In the morning sun, the dark ocean depths ahead gave way to a band of bright aquamarine in the shallows. In the distance, a white-sand beach gave way to a line of mantis green: a jungle with trees so thick that they looked at this range to form a solid barricade. Rising up above the jungle were verdant domes of lushly wooded mountains.
It looked, to Justin's Earthly eyes, like a picture-postcard from a tropical vacation paradise. But somewhere deep in that jungle was Esthean, the f*******n city, home to aurym warriors known as the Ru'Onorath-or, simply, "the Guardians." Soon, Justin and Ahlund would depart from the Gryphon II for the shoreline to travel on foot to their city.
Justin wiped the sweat from his brow. The ocean breeze did little to ease the relentless heat in these tropical l
