Aldkal turned to the female intruder,"yes, we speak of a journey."

His eyes studied the female lazily, before they returned to Sarkon.

Aldkal gripped his spear tightly and leaned on it once more with aspirations of excitement to come soon.

"a journey!" She put down the bucket of washing and crawled over to the males, leaning in close "Where?" she whispered excitedly letting her tongue slip out as she hissed, and twirling her hands together in anticipation for the answer

"To one of the lost cities" Sarkon explained. "We can started heading over there at any time. I suppose three of us is enough. I don't recognize you, female, but you are welcome to come along." His motives were not entirely pure. While he wouldn't dare infringe on the honor of a female or harm one, the lizardfolk made it a point of pride that he was quite the "ladies' lizard." If all went well, he might just add her to his long list of romances. Then again, they had a serious journey ahead of them, so such thoughts would have to wait.

Aldkal observed sarkons eyes as he looked over the female and simply sighed, turning his head to the path leading out of the village, "lets grab a sack of rations and head out as soon as possible," he patted a cantene that was hanging on his his next to his leather leggings, "dont forget a little extra water."

As a guerlla he knew what the forest had to offer, and though lizardfolk could go long long stretches without nurishment he knew it was always wise to keep water close at hand just in case. He brought his good claw up to his teeth and began to pick the sharp fangs in anticipation to head out.

Elaser grinned as she heard the words "lost" and "city." Yes! Yes! Yes! "Sarkon I am not offended, I am a scholar, not a fighter" she fluttered her eye lashes at him, then turned serious "I will be ready at first light. I will meet you here packed and ready." She turned around and scuttled off, sweeping up her washing basket on the way.

"I'll bring some extra food and some waterskins" Sarkon replied. "We can leave in the morning." He left the others for a while, getting some supplies together. He put them in a backpack, then spent the night sharpening his halberd and shining his claws and cleaning off. At first light, Sarkon met the others again in the middle of the town.

"Alright. Ready to go?"

Aldkal stood, leaning on his spear as is his custom, he had a small ruck sack strapped around his bare shoulders, and his cantene full on his hip.

He nodded with a yawn, "ready as ever."
He doesnt remember ever sleeping, yet he felt rested enough for two of these adventures. Aldkal blamed the excess energy on the relaxed atmosphere of things of late, instead of his usual village burning and human slaughtering. Its quite a jump to go from all out guerrela wars to such simplistic lifstyles.

Elaser stood with a smile, two books on lost cities in her rugsack as well as rope, a blanket, another cloak, some food, a packet of medicinal herbs and three cantene's of water. She was surprised to see how little the others were carrying."Bloody hell, are you men really as incompetent as I thought?"

Sarkon laughed at that one. "Oh, just you wait until we run into some trouble. Then we'll see who is 'incompetent.' Don't worry, Elaser, I'll keep you safe." She had mentioned her name once, as he remembered it.

They started down the long dirt path from the village. Sarkon kept an eye on Elaser, but also watched to make sure that Aladal was alright. The difference between his cautious glare with the other male and the tender gaze he set upon the female was striking. Eventually, they came to a point where the path just stopped.

"Here's where things get tricky. From what I've been lead to believe, the nearest lot city is through the jungle down this way. Only problem is, we'll have to go straight through the trees for it. Luckily, we can climb past the very dense parts of the rain forest." He put his clawed right foot on a tall, smooth tree and dug into the soft bark with his claws. "I suppose this is why it is good to travel lightly. I wouldn't want to be carrying all that stuff while having to climb a tree like this."

"Sarkon, I do not care for my own well being, as long as my books are fine, I'm happy. And I think you underestimate my strength, hidden beneath these clothes"

Elaser follow silently, she enjoyed watching the sunlight make the scales on her outstretched hand glitter various colours of blue.

When they stopped by the tree Elaser followed Sarkon by sinking her claws deep into the bark, then shot up the tree on all fours. She ran right to the top layer of leaves and yelled down to Sarkon "I'm sorry, did I leave you behind!" Her tail smacked him hard as she scurried past.

"You're a very good climber" Sarkon admitted. He too was burned down with a metal halberd and wooden shield, and his climb, though steady, was much slower than if he had climbed with only his bare hands and feet. Luckily, he was able to make it to the top in a reasonable amount of time. He had hardly felt her tail bump into him, but he took it as a kind of playful gesture.

He reached the top of the tree and pointed towards the distance to what looked like a rocky hill, only that it appeared to have been built or carved. "Those ruins way over there are the lost city. If we move quickly, we can be there by nightfall."

Elaser was disappointed by how close they were "I really thought we'd have more hiking to do" that did not daunt her excitement and she stood practically trembling in anticipation. She looked around for Adkal, and found that the pair of lizards had left him behind

"We'll have a lot of exploring to do once we get inside" Sarkon assured her. He took a moment to stretch, and set his items down on the bough of the tree they were standing on. "So, Aldkal will catch up, I am sure. In the meantime, I'm curious as to how a lizardfolk became such a scholar. It's very rare."

Elaser tensed up, she remained standing. Her figure silhouetted against the sunlight. She had one long blue claw on the trunk of the tree to keep her balance. "I travel" was all she replied. She did not look at him but she knew Sarkon was looking at her. She saw all the glances he tossed her during the day, like she needed protecting. Pfft.

Aldkal watched casually as the two scurried up the tree. With a large inhale of the damp rain forest air He slid his spear through a loop in his rucksack, securing it to his back. Then with a soft grunt and heave he began to ascend, his tipless tail swinging back and forth looking for ground to be placed on. Eventually he had reached the top and swung himself onto his feet, which planted firmly in a canopy branch. He stuck his nose to the air and took another breath of the sweet air the ancient trees of the land filtered endlessly. He closed his eyes and exhaled silently before slowly reopening them and turning his head to the two conversationalists he kept as company.

They were chatting up a storm as Aldkal clawed his way closer, a bored look on his face.

Sarkon turned to Aldkal. "Ah, there you are. I was just showing where the lost city is." Once again, he pointed to the ruins in the distance. The lizardfolk warrior look a moment to take in the scenery. The three lizards were high up in the canopy, standing on a bough near several other trees.

"Say, how good are you two with jumping? We can probably save ourselves a great deal of time if we travel from tree to tree for some of the way. It'll be faster than going through the forest floor."

Elaser tightened her rugsack strap so it lay close to her body then unclipped her cape, folded it and out in her bag, She shivered with the loss of heat, but gritted her teeth, she wasn't going to let this big male take care of her. She looked expectantly at the two males, waiting for one to make a move.

Sarkon looked approvingly on Elaser's female form, but he knew better than to say anything about it now. "Alright. Let's jump from tree to tree. Try to keep up!" The lizardfolk warrior picked up his possessions, coiled his legs, and leapt into the air, catching the bough of the neighboring tree with his clawed feet. After taking a moment to make sure he was balanced, he dug in his claws and steadied himself. Then he ran over to the edge of the bough and leapt to a third tree.