Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Flight

[scorri]

Lumi yawned as Bert started to yell at her. "Relax. I'm not an idiot. I was flying back towards where we had been, not forward and I've been keeping low to the trees. I do know something about what I'm doing. Landed nearby through a gap in the branches, walked a little over to where we are, simple as that. Clearly I'm not dead, so whatever."

[Mercakete]

"THERE HASN'T BEEN A GAP IN THE BRANCHES FOR HOURS!" he quietly stressed, "WE ARE ON A MOUNTAIN, YOU IDIOT! There's no WAY they didn't see you!! Not when they have the HIGHER GROUND!" What kind of moron is she?! "Do you realize what you've done?!! You've led them straight to us! They know where we are!"

It was all Norbert could do to restrain himself from decking Lumi right then and there. What are we supposed to do now?! This has all been for nothing! And since it was one of us mercenaries that messed this up, Greta won't get her dumb wagon... This is so stupid! The only thing I can think of that might work is... He leveled his blazing gaze at Lumi seriously. "You have to go back. They're looking for a black pegasus now, so maybe if they see you flying back towards Ursaea, they won't come find us."

[scorri]

Lumi rolled her eyes at Bert's tirade. "Clearly there was a gap in the branches since I found one. I didn't say it was right along the path you guys took, but there was one. And if you'd listened to what I said, I said I landed away from here and then moved closer. So even if they did see me and see exactly where I landed, that's not where we are now." She crossed her arms and stared right back at him. "Screw that, you're not in charge of me. I'm not leaving, and you can't make me." As she was speaking, she was also forming the water in her side canteen into ice, puling it up around her waist. She didn't think the other pegasus rider would be stupid enough to attack her, but it was better to e prepared and he did seem pretty high strung.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva watched in both amusement and annoyance as Bert laid into Lumi, with a whispered barrage of insults and freaking out. Yeah, whatever, Bert. He was the only one worried, so she didn't care. "Probably right, Jam... You're free to join the cuddle pile, if you want. Got a free shoulder." She joked, but even if she wasn't the softest person, she was probably softer than Sasha. "Right... Sleep." She yawned, and closed her eyes, hoping that no more whisper wars would keep her awake.

[Phoenix]

Woods

While the captain did his best to herd his men closer so he could speak to the lot of them all at once, Shadrak took a seat on what at one point may have seemed like a comfortable rock. It wasn't comfortable at all once he was actually, seated, however. Rather than get up, though, he endured the discomfort for the sake of a quick rest for his legs.

Fizza meanwhile moved a little closer to Norbert and Lumi before leaning against a tree and just passively observing the argument. While it wouldn't help the mission any, she somewhat hoped the bandits were onto them. It would give her the perfect excuse to try her hand against them. The captain was looking for a third option, and Fizza was beginning to think that she could play the part. Not sticking around to see how the argument between the two pegasus riders would end, Fizza headed over to the captain and the patrolmen to see what ideas they could come up with. Eventually, she might volunteer, herself. For what? For Fizza type things.

Camp

"Hopefully it will rain again sometime in the next few days. That could help us out a lot, especially with the wyverns," Amon said, recalling the recent weather. Though with the few clouds that were around at the moment, a shower didn't seem very likely, at least not today.

[Ether]

"Honestly now..." Angelica muttered to herself, and with a quick cast of magic, manipulated the wind so that her voice would come out right at Norbert's ear. Because standing and moving from her comfy little spot was far too much effort.

"What's done is done. Honestly, arguing about it won'd do any good, at this point. Simmer down before we draw even more attention."

[Mercakete]

Norbert's head whipped around as he heard someone whispering to him, but no one was there. What the...? Well, that didn't help any. He shot Lumi a glare. "If they search in this general area, they'll find us. What, you thought they'd just look in the one spot you landed in and not spread out? I didn't choose this route because the route itself was concealed, but because the whole area looked abandoned! Now, it doesn't! And if you're not going to turn back, then we all have to!"

Once that whispered bit was done, Norbert marched straight up to the guard captain. Quietly, he informed him, "Something's happened -- one of the idiots who came along was flying on a black pegasus just now. Unless we've been dealing with blind bandits this whole time, or they were all conveniently looking away for however long she was up there, it's gotten too dangerous to keep going. At best, we could be walking into an ambush now, or they could be coming towards us. At worst, they're already here. Could've been someone other than a bandit, but there's someone around with weird magic. Heard a whisper, but no one was there. Anyway, the closer we get to Ursaea, the safer we'll be, even if an attack does come at us. If we let them scout around the area and let them find no one here, we might be able to find some other path in a couple days. If they're already here, though, better to just move at top speed and forget this stealth business."

[scorri]

Lumi gave a shrug, and formed the ice into her standard ice tonfa at her waist before walking over to Star and stroking his neck a few times. The other rider was clearly overreacting and over stressed, so she didn't see any reason to freak out or back down.

[Toogee]

Eva watched in both amusement and annoyance as Bert laid into Lumi, with a whispered barrage of insults and freaking out. Yeah, whatever, Bert. He was the only one worried, so she didn't care. "Probably right, Jam... You're free to join the cuddle pile, if you want. Got a free shoulder." She joked, but even if she wasn't the softest person, she was probably softer than Sasha. "Right... Sleep." She yawned, and closed her eyes, hoping that no more whisper wars would keep her awake.

Jam obliged and moved closer to Eva, resting her head on the latter's shoulder.

"Sorry Sasha," Jam replied as she got cozy next to Eva. "This would be nicer if we weren't off to battle or something."

Realizing that Eva was already asleep, Jam chose to stay up a bit, at least to watch the drama around Norbert unfold.

[-Cynthia-]

Camp

"Nature's a fickle bitch of a goddess, Amon. Ya want rain, she gives sunshine, ya want clear skies, she starts throwin' lightnin' at your ass. Would be nice if other vasili changed the weather like Aisha does, but they leave us only with dreams and guesses," Nadya said wistfully.

[Phoenix]

Woods

"Oh gods, you're serious, aren't you?" the captain muttered, not liking the idea of turning back this late in the day. There was no way they would get back before nightfall, and without torches, and their backs turned toward the greatest potential threat, they were in trouble, either way, he felt. As for the whisper Norbert had heard, the captain just let that bit of information go, as he had no idea what to do with it or what it could possibly mean. Bandits wielding magic was too rare a phenomenon for him to even consider that a possibility. "If we turn back at the mere risk of being attacked, we are never going to find their hideout."

"We know damn well some of us are going home in boxes," Doran stepped in with a glare to match Norbert's, "we came here to kill as many bandits as we possibly can if not every last one of them. If you're too scared to press on then leave, but we have to take them down before they get any stronger. The longer we wait, the harder it's going to be. The 'skotians aren't going to wait around for us to deal with the bandit problem before going after us, again."

"They've still got the home field advantage, though," another patrolman quietly noted. They were much better equipped than most bandits could ever hope to be, but superior tactics could make that a moot point.

Fizza glanced at each man as he spoke, pondering whether or not to volunteer herself for some aggressive scouting. Then again, why did she need to even ask? None of the people she actually answered to were around at the moment. The captain, while not stupid, clearly didn't know enough about this sort of situation to care what she did, and Norbert would probably be cross whether she asked to go bandit hunting alone or not. A smile crept onto her lips as she reached the inevitable decision. "Well, while you people decide what you want to do, I'm going to head further up the mountain and see if I can't find some friendly brigands to talk to. Maybe we'll really get along and they'll tell me where that hideout of theirs is~"

Is she crazed? Doran wondered.

Shadrak had been sitting and listening in as best he could, but barely anything Norbert was saying could be made out. Others were chiming in by the time Shadrak pieced even a sentence fragment together in his head. Finally, with enough incentive, he stood up and wandered over, just barely catching the tail end of Fizza's little announcement. He didn't say anything, though, figuring others wouldn't miss a beat in pointing out how reckless that was, even for her.

Camp

Amon was surprised, somewhat amused, and a little unnerved by Nadya's initial comment, though he'd readily admit that he didn't exactly trust the gods with anything important. Anything at all, really. As for Aisha, she did what she could, but with other legends coming into better view since his travels began, he began to realize just how limited she actually was, even as an immortal vasilus. She was ... essentially, the most powerful earth mage one could imagine existing in the real world. Few of her abilities went beyond that simple element. "It seems like the more powerful a god is, the less they intervene, doesn't it? It's kind of strange ..." he noted, partly to himself, as it was something he'd just noticed.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

People were chiming into the conversation too rapidly for Norbert to properly react to them in the order in which they sounded, so he wound up addressing Fizza first...kind of. Personally, he thought the idea was crazy, but he really didn't know anything about the woman, either. "It's your funeral. Just don't expect us to be around when you get back," he wound up replying, though internally, he was wondering what he was going to tell Amon.

There were other things to address, though. It seemed like the people he replied to would be in reverse order. "And this has nothing to do with being scared! It's about being smart! Yeah, I think we all want to break these bandits, but you're undermanned as it is. Don't be stupid -- it may be slower, but you'll keep the bandits guessing and actually be able to crush more skulls with less casualties if you retreat for now and come back once things quiet down. Just like with any other organization, it takes time for bandits to grow. They won't be much more powerful in a week than they are now."

Tailing off of that, he addressed the captain again. "I've lived in the woods on the base of the northern mountains hunting bandits for three years. It was all I did, and it's not like I returned to some town between attacks, either. Trust me: with a group this size, it's not worth the risk. If I was out here with just Riz and I thought the bandits might know where I was, I'd just move somewhere else, but it's a lot easier to hide one rider and a pegasus than an entire strike team! You remember the place where they put that pegasus and rider that we visited? There'll be a whole pile of bodies there next time, and none of us are going to be the ones who find it!"

Norbert sighed before finishing with, "If you still want to break some backs, then we can still do that. It'll be easier if we know if and when there's a raiding party being sent out tonight. We should head somewhere more obvious and wait to ambush them, though. It only helps the bandits if they realize that they should keep an eye on blind spots like the one we've been traveling through."

[-Cynthia-]

Camp

"If the gods did everythin' for us, nothin' we would do would matter much. If Mercy healed everyone who was sick, no one would need staves. If Nature fed everyone, no one would have to hunt or cook. If Truth gave us all the knowledge we needed, we'd never have to ask questions. We'd basically be like those tiny dogs that nobles keep around sometimes- no purpose, just decoration. So even with all the sufferin' in the world, maybe it's best they stay outta things," Nadya said, shrugging.

[Phoenix]

Woods

"Since you're heading back, anyway," Fizza smirked, "would you mind sharing some water with me?" While she planned on stealing everything from any bandit she might come across, she wasn't expecting to encounter one before her own supply vanished.

"Finally, you're talking sense, again," Doran said once Norbert made a suggestion that didn't involve putting off the mission for another day or two. "Hey you, nomad woman," he addressed Fizza, "you seem to think you're pretty tough, so why don't you do us a favor and try and find us again if you don't get yourself killed looking for bandits? Any extra information would go a long way."

"Rexian," she corrected, "also, that was the plan ... but now that you're asking, I feel far more inclined to just see how many of them I can catch before seeing you again for some reason. Must be my old habits creeping up," she ended with a shrug.

"... yeah, you're crazed," Doran shook his head.

"Alright shut up, we don't have time for useless banter. 'Norbert'," the captain forced the name slightly, "we're going to try to take a raiding party if we can find one and keep them from escaping, and then tomorrow try and find their base. If we're not going to be settling down here for the night, show us where and we'll start preparing."

Camp

"You're probably right," Amon nodded, "but it does make them seem like the decorations. I don't think it would hurt anything if they were a little more active in the world, but I guess I'm assuming they're wiser and more precise than the lesser gods." While he hated lumping Aisha in as a 'lesser god', it was still a more respectable title than vasilus, a term most Sancturans didn't care for.

[-Cynthia-]

Camp

"That ain't exactly the case from what I hear. Lilith don't make a whole lotta sense to me, but from what I've gathered Wrath is gonna come down and kill everyone who isn't a Wrathite if he gets all the emblem pieces...or somethin' like that. If how the gods are gonna interfere in our lives, I'd rather they stay out," Nadya stated.

[Mercakete]

Well, Norbert didn't really like the second half of that idea. They could take on a raiding party then fall back, but staying in the bandits' territory after that was just the sort of thing he'd rather avoid. "You know we're not just going to be tired tomorrow, but our supplies're going to be dwindling, too. And the bandits're going to know something's up, especially if they see or hear us bashing steel in the dead of the night. And if we take any prisoners--"

Norbert interrupted himself, unintentionally casting a glance at Doran. Putting him in the position of "captor" again didn't appeal to the rider in the slightest, even if he, himself, wasn't the captive. It didn't sit well with him, but at the same time, it was their best chance at finding that base now... "Well, then... We'll have to keep them out of sight or disguise them somehow. Any bandits who see us in their territory will hesitate to attack a group this size without some good preparation if they're smart. But they may panic if they know we have some of their own, and rightly so. We'll have to get them to tell us where their base is." It's too important to ignore it.

He was actually surprised at how reluctant he was to torture the bandits for information. He'd used to use torture as his go-to method of information-gathering from bandits, low-lifes that they were. In fact, he even enjoyed it, not that that thought appealed to him now, either. Why did it bother him so much now? What changed? The only thing I can think of...was my time traveling with Raquel. He also thought it could be that it had something to do with present company dredging up bad memories, but he felt it went beyond just that.

Rizen, meanwhile, relaxed a little. She was still on relatively high alert, but the tension calmed down enough that she could leave her rider to his own devices. And so, she acknowledged the black stallion and noticed the thing he'd left on the ground. She had to admit, now that its scent was in her nose, it smelled good. For now, though, all she could do was look curiously at the orange thing, nostrils flaring as she continued to sniff at it.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Woods

"We know how to extract information from people," the captain nodded reassuringly, "you just leave that to us."

"Once we find where they're hiding, we can just kill any captives then and there," Doran chimed in again, "no need to waste resources on them." While Doran was referring specifically to food and water while in prison, as well as a trial, after his statement, he realized he felt the same way about their immediate supplies. He didn't like the idea of sharing food or water with the enemy. Besides, a little dehydration in particular would help loosen their tongues.

Camp

It was a shame they probably wouldn't be able to ask Wrath himself about that without becoming casualties. Either way, it wasn't something they could even hope to address until they dealt with the more pressing matter of the Fallen Empire and their schemes. "I suppose. I can't help but wonder what's going on, though."

[-Cynthia-]

Camp

"It's above our heads I think- we ain't gonna fight a god and win. Let's just keep focused on the nearly impossible task we got in front of us first before worryin' about the next crisis," Nadya advised.

[Mercakete]

Norbert was pretty uncertain how he felt about this new thing he'd learned about himself, especially given the current situation. Would it blow over? Was he going soft? Just becoming more humane? It was difficult to tell at the moment, but for now, he pushed it to the back of his mind. He had a job to do, and if he was going to choose between bandits and a bunch of other people getting killed, there was no way beyond the gate he was choosing the bandits.

"Alright. I'll find us a good spot," he informed before heading back towards Rizen.

She was still sniffing the carrot, but hearing her rider coming, she decided to go ahead and eat it before they had to get moving again. So, she snatched it up in her mouth and began chewing. This thing was...kind of weird. It'd take some time for her to decide if she liked it or not.

When Norbert reached her, he paused, arching an eyebrow. Part of him wanted to ask the pegasus what she was eating, since he could tell it wasn't what she usually ate, which would have been grass. Now wasn't a good time, though. He hoped the pegasus had enough pegasus sense not to eat anything that would make her sick, but for now, excess talking was still a bad idea, and he didn't have time to check her mouth.

Maybe Lumi gave her something. His eyes slid over to the other rider with a glare. He knew how much she liked pegasi, and she wasn't that far away, either. For now, though, he mounted up and got Rizen moving again. The captain could worry about delivering the bad news to the other mercenaries. The good news was that finding a place to rest while sneaking up on bandits was a lot harder than finding a place where a raiding party was likely to pass.

[Toogee]

Everything seemed to have calmed down for a bit, so Jam thought this would be a good time to settle down. She adjusted her position, her head against Eva's shoulder. The dancer closed her eyes, hoping the next day would bring them victory...or at least not death.

[Phoenix]

Lying In Wait

Fizza left, heading further up the mountain, but not before 'borrowing' some water from Shadrak and one of the patrolmen. Shadrak didn't like the idea of having to rely on others as a result of that, but for the time being, he would be fine. They didn't catch up to Fizza or even find her trail before settling down in a new location a few miles further up the mountain. Shadrak settled down along with most of the others as they prepared to sit and do nothing if not sleep. With no fire or other sources of light, he wouldn't be able to get any reading done, either, which was a shame because with so much time to kill until the next sunrise, it would have been the perfect time to study. Instead, he decided to try something he'd picked up from Reign before they parted ways, meditation.

As the sky became dark and revealed the moon and stars, Shadrak fell asleep. It was earlier than many in the patrol had. Doran had been hoping to do some stargazing until he was tired enough to sleep, but the tree cover was just too dense. Only a few small gaps in the treetops, spaced every few meters allowed for any sort of view, and it wasn't enough to make the effort worthwhile. Eventually, Doran fell asleep, as well. The captain remained awake longer than most of his patrol, only falling asleep a little while after eleven o'clock. The sentries were relieved there was no sign of the enemy, but were also hoping they would get to rest before dawn, as well. Hopefully the enemy wouldn't show up until then, when the entire group would be rested and ready to face them.

Bed Rock

Fizza had been heading up the mountain for hours, hoping to get somewhere with a good view, where she could see the whole area and any clearings would stand out, but the darkness, along with the terrain, slowed her down considerably. She hoped she would be able to find a bandit or two as well, but doing so at night, in this ridiculously poor visibility, would be too much of a gamble. For all she knew, she had already missed any number of them. There were all sorts of sounds in these parts that could have been man or beast, and with no way of distinguishing between them, she was left to hope they were animals and press onward.

Eventually, once it was nearly midnight, Fizza scaled a large rock face she'd found, something she had been trained very well to do as a child, even under these conditions, and settled down at the top. It was just barely above the treetops, and would definitely serve as a good vantage point at daybreak. It would also minimize the chances of her being spotted until then, as well. The best part, of course, was the view away from the mountains. The lights of Ursaea were clearly visible in the distance, and far above them, the stars. It sure beat sleeping on the forest floor ... so long as it didn't rain, again.

"Carlos Lich," Fizza repeated the name to herself as she bundled up her cloak and laid down on it. "I wonder who that is ... and what that voice was, earlier."

Of Great Concern To Her

Greta and Haythem had returned to the camp a couple of hours after sunset, and to the surprise of few, they were alone. The others were still off in the mountain wilderness somewhere, hunting for brigands. The guilt that Greta had managed to suppress kept creeping up on her every so often. Not having a way of knowing whether everyone was alright was making her anxious. It wasn't until later in the evening, once fatigue set in, she was able to shift her focus. Eventually, she nodded off to sleep inside the wagon.

Joanna spent most of the evening meditating on various things. At some points, she was focusing on the emblem, trying to coax it into responding to her. The ease with which it did filled her with fear. Shadrak's words kept bombarding her as she tried to come up with her own way of using the emblem in some nondestructive way. As a young avian, she had always been haunted by her own weakness, the inability to save lives and preserve peace on a large scale. The emblem was something that could make that possible, but she was its guardian, not its master. Even with good intentions, using the emblem could still draw those seeking it to the group, and in the end, she might cause even more problems using it than she managed to solve. She abandoned and returned to the conundrum several times before her posture began to wane and she opened her eyes. It was time to go to sleep, she realized. Lying down not far from Greta, she went to sleep, cradling the box and contents she had promised to guard.

On the Sixty-Sixth Morning

Fizza's eyes shot open to a dull blue sky. She hadn't been in a very deep sleep. Frankly, she doubted that was possible with the early birds having their little morning chats with each other all over the mountain range. her back wasn't feeling too good, even with her cloak acting as a small buffer between her and the rocky surface, but it wasn't anything she wasn't used to dealing with. She was more concerned with checking out the area now that there was some visibility.

To the west, she could just barely see Ursaea due to the few remaining lights. From what she could tell, she was at least twenty miles away for the city. With the ambient blue coloring everything, Ursaea blended in with the plains and the base of the mountains quite well. To the north, there were more plains, and the northern tip of the mountain range. She didn't see anything in that direction that would hint at a fort or even a small hideout. That was no reason to assume the bandits weren't hold up there, but for now it probably wasn't the first place they should look.

She checked east next, hoping to see if there were any other landmarks or vantage points she could use higher up the mountain. To her surprise, she was nearly at the top of this one. In the distance was a relatively clear view of Central's coastline and the distant mountains, as well as the golden-orange sky that always heralded the sun's arrival. It was a beautiful sight, but not one she could fully appreciate under the circumstances. She was looking for signs of elusive outlaws.

Suddenly, while looking over the southern mountains, she felt some rumbling below and off to the southeast, not terribly far from the rock face. The treetops were rustling so violently that even a wind spell wasn't suspect. Fizza squinted, trying to see past the foliage and to the forest floor. She did see something large moving around down there, making its way toward the southwest. At least it wasn't heading straight the way she came from. Still, given its size, it had to be either a wyvern as large as Isis, or a dragon, neither of which had any business being in an area like this. There were better places on the mountain for ... of course ... this creature, whatever it was, was sneaking around, poorly of course, but sneaking nonetheless. Fizza smirked as a small group of birds took to the sky to get away from the incoming behemoth, and Fizza kept her eyes on the treetops, knowing that wherever they stopped rustling, that was where the mysterious creature would also have stopped. Warning the others was going to be impossible from where she was, unfortunately, but she wasn't worried. One way or another, everything would work itself out.

The Birds Sing

A more subtle, yet still annoying form of alarm was assailing Shadrak's ears, but he had tried his best to ignore the birds and their obnoxious morning calls. It had been ages since he'd had to sleep outdoors in an area so dense with life. His training with Chie had involved these sorts of sleeping arrangements, but the mountain wilderness was a fine sight better than a swamp. Shadrak could also hear some whispers and extremely low voices from the guardsmen. Some of them had woken up early, like him, and were chatting as quietly as they could, if not to avoid disturbing others in the group, then to at least avoid giving the whole group away to any potential threats in the area. If Shadrak hadn't been listening for some sign of what was going on around their camps, he wouldn't have noticed them, as the bird calls stood out more than anything around these parts.

Shadrak slowly opened his eyes after a good twenty minutes of contending with the persistent birds and stared up at the bits of blue visible past the treetops. At least it wouldn't be long until the sun was up and they could move with significantly better visibility. From the looks of things, there weren't any issues while he was asleep. The bandits either hadn't come looking for them, or still didn't know about them. He supposed they might also have set up an ambush somewhere, but he was doubtful of that possibility. He didn't have any particular reason for dismissing it, it was just very early in the morning, and it wasn't something he wanted to dwell on.

The Early Bird

When Joanna woke up, she brushed out her hair and straightened her feathers as best she could before returning right back to her meditations. She decided to wait for the others to wake up before eating, since there was some chance, though perhaps small, of a meal being prepared, and she felt it was better to eat at an appointed time whenever possible to maintain a consistent schedule. Greta and Glen were still fast asleep, but Joanna wasn't sure about anyone else since they weren't in clear view. For now, she wasn't going to check, and simply focused on the past, trying to refine her reasoning skills. She wanted desperately to learn how to better avoid conflict, something she currently felt she was exceptionally awful at. She had to do this before they ran into anymore problems, and she hoped to do it without relying on the emblem.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Phoenix

[Ether]

Well, that hadn't been the best sleep ever... far from the worst she'd had, but not the best, either. Regardless, as Angelica pulled herself out from the pile of limbs that had been the end of result of their little sleeping arrangement, she looked around the makeshift camp, noting that, at least for the moment, no one seemed to be out and about.

That held true for the surrounding area, as well. Curious as to whether or not anyone had drawn near in the night, Angelica made an attempt to scan the surrounding area using the wind, trying to pick up any abnormalities, but... she had suspected it might be the case, but there was just too damn much background noise, for lack of a better term. With small animals and foliage all about the place obscuring her, it was impossible to pick up anything relevant in this wood, granted, there might just have been nothing there, but the adept was far from confident in that sort of assessment.

Regardless, Angelica gave it a few more tries, and after continually coming up with nothing, despite also trying to see fi she could flush out anyone close enough to know they were there anyway, the wind mage returned to camp, noticing that there was finally some semblance of life stirring within the place, but still not a whole lot. Well, it wasn't much of a bother to her if people were out and about anyway, and after a moment of digging through her things, Angelica produced a rather sturdy cup, some fresh water, and some bagged tea leaves. Using what little knowledge she had of light magic to heat the water and brew the tea, the adept couldn't help but mourn her lack of advanced knowledge... any veteran practitioner probably could have done this much more easily... and without needing to hide the light it was giving off under a rather heavy blanket. Either way, within short order, she had a cup of tea in her hands, and placed the blanket back with her other supplies, as she began to drink from her cup. Eventually taking a seat nearby Shadrak, who appeared to be struggling to try and wake up, the adept gently poked the dark user with the tip of her boot.

"You know, there's no point trying to go back to sleep. Military types are early risers anyway, so you wouldn't get very long." Angelica chided with a somewhat teasing tone, as she took another sip of her drink.

[Mercakete]

Norbert had found another place for them, yes, but it was far better suited for lying in wait than it was for resting in relative safety. It was much more open -- partially due to being in a sparser part of the woods than the thick backwoods they'd been in before -- and overlooked what, to him, appeared to be a road. It wasn't nearly as obvious as a woodland path would be, but it posed little resistance to traveling groups and had a more worn look about it than some of the more untouched parts of the forest. This they were camped on was essentially a ledge naturally built into a slope -- with a roughly forty-degree incline -- that led further up the mountain. Rather than try to climb higher, Norbert had chosen to skirt around as discreetly as possible, in case the Ursaeans wanted to use the more secret way in the future. The route they'd been on before, after all, was almost ridiculously out of the way of any sort of direct route to Ursaea. This one was practically its opposite. If these bandits were sending out a raiding party, this would be a very likely route they'd take.

Due to how much more exposed they were -- especially with a wyvern and two pegasi -- sentries were a must. Norbert waited on high alert for quite a while, watching for a raiding party, but all was quiet that night. Sometime into the night, he'd fallen asleep, lulled by the familiar nighttime sounds and darkness of mountain woodland.

The next morning, Rizen woke to find herself hungry, just like every morning. Norbert was still asleep on the ground next to her, though the pegasus herself had slept standing up just about as soon as it was clear they were settling there for the night. He was entirely unbothered by the sounds around him. He'd lived with similar birdsong for every morning of the past three years, after all. If they had any effect on his sleeping at all, they only helped to prolong it. If there was a lot of birdsong nearby, then there weren't a lot of dangers nearby, his subconscious had found. Well, there was plenty of grass, so the mare went about grazing. Ah, dew-covered mountain grass... So crisp and refreshing!

[-Cynthia-]

Camp

After concluding her talk with Amon, Nadya decided to head to bed. She hoped that she had reassured some of his doubts somewhat- or perhaps she had made a few more, it was difficult to tell. She slept peacefully, knowing that this may be one of their last chances to truly get some rest.

Liam woke up early, maintaining a vigilant watch over the camp. What is taking them so long? We're likely to be found at this rate if we don't keep moving... though he chose not to share these suspicions with others at the moment.

Somewhere in Ursium

"Are you quite certain that they headed south, Captain Erica? If they were in league with the Neviskotians, they could be headed east to flee over land," Lieutenant Phoebus asked, his jowls quivering while he spoke.

"I do not believe that Lady Joanna or those who attacked the cathedral are associated with Neviskotia, Lieutenant. From what reports say, a number of them were nomads. I am unsure of their interest in Lady Joanna or the emblem, but it does not matter. They stole a dangerous artifact, killed our soldiers, and defied Lord Wrath himself. I suspect that they will head towards the sea in order to escape justice and we must find them before they do so- they are too dangerous to be let loose," Erica explained.

"Are you certain about that? Wasn't one of them your brother, Bart or something?" Private Jacobs asked.

"Norbert. If Norbert really helped Lady Joanna to escape, then he will face the same punishment as the rest of them. There can be no exceptions," Erica said stiffly. I hope Father Nigel does not hear of any of this...it would break his heart.

"If they have pegasi and wyverns and Lady Joanna can fly, then they don't really need a port anyway, do they? They could just fly over the strait to Kigen," Jacobs suggested.

"That is part of why we brought pegasus knights, though I would hope to face them with our full force. If they managed to kill Alastor, they are quite formidable. But if we want to catch them, we'll have to move quickly. Ride on!" Erica commanded as the calvary charged across the Ursian plains...

[scorri]

Lumi was still curled up under her blanket sound asleep, but Star Hunter had woken up and had been planning on waking up his rider when he spotted pretty lady pegasus eating some grass. He excitedly headed over to her, and whinnied happily at her. He hoped that she wouldn't mind him sharing some of her grass. Though, of course, he didn't need to take her food. He could have found his own food. After all he was a big strong male. But if he could share food with her, he would enjoy that.

Hoshi had woken up not long ago, and was quietly eating some breakfast. She wasn't sure what the plan was for the day, but hoped the other group would return soon.