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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnifex" data-source="post: 765138" data-attributes="member: 227">This next update shifts time along a bit to the next day...A few ales, a few idle tales, a good night's sleep... and the crew was on the trail once more. Naturally, Wolf was up first, even as Kale rose before dawn to be ready for the day. Their morning exchange was a practiced one by this time, Wolf inclining his eyes as the younger descended the stairs, Kale far past the point of being surprised that Wolf was up an ready before him.As the day progressed the roving party moved on once again, leaving beind now the borders of the province of Merlihr and plunging eastwards into truly wild lands, the majesty of the Sarokeans. Mighty peaks rose up and deep vallies gouged their way down; with summer in full force the sun beat down upon them as they walked the ill-defined paths down wooded slopes and over barren rises. Before long all they could see in any direction was mountains.To their south Wolf pointed out what must have been the rising towers of a huge fortress, the bastion of the Iron Hawks, the frontier legion of mage knights. During their travels, they could well come across the Iron Hawk patrols, and it would be wise to be respectfully wary should they do so. The Iron Hawks had an especially strong reputation of being as tough as the mountains they watched, guarding the ways into eastern Naseria that a foe might choose to take.The rough terrain made progress slow; descending into another of the myriad vallies filled with thick wood, then up onto a rise with a few scrubs, then down a long gully, which grew into a rocky, barren ravine scattered with sandstone debris from the rocky walls to either side. The walls of the ravine were pockmarked with caves and water-worn impressions; doubtless flash floods caused this place to become a raging torrent rather than the dry, hot pathway it presented at the moment.Wolf rode at the head of the party column, hand shielding his eyes from the sun and Cord at his side. The ranger seemed to be referring to the dwarf often, the monk aiding the mercenary with his knowledge of mountain lore and accumulated wisdom. Wyshira rode along near the center of the line of horses, her spirits soaring as the party climbed into the mountains. The difficult terrain didn't bother her, although she had some trouble at times finding the best way for her horse to proceed. But she herself always felt sure-footed on the rocky paths.High adventure! Now this was like in storybooks. Melisande knew about mountains of course, of which there was ample supply in Carthagia, but journeying through the wilderness of them on a mission for a Naserian Truth-Seeker with a loyal band of companions-in-arms--! Except for saddle-sores (oh yes, and the morning after in Kandathra) Mel felt generally ebullient. Even weathering such inconveniences as heat, mosquitoes and outdoor plumbing was a pleasure in a character-building way; it would not really be adventure without hardship. And with experience she much preferred a handful of small discomforts over being disemboweled.Yet what Melisande left behind her--the foreboding of shadow-demons, assassins' blades and dragon-cults--seemed like an unimportant series of misfortunes in a much grander story which she now felt unfolding with every (painful) roll of her mount's steps. This was the real thing.She felt quite content to let the brooding Wolf trouble himself over orcs, goblins, bandits, renegades, dreadspawn and miscellaneous Manipulated menaces while she "adventured", alternately chattering, mulling over new arcane forms and pressing new varieties of alpine flowers in her notebook.Mel sensed that some sort of barrier had dropped between her and Wyshira, and she spent more time with the water genasi and Burl, who (oddly enough for a necromancer) was turning out to be one of her less grim companions. Sometimes she felt like she might want to talk to Sebastion Cornell a little more, but he was too busy teaching his horse tricks and besides she felt strangely shy, even vaguely expectant, since he'd invited her to come down to Corvus city against Wolf's advice back then, so she tried to stay out of his way.Gazing down the ravine ahead of them, scattered with especially large boulders of yellow-orange sandstone and a handful of dark shards of black rock, Wolf suddenly signalled a halt and hushed for silence.Below the faint sound of the breeze flowing over the desolate ravine and bird-calls distant in the air, a low rumbling could be heard, a crunching noise of obscure source. Casting their gazes around, no explanation seemed immediately evident.The noise had attracted Sebastion's attention at the same time as Wolf's raised arm, and he eased the reins in, drawing the colt in tighter to lay a comforting hand on it's nose. Hearing sound grew louder, slightly, though no more distinguishable, he dismounted quickly, hitching both sets of reins against one of the low bushes nearby. Easing the scabbards on his sword, he moved forward to stand before Melisande, reaching out gently to ease her horse back as he did. He reached his reins up to her, not trusting the uneven surface to horseback combat, and moved up to flank Wolf and Cord as the noise drew nearer. Careful and completely silent, Kale merely reviewed in his head the possible routes to higher ground, ruling out all but the ones he could marshal the entire crew should they need to move.It was with surprise that Melisande found Sebastion siezing the reins of her horse the moment the rumbling began. She hadn't been too alarmed by it at first; it almost seemed natural that mountains would rumble when real adventurers approached: forboding and doom were all part of the story. But the sudden tension in the air infected her (as well as her nervously dancing mare) and she put her notebook away. Perhaps it wasn't so natural. Perhaps it was better to pay attention to such sounds..."You know what?" she said to Sebastion, trying to pat her mare on the head and calm her down, but not sounding particularly worried herself--in fact speaking in the same light tone of idle chatter as usual. "I think we should head upwards as quickly as possible. If there's been rain east it could be a flash flood. You get those, in mountains in summer."</blockquote>

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