The forest didn't reach this deep into the gate, giving way to a wide hollow of black root and bare stone. Three figures sat inside it, lit only by the thin purple light leaking up through the cracks in the floor.
None of them looked like the beasts prowling the forest above, though none of them looked quite human either.
The first stood near the wall, tall and narrow, a mantle of oil-dark feathers folded down his back where a coat should have been. He had long talons in place of hands, and they clicked steadily against his own forearm while he waited.
The second crouched on a low shelf of root, all lean muscle and restless motion, two pale ears rising a full head above her hair. She never stopped moving, one heel bouncing, her eyes flicking toward every small sound in the dark.
The last of them lounged across the back of the hollow, and out of the three she looked the most like a real woman.
