expensive stuff. He was more annoyed Marina wanting to see the ruins, and having a warrior’s instinct, they would have to explore the ruins only to find the entrance to the “dark, underground chamber” and see more if there is to explore. “I just hope we don’t take too long in playing in searching for the entrance.”
“What’s wrong with touring these ruins for a bit?” asked Flarefur. “There are secrets we could learn from this—”
“I’m not interested in learning about this place,” said Valverno. “I am not here to window shop or to gaze upon ancient ruins of a long-lost fortress. I’m here to find a long-lost armor.” Valverno widened his wings and soared in the sky, if he made a small jump from his curved legs. He flew over the ruins of the theater and landed in dead center of the ruined fortress.
Valverno found himself at the heart of the fortress. He remembered smelling his scent from that bottle in which he was kept in when he was