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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jkason" data-source="post: 5556951" data-attributes="member: 2710">The cart isn't an especially comfortable ride, though it is slightly less cramped with Daylily choosing to jog alongside. Things become extra bumpy as the well-cobbled inner Venza gives way to more and larger potholes near the outskirts. But once the transition is past, the dirt road Ryall drives Maisy along isn't appreciably worse than cobbles, and while it isn't the artistic architecture of the city, the green canopy over the forest road leading into the baronies certainly isn't bad so far as scenery goes. That it does a reasonable job of shading the party during the hottest part of the day is an added benefit. Except for the occasionally unexpected dip in the road, the trip goes by uneventfully. Ryall, for his part, seems in bright spirits, apparently now confident that he'll soon reclaim his home. He even shares the sparse lunch he packed for the trip. It isn't very flavorful, but does stave off hunger pains, especially for Relic, whose stomach had stretched back out with all of his gorging at the Inn.Late in the day, as the shadows begin to grow long, Ryall points to a curve in the road up ahead."There," he says, his bright mood tinged a bit with anger now as he adds, "The clearing where that scoundrel took my house is just up ahead."A minute or two later, the bouncy cart comes around the bend, and there is indeed a clearing: a wide, bright patch of grass with a little vegetable garden off from the road. About an acre, all told. What there is not, is a house. There looks to be a small, square section of leveled earth where a house might stand, but there's no structure to speak of."No," Ryall says, dejected. Maisy slows to a stop when her master's hands go slack on the reins, content to nibble at the grass on the road's edge. "That monster done moved it again."</blockquote>

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