The creature watched and judged them; its eyes darted back and forth between each member of their party. Then, finally, it made its decision and approached. Faradae wondered whether her attempt at pacification had played any part in this, but at least it did not seem to have hurt. As it came closer, Faradae spotted more details of its curious appearance. It was a very colourful mixture of multiple species of animals she had heard of or seen, reminding her of a person who could not decide what to wear in the morning and ended up with a completely unfitting combination of different styles. She stood still and watched the animal as it fixed its eyes on a point behind her, slowly waddling towards its new destination. She was almost certain that it was not about to attack her. She did not, however, count on the sensation that hit her when the scales on its back came into contact with the bare skin of her dangling arms: For a moment, her lungs would not obey her, and the air caught inside could not escape. The experience lasted only for a tick, but it was enough to make her gasp for air when the creature had passed. Her heart frequency shot up with a surge of adrenaline, and she was frozen on the spot for a moment while she tried to regain her posture. What had just happened? Was the creature coated in some sort of poison? Was it the effect of magic? She turned around slowly to find the animal feast on the fried slugs Clyde and Sayana had left scattered all over the ground. Unlike the others, she had no way of seeing its aura, but the fog gathering around the small creature and the fact that Clyde stood with closed eyes in obvious concentration told her that something was not quite normal here. As interesting as the creature was, however, she preferred to watch it from a distance now that she had experienced its touch. It still seemed to be half-alert, looking up from its meal from time to time. It was hard to tell whether the bright colour of its eyes was natural or a reflection of the fire. She tore her eyes from the animal, content to let it clean away the slugs and take the fog with it. Instead, she returned to Sayana. The woman had set up one of the tents and miraculously dried the area from half-a-swamp to only slightly damp ground. Fara was too grateful for a bit of dryness to question how she had done it. Underneath her old, wet clothes, she was beginning to shiver, now that the excitement wore off. If her memory served her correctly, there had been more than one tent the last time they had set up camp. She approached the horse once more and, after a bit of digging around, found what looked like a second tent, smaller than the first. When she spread the material, however, she noticed several large holes in the tarpaulin, courtesy of the slugs. “Shyke”, she muttered under her breath and threw the ruined material aside. She had just spied the edge of the third and last tent under a pile of spare clothes when the horse whinnied, angled its ears and pranced backwards, clearly startled. Alerted, Faradae watched for the cause of its sudden discomfort, and it took her a moment to realize that something – or rather, someone – had landed in front of Sayana’s own horse, a few steps away. The packhorse was not directly affected, but the earlier commotion with the slugs, the arduous track of the day and a general lack of training had the poor animal on edge. Faradae patted its flank reassuringly and the horse snorted and twitched its ears irritably. The tent forgotten for the moment, Faradae went to help Aerius up, but the nuit was already back on his feet when she reached him. There was something off-putting about the man. He was quiet and detached, but differently so than Clyde was, and Fara had never had a good chance to talk to him since she had met the group. She did not bother to ask where he had been; she herself spent as much time away from the group as she did with them. She just nodded at him and ignored the fact that he was covered in mud and a few stray slugs. The last tent belonged to Aerius, and now that he was back, she’d leave it to him to set it up. |