The jungle closed around them like a green curtain, dense and suffocating. The vegetation was thick, almost impenetrable, with broad-leaved plants reaching up to their waists and vines hanging from the branches above like coiled snakes. The air was heavy, thick with humidity and the smell of damp earth, of decaying leaves and hidden things that lived in the shadows. 

Sweat beaded on Sitara's forehead and trickled down her spine, and her breath came in short, shallow gasps as she struggled to keep up with the men walking on either side of her. The path had narrowed, the trees pressing in from both sides, their gnarled trunks dark with moisture, their branches intertwining overhead to block out the sun.