<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold">Interlude</span></div><br/><div style="text-align: center;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><br/>“Aw shit,” cried the boy, kicking a small stone into the air. “Too late, they’re screwed.”<br/><br/>Celine glanced over in order to determine the cause of his tantrum. Squinting a little, she could make out the change in colour of the terrain ahead. The flat pavement-like ground she was currently standing on eventually shifted to a more natural terrain a few kilometres ahead of them. “Are those trees?” she observed.<br/><br/>Matthew snorted in response. “Yeah, if you can call ‘em that. They’ve gone and turned into Ents,” he said. As a scout, his long-ranged vision was slightly more refined than Celine’s, but even she could see the branches of the rotting trees waving about if she stared hard enough. “Damn it!” Matt continued to grumble. “There’s no doubt they’re in there, that’s exactly where Jess said they’d be.”<br/><br/>“We don’t know if they’re dead yet,” said Celine, although her voice gave away her slight doubt. They were too far away to conclude what was really happening in the environment ahead of them, but it didn’t look like a life-ending cataclysm just yet.<br/><br/>“Yeah, I’ll bet the Ents are just dancing for ‘em,” said Matt. “What, did you forget where we were or something?”<br/><br/>Celine started moving forwards again. “Go back if you want, kid.”<br/><br/>“You’re going to go<span style="font-style: italic">in there</span>?” Matt trailed after her.<br/><br/>“See that?” she suddenly stopped and pointed into the distance.<br/><br/>“Huh?” Matt followed her finger, noting that she was pointing not at the trees, but at the strange mountain range behind the forest. They were tall enough to be snow-capped, and some mountain chunks were floating in the air as if out of some Hollywood fantasy movie. “What about ‘em?” But he caught sight of it before she needed to respond. At the peak of the tallest mountain, a thick stack of smoke was rising into the air. Volcanoes were always a sign of danger even back in reality, and they were that much more in the Void.<br/><br/>“Those trees might not be fatal,” she said. “But if that goes off, it will be.”<br/><br/>She picked up her pace once more. Hopefully it was a gamble worth taking.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>