At first, they saw nothing that suggested they had returned to the forest. There were no trees and no sign of flowering life. The sky, however, no longer carried clouds, appearing just as it had before they reached the ridges, which was the usual state.
Adela called on her Element's aspect and realised the scene before them was nothing more than fog laid over reality.
To be honest, they had already returned to the forest. Tall trees were concealed from their sight, yet as they pressed further on, the shapes of trunks and branches revealed themselves.
Only then did the four understand that the island had shifted once more, moving its pieces as though they were caught upon a chessboard.
From the knowledge gathered during their earlier explorations, they had already concluded that the island was a sentinel in its own right, a living presence from which nothing that entered could ever depart.
