The ruins are the kind of old that you really only see in fiction: overgrowth and moss covering most of everything, decay that suggests hundreds if not thousands of years of disuse, and the overall structure and carvings on the stone seem something straight out of some Indiana Jones movie. Except instead of the racist tropes of native peoples you gotta insert racist tropes involving the occasional band of apes that walk a little bit too-upright and are a bit too proficient with stone tools and fire for comfort. It's downright uncanny.

Thomas is finding himself a bit too busy keeping a low profile, but the part of his brain that detects tropes and story elements is sure noticing the similarities and pattern-matching things. It's a rather creepy situation, yes. He will try to not make it worse. His eyes are open and attentive, ready to dash to cover and avoid being noticed at all.

It is almost an inevitability that one of them—it is unclear who—accidentally steps on something that cracks and makes a noise. Taharqi immediately freezes and shrinks into shadow and stillness as much as he can as the nearest group of apes all look up and around, trying to find the source of the noise.

Thomas follows, or rather, finds another nearby shadow to stay statue-still, his eyes darting between the ground and the group of apes.

The apes eventually decide it was nothing and settle back down, but Taharqi still waits a minute before relaxing and motioning for Thomas to keep following.

Onwards.

Onwards, Thomas follows. Paying more attention to the ground as they move along.

They can avoid the attention of the apes, if they're careful enough. They keep walking.

They keep walking.

And... keep walking.

The palace is visible in the distance, but this city is large and grew over a thousand years, and they are not fast.

Being unable to talk during most of the walk is what gets to him the most. He can make water inside his mouth and even uses his power to not tire his legs as much, so those are not concerns.

Can he do those things for Taharqi as well? Otherwise they'll need to stop to rest soon enough.

He can create water for Taharqi and even try carry him around with his earth moving a bit. They will still need to stop to rest, just later rather than sooner.

That's probably good, then. If Thomas himself does not say he would want to stop, Taharqi will call for it after a while longer and look for somewhere somewhat less inhabited where they can set up a campfire without attracting attention.

That they can do. Thomas creates a cover to keep the light from spreading further than necessary and keep the warmth in.

"Not as exciting as you'd expected, I bet."

"Nope! But beats staying home fretting over when my dashing barbarian will return."

"Your dashing barbarian," says Taharqi, raising an eyebrow.

"What? Should I have described you as brave? Courageous? Lustful?"

Taharqi laughs and shakes his head. "We should take shifts sleeping."

"Sure, you go first. I can keep a look-out."

"Alright. But before anything, food."

Which is consumed in short order and then: sleep. Taharqi falls unconscious almost immediately.

Thomas gives him a good night kiss, and then stands vigilant.

The night is as uneventful as the day was, and soon enough Taharqi replaces him.

Sleep time for Thomas comes easily enough as well.

And the next morning Taharqi feeds them again, puts the fire out, and off they go.

The next couple of days proceed similarly. They do actually manage to avoid confrontations with the suspiciously smart apes altogether, although they come close a couple of times and do have to actively run away once. Still better than having to risk an unnecessary fight and get injured before they even get to their desired prize.

Their desired prize is gotten to, though, soon enough. The palace is as decayed (or not decayed, depending on your point of view on how quickly stuff should decay) as the rest of the ruins of the enormous city, but distinguishable enough by the statues adorning the path into it and the opulence of the decoration.

"Well!" says Taharqi, "We're here." The environs are suspiciously lacking in apes, although it may perhaps not be that suspicious given how the place feels ominous in a way not strictly explained by just the decoration. "Feeling ready?"

"Like I always say in situations like this, 'there is no better time to storm the ominous ruined palace like the present'."