Free The Wild Lands: Legend of the Wild Man by Joe Darris

Evanimal acted like the pilot.
Because of this Urea could nearly read her panthera 's
thoughts and intuitions. Each flick of a whisker or clench a muscle
group indicated something, the trick was reading the Evanimal. But
to do that, one had to let the Evanimal be in control, and only
step in to guide the beast's larger goals. Go there, kill
that. Pilots historically had focused on the control of the
actual movements of the Evanimals, but few managed to do it with
the same control and grace as the animal's themselves could muster.
The twins' method changed all that. Instead of preoccupying one's
self with one specific strike, the Pilot became the animal,
and could learn to control the entire being fluidly.
    She moved her head up in a lazy arch, the panthera did the same and both of their eyes went wide at
the structure that towered above them. In front of them rose a huge
mass of pink granite. Two huge stone halls extended from a
magnificent pink dome supported by rows of impressive pillars. The
stone had worn little in the preceding century. It looked nearly
pristine. Only a corner of one of the wings had collapsed. Granite
bricks dotted the hill, longing to return to their place of glory.
Even the plants didn't challenge the mighty structure. A tree had
forced the collapse; it now lay horizontally on the ground, pinned
by a brick. The entire mass of rock probably weighed more than the
Spire.
    A low hum filled her mind, the VRCs rendition
of the panthera 's low warning growl. Urea would have to be
very cautious. Her panthera did not like the pink granite,
too many perfect lines, too much geometry. Too much order .
But it was by far the most intact thing humanity had left on the
surface, Urea was determined to explore it.
    There, she ordered, and moved her own
hand forward. After a moment's hesitation, the panthera obliged.
    She did not know what she hoped to find.
Proof, of course, but of what? Her mind had been filled with the
supposed Wild Man who had challenged her brother. Maybe she
hoped to disprove Ntelo's legends of old, or to cast doubt on her
prophecies of the future, though both looked to be monumentally
difficult tasks. The stone building was enormous, yet could only be
accessed by eyes cued into movement and paws inept at subtle
manipulation. Besides, she knew from history that the pink granite
dome was only the crown jewel of the society. The Scourge had taken
everything else.
    It was hard to deny Ntelo's argument that
Nature wanted the surface for itself. Everywhere she looked,
grasses, vines, and trees waged eternal war on the once pristine
grounds. The plants had long absorbed or hidden any residue the
Scourge left behind. They had cracked stones and toppled buildings
as they devoured all that the sun touched. The only way to stop the
plant's eternal march was to chop their branches and pull their
roots. War on Nature itself. Urea balked at the prospect. Despite
her skepticism of the religion, she loved Nature and its fecundity,
to think of hurting it made her feel ill.
    Her panthera mirrored the sentiment,
her tail flicked unhappily and her growl persisted. Urea wondered
if the cat felt it in reverse, as if the road was the last bit of
scar tissue to heal over, the building an embedded tooth or barb
that would have to be forced out before the earth could be
pristine.
    She turned back to the stone edifice. Enter, she thought, and the panthera obeyed.
    The inside of the structure was more
impressive than its glowing exterior. Ornate stone walls reached
for high ceilings. Every inch of the place was exquisitely
fashioned. There was wooden trim along the floor, hardly rotten
desks made of wood, chairs made of wood. Urea had seen things in
Spire City made of wood, the ugly card table in Baucis's meeting
room for one, but it was preposterously expensive. She thought it
was an extravagant material, hardly durable, weak to water and
scratches, and so expensive in the Spire, but here on the surface
it seemed