Kat stayed sitting down and relaxed as the time ticked down. Letting her head drift towards the door, a clicking sound rang out, and the door opened at a leisurely pace. Skye marched straight for the door as soon as it started opening.
Kat pulled herself to her feet and looked to see what was beyond. For the others it was obscured by a thick white film distorting the view. Kat saw a grey wall slightly beyond the door obscuring her view instead.
Grace took one last long gulp of tea before getting up as well. Side by side Kat and Grace followed after the impatient healer. Once through the door, Grace to could admire the impressive view known as 'a wall'. Skye had already turned left though, so Kat and Grace followed calmly.
After they took the left turn the wall dropped away and Kat could now glance out at the final stage in all it's glory. *Guess I don't need to get a bird's eye view.* The final stage was set in a recess within the ground.
The terrain slowly sunk as it approached the centre of the island, with a proud tower standing tall in the middle of it all. Surrounded on all sides by cracked and ruined stone walls, overgrown with moss.
It looked almost like everything leaned in towards the tower, whatever the town was, it was built for the tower, and perhaps die for it. The pavement looked weathered and the vines were thick and strong. Various trees had cracked the pavements occasionally, but they were few and far between.
The walls themselves were of moderate height, just high enough to block someone's vision, but not so high as to be impassable should the need call for it. "So the last stage will be ancient ruins" said Kat with a grin
"Well actually" said Grace "These aren't ruins at all. Well, I mean sure they look like that on the surface, but quite a few things don't add up. I bet Thyme made the whole thing just for the tournament"
Kat curled her tail into a question mark "What makes you say that?"
"Well" said Grace as Skye got out her book and started writing "If you notice, the walls are all a bit to uniform in their height. Even with the cracks none of them are lower than eye level except when there are major holes,
"Secondarily, they all seem to be made of exactly the same material. Even in towns with only one major resource for building shelter at least a few will inevitably be made of something else. Finally, there isn't much evidence of old plants
"Look at those vines, and even the trees, there are no dead vines only living ones, and the trees don't seem to have any leaves underneath them, though I will admit it is hard to make out from here" said Grace
"I don't quite follow. Why would there be dead vines? The whole area looks really healthy to me" said Kat
Skye somehow made her notebook vanish and said "Exactly Kat, the vines are all healthy"
Kat returned her tail to the question mark position. Grace sighed "Plants die, all of them, and it is only natural that the dead one's help further the ecosystem in some way. These ruins though, they only have living plants, they haven't been around long enough for anything to die, or it was just cleaned
"You can see why either of those options makes it very likely that it isn't a real ruin" said Grace
"Right… but why does it matter? Thyme has been really good at designing environments so far, so does it matter if they are fake ruins or real ruins?" asked Kat
Grace bit her lip "Well, perhaps, I can't be sure yet. Though look at the way everything is arranged" said Grace as she gestured out towards the rubble "It looks closer to a maze then a town, with winding streets. This is in spite of the fact that everything is also clearly built around that tower"
"Hmm" mumbled Kat as she took another look at the ruins. *I mean, I guess Grace is right?* Kat could see what Grace meant about the height but didn't necessarily agree with some of the other assessments. *I guess I'll just accept her answer.*
"Actually Kat" asked Grace "Can you see if you can spot any of the other teams around the edge?"
Kat nodded, *I really should have thought about that.*Pouring demonic energy into her eyes Kat looked to the side. Rather quickly she spotted a similar grey wall to the one that she was standing next to. She couldn't see anyone standing next to it, but the angle was rather bad.
*Seems Thyme designed it that way.* Checking her immediate surroundings again, Kat noticed that they had a great view of the area, they were actually hidden rather well from others sight. With the grey wall, and the few random bits of stone it likely blocked anyone who would otherwise be able to see them.
Kat tried again to glance around and did find a number of other exits but no signs of movement. Thyme had aligned the debris in such a way to make spotting people nearly impossible before they entered the ruins.
"Seems like Thyme though ahead. I can tell where other people might have exited, but Thyme has blocked my line of sight perfectly. It looks fine at first glance, but it's actually quite genius"
Grace nodded "Well that should be within Thyme's capabilities. Is it worth the risk of flying? You can surely spot a few people that way, but I'm not sure we want that kind of attention"
"No" snapped Skye "I mean, no it isn't worth it. It's too much of a risk to give away our position to multiple teams and not even find them all ourselves"
Grace narrowed her eyes and Kat shrugged before looking directly up into the sky. She had expected to see the sun overhead but instead found a wall of fog that looked to have been dyed bluish. It even had a fake sun.
*Huh, weird. What's the point though?* "The sky is fake" said Kat
Skye looked over at Kat shocked but Kat quickly gestured above them making the healer follow her arm and nod. Grace took a long as well, being careful not to stare directly at the fake sun. "I think that sun isn't moving" said Grace after a moment of hesitation
Kat, having no qualms with staring into a magical sun, turned her gaze fully towards it. She only had a second to realise this might still be a bad idea before it fully entered her vision. To Kat's great pleasure though, it didn't burn her eyes at all. Pushing energy into them might not be the wisest idea, but she wasn't hurt.
Kat studied the sun as best she could and found it unchanging. Of course, Kat only really gave it about ten seconds so she couldn't be sure. "It doesn't seem to be moving at all"
Grace nodded "Well, it is somewhat unfortunate that the sun is in our eyes if we are heading towards the tower, but at least we can hide in it's shadow once we get moderately close"
"So what is the plan" asked Kat glancing between her two companions
Skye licked her lips but said nothing, switching her gaze to Grace. "Why am I the one in charge? I'm just the scout" said Grace
Kat and Skye shrugged, though Skye's was a little forced. Grace for her part sighed "Fine, well, first thing first is to get a move on. I think we should try to be somewhat quiet, but I doubt you pair are well equipped for stealth"
Kat flapped her wings lightly in response lifting herself just slightly off the ground and hovering in small circles. "Ok maybe you are equipped for stealth" said Grace, surprised at the lack of noise generated by Kat's flight.
Skye got a pained expression "I'm not though. I've had to sneak before, so I won't be completely dead weight, but we wouldn't make good time"
Grace bit her lip "Well, we can either go for a fast walk, keeping low and quiet, or go for an all-out sprint. We don't have the luxury to sneak too much. The orb must be in that last tower otherwise what was the point of giving everyone that resting area to catch up."
Skye nodded and Kat replied "That does make sense. I recon we have to go quiet. We don't know if the ruins are just that, ruins, or if Thyme has left us some traps. I wouldn't put it past him to have some giant, uh I dunno, leopard or something"
Grace groaned.. "Of course, how could I overlook something so basic. Just because a normal ruined town wouldn't have traps or large predators doesn't mean this one doesn't especially after I pointed out how fake it is"