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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2816823" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Eighty-FifthIn which: echoes of the past return.Around sunset, as the party is clearing up after their evening meal, Reyu pricks an ear.  “Shh…”  She gently signals for quiet, whispering, “Listen.”The sound of rattling tin cups and rustling bedding quiets, to be replaced by the distant rush and gurgle of water, the pounding waves, and then… floating on the breeze, a deep lowing sound, as unexpected as it is hauntingly familiar.The party members listen, entranced.“Was that a <a href="https://www.enworld.org/index.php?posts/1972363/" target="_blank">lake wader</a>?” Kiara whispers, quivering with glee.  Beside her, Thatch’s eyes are bright with barely contained excitement.Lira nods.  “I think so,” she whispers, not wanting to obscure the last notes of the haunting call.“But they live in fresh water,” Annika adds, just as quietly.  “How would one get out here?”Reyu slowly shakes her head.  “I do not know.”The calls continue on through dusk, sounding somehow melancholy in the gathering dark.###Later that night, Eva lies next to Lira, unable to sleep.  She tries to get comfortable in borrowed blankets, but it isn’t the sleeping sorcerer beside her, or even the fidgety weasel keeping her awake.  Her bedroll is gone.  Her armor—the best Dar Karo had to offer—is gone.  All of her money, every copper piece she’s saved since they started this goddess-forsaken journey, is gone.Eva lets out an exasperated noise, then lies still, hoping not to have disturbed anyone.  The rest of the party slumbers on.  Goddess forsaken indeed, she thinks.  On this trip, goddesses have been at least half the problem…  But what am I going to do now?  At this rate, the Fortune Riders will have their claws in me for the rest of my life… the memory of icy wind down her spine causes an involuntary shudder.  And then some.###The next morning, dawn breaks on the holiest day of the Alirrian calendar, Alirria Ascendant, or mid-spring.Thatch, stranded on an island in pretty much the exact geographical center of nowhere, is just a little peeved.  Not that he has anything against any of his traveling companions.  It’s just, this wasn’t exactly the cadre he’d hoped to celebrate with.  As Kiara and Reyu come back from their aerial reconnaissance of the island, he looks up, hopeful for at least a small bit of good news.“Did you find the lakewader?” he asks, almost before either Kiara or Reyu have managed to fully shed their avian forms.  “How far was it?”“Who cares?”  Eva asks, testily, not having the best day either.  “What would you do with it if we found it?”(At which point, BadMonkeyJeff, in full Anvil mode says, “Well, it is Alirria Ascendant…” with a gesture to indicate that a young man such as Thatch surely has his needs.  That’s where Thatch’s player chucked his dice at him.Just in case you were wondering what it’s like playing with a group in their 20s and 30s that’s mostly women.)As Thatch goes and pouts, Anvil turns to Reyu.  “Did you see any sign of Barnabus?”The druid shakes her head.  “Great,” Lira puts in, “we’ve gone from the deserted island of plants who want to kill us to the deserted island of ponds that want to kill us.”  She pauses for a moment, as though suddenly struck by an idea.  “You know, if anyone knew this place existed, it would be swarming with more Questors than the Ketkath.”  Reyu clears her throat.  “There was no sign of habitation on this island,” she reiterates.  “However, I did see smoke coming from another island not far from here.”“At least it’s elementally appropriate,” Lira mutters under her breath.Anvil ignores her.  “Unless we have reason to linger here, that would seem a logical next destination,” “Agreed.”No one else is particularly eager to stick around.  Although Thatch would have liked to see the lakewader for himself, he is decidedly in the minority opinion.With a sigh, Thatch shoulders his pack and heads back towards the sea for another day of rowing.  Some Alirria Ascendant, he thinks.###Just past mid afternoon, the party’s boat docks at the island where Reyu spotted smoke.  This island is smaller and somewhat flatter than the other two they have visited, covered with areas of both light woods, and more open grassland.Upon circling to the side farthest from the open sea, the party finds a dock, identical to the ones found on the first two islands.There isn’t a path from the dock, but there are numerous sets of animal tracks leading away from the beach across a grassy area and then into the woods towards the center of the island.  Reyu bends to examine them more closely.“What strange manner of beasts might we find here?” Anvil asks.Reyu concludes her examination, and straightens.  “I believe they are…” she trails off, almost apologetic, “sheep.”“Sheep?”She nods.“Well,” Eva says with a resigned sigh, “let’s see if they want to kill us and take our stuff too.”###The party sets out into the woods.  The undergrowth is not particularly lush or thick.  There do not seem to be an overabundance of streams or ponds.  When nearly half an hour of easy walking passes without anything unexpected happening, most members of the party are just about ready to leap out of their skins.Thatch stops short.  “What was that?”“What was what?” Kiara squeaks.“That rustling sound.”“I didn’t hear anything.”Reyu stares intently into the surrounding woods.  “I did.”By this time, everyone has stopped, and soon the rustling noise becomes obvious, speeding up and growing nearer by the second.The group quickly makes a defensive circle, swords out, spells readied.  This time they aren’t going to be taken unprepared.The rustling grows nearer, nearer, and then suddenly, the source appears.It’s a little man, no more than three feet high, with a scraggly unkempt beard, and equally untamed hair sticking out at wild angles from his slightly balding head.  Aside from the fact that he is somewhat less ostentatiously dressed than their former companion and is brandishing a small wooden spear, he looks like nothing so much as Hue’s cousin.The party stands there mute, blinking in astonishment.For a few seconds, the little man does too.  Then, he lowers his spear, and smiles brightly.“Hi!” he says.  “You aren’t sheep.”</blockquote>

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