Dragon Gods Reign

Chapter 234: Stone Desert

[Ouroboros' End]As they followed the ogre scouts, the forest around Darganth and the others soon caught the first glimpses of the mountain before them. Though not even remotely comparable to the towering behemoth that the dragon peaks back on Ikrus are, the peaks that were visible through the only slowly lightening cover of treetops still reached over one thousand meters in height.

Shortly after this first sighting, the ground around them became more uneven. Scattered stones started appearing amid the increasingly thinning number of trees, the bushes of the forest’s undergrowth became a less common sight, while the hills they came across grew ever larger. Soon, they outgrew the definition of the word entirely as the protruding stones mixed with them to form jagged mountain cliffs. By that point, the forest had also given way to a loose collection of scattered trees, fully unveiling the steep mountains that the group had then found themselves before.

But while they looked imposing, under the guidance of the ogres, they proved to be all but, at least to a traveler familiar with them. Amid insurmountable-looking cliffs, clearly artificial pathways were cleverly hidden in various shadows and behind debris. Ranging form holes that looked to have been cut into the mountainside by blunt impacts based on the jagged edges to entire stairways that were either cut into the mountain or made from placed stones, these pathways allowed their group to reach the highest point of their crossing barely over a day after they departed from the clearing, with most of this time having been spend reaching the mountains in the first place.

Once there, the rocky plain on the other side unveiled itself to them. For dozens, if not hundreds of kilometers, an orange stone desert stretched across the plains. Gray and orange rocks lay scattered on the dry and oftentimes cracked stone ground, with a thin layer of sand filling any crevices and forming a continuous thin film on the stone.

Towering above this desolate waste were numerous crystalline structures. Varying greatly in size, these glowing blue pillars seemed to be growing out of the ground, with a small hill of loose stone encasing their base, likely brought forth when they had burst from the ground. Above this, a smooth but wavy and askew body stretched skyward. In some cases, this bend reached as much as forty-five degrees, leaving the pointed tip that all of them ended in pointing toward the horizon.

At the foot of one of the closest of these pillars, Darganth then spotted the ogre camp. Drawn toward that particular area by the thick plumes of smoke that rose into the sky, his gaze fell onto the collection of likely over a thousand loosely packed tents that stood there, each one half a dozen meters or more tall to accommodate their ogre inhabitants.

Built with no uniformity, each of these tents looked to have been thrown together from whatever its creator could get their hands on. Pieces of leather and fur harvested from both monsters and beasts made up the majority of the tents' covers, with a mixture of cut-down tree trunks and bones forming a majority of the structure that held them in place. In between, a rare few wooden houses were found, along with metal cages as large as the tents, the odd wagon or sled, and multiple large pits in the stone ground that were all strewn around in the camp.

Though while these tents existed, even with the ogres only being tiny specks in his sight, Darganth could tell that they cared as little for private space as the ogre tribes he had encountered in the past. Individual ogres were doing everything from eating to sleeping wherever they pleased, with fights regularly breaking out whenever two ogres clashed over food, a particular spot in the camp, or just because they were bored.

In general, life in an ogre camp mainly happened in the open, with personal space and privacy only existing when enforced through martial might, as large crowds filled the wide paths between the tents. And even then, an ogre has to first care for these things, something that few ever do. Even their clothing when outside of battle reflects this carefree attitude toward what others see of them, with male and female ogres alike covering their bodies only from the hips downward, and even then only by, and for the purpose of, displaying various trophies.

From experience, he also knew that the tents, with very few exceptions, likely didn’t even belong to a specific ogre. Instead, each of them entered and left whichever tent they wanted, limited only by the whims of stronger ogres and the results of any fights over tents and other property., but rarely are they this ingenious.”

“That would explain why they made their camp around one. Despite my misgivings with their choice, I do admit it’s admirable to endure the harshness of this place for a chance to grasp more power. Though I wonder why they didn’t choose one of the closely packed clusters, the mana there should be denser.”

Having overheard her words, the ogres’ leader answered before Darganth could, “Because we stay close to the mountains. Once they protected us. In their shadow we’ve grown. Now we honor them with loyalty.”

“So tradition.” Darganth summarized the ogre’s explanation.

“Ancient purpose. We know what treads these plains. Great game comes with great danger. The mountains are a shield for those inside. We’re ready, should we need them again.” The ogre responded.

“This place gets better with every word I hear of it.” Jennia commented sarcastically.

“Well, we still have an entire stay before us to learn more about it.” Darganth answered with a laugh.

As Jennia rolled her eyes in response, the camp came back into view to their right. Having been hidden by the walls of the path when it had made a turn to the left, they now found themselves about a hundred meters closer than before. Though they couldn’t see it with any significant new clarity, the cliff at the top of which they found themselves gave them a brief glimpse at their destination before they started the second of many sections of their descent.