Corwin's Indian Odyssey

The night was quiet and calm.

The soothing sounds of the ocean rolling into the shoreline, the gentle breeze caressing the trees and flowers as it passed, and the moonlight illuminating the forest path ahead; nothing seemed out of place.

Captain Corwin took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nose. The salty air filled his nostrils, producing a soft *shh!*. He scratched his sideburns and adjusted the belt around his waist. A quick glance to his left showed that his first mate, William, was doing the same thing.

“What do you think they’re up to?” William asked him quietly, as if not wanting to disturb whatever it was they were sneaking up on.

“Dunno. It could be a festival or some sort of ritual for all I know. Could be anything really...” Corwin replied distractedly before falling silent again. They walked in silence for another twenty meters until they reached the edge of a clearing that opened up into an open space with a single large tree in its center. With their backs against the tree, Corwin gestured for William to follow him before he began moving slowly around the clearing along its perimeter, keeping close to the edge of the forest. William followed closely behind him until they met up at the back of the tree once more. From there, Corwin took off towards where he thought he saw movement earlier while William kept watch from behind cover.

The two men looked over at each other, nodded once quickly to confirm they were ready and then burst out into the open space at full speed. They both went straight for their targets but found nothing there when they arrived five seconds later. Looking back at each other with questioning glances in their eyes, they separated and circled around to check out their surroundings once more before meeting up in front of one of three tents that had been set up on opposite sides of the clearing from one another.

William ran straight towards it while Corwin skirted around to cover its backside but found no one there either - he turned to give William a bit more time but found him gone too; he shrugged and kept moving further towards what looked like a bonfire at one end of this makeshift campsite.. When he reached it though, he found no flames - instead there was a round circle carved into what looked like living soil with strange symbols surrounding it; it almost looked like this whole area had been dug out by hand somehow.

He spun around and spotted some kind of altar in front of one tent while William appeared at almost exactly opposite side of this oddly-shaped clearing where he peeked cautiously into another tent before darting outwards again when nothing happened after ten seconds or so. They met once more by one tent at which point William pointed at himself and then over towards where most activity seemed to have taken place - Corwin nodded once in reply and moved off in that direction while William moved off towards his own target again.

The next tent was empty - so was the last one which had some kind of stone structure surrounding it made entirely from flattened coins that glinted in the firelight coming from all around them - but otherwise unoccupied as well; there didn't seem to be anyone else here except for themselves and whoever had been here earlier but vanished now...