Nothing.
But clearly from Tanda’s actions and the attitude and hesitation of the Shifter, this wasn’t a friendly place. Beautiful, but not friendly.
“The map,” she whispered to Aahz. “Quickly.”
Then she motioned that we should all crouch down.
The weeds and flowers covering the meadow were no more than knee-high and would give us no cover at all. They smelled like my dragon when he got wet.
I figured we should move to the edge of the trees. At least there we might have a fighting chance if something came at us. But Tanda was the ex-assassin among us. She knew what she was doing. Or at least I hoped she did.
Aahz opened the map and laid it out carefully on top of the weeds. It was clear instantly that the map had again changed. Bumppp, the dimension we were in, showed clearly, with only one path leading from this world toward the dream of our very own golden cow. And that path led to Vortex #4.
Not #2, as I would have expected, or even #3, but #4.
Tanda nodded and motioned for Aahz to quickly fold up the parchment and put it away. Then she stood.
I stood right with her, and the moment I did I saw movement. Not just some movement, but all around the edges of the meadow the weeds and flowers were jerking and swaying as if something was running under them at us.
Then a head poked up about a hundred paces from us. A massive snake head that was larger than my head, with yellow, swirling slits for eyes and huge fangs. There was no telling how long the snake’s body was, and I really didn’t want to wait around and find out.