The next morning came too soon and with too much Chicken noise.
"RISE AND RECONQUER, WARRIORS OF DESTINY!" Cluckles screeched from atop a boulder, wings spread wide like a self-important sunrise.
Raven sat up groaning, his hair a mess. "I literally told him not to do this."
"Technically," Clara yawned, "you told him not to wake you with rooster nonsense. That was sage nonsense."
Nibbles held up a sign. "Technicality Wins Again."
After some breakfast—mostly not involving eggs, out of respect—the group began their journey deeper into the Ashen Expanse.
The gray mists were thin this morning, and the eerie silence of the zone was unsettling.
Rufus walked ahead with his scanners sweeping. "You guys remember the spot?"
"Yeah," Jessy said. "It was somewhere near that broken cliff edge. Right after the screaming mushroom patch."
"I still don't think mushrooms should scream," muttered Alex.
"Oh, the last one who should think that is you," Jessy snorted.
