[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h2][color=00aeef][i][b]Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=00aeef]Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 05[/color][/b][/i] [color=00aeef][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 40 / 40 [color=00aeef][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 16 [color=00aeef][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Edge of the field [color=00aeef][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Checking on the Mule (10) [color=00aeef][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] pet the horsey [color=00aeef][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Ki:[/b][/i][/color] 2/5 [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.imgur.com/j0Vz324.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] BlackBerry watched Lady Kathryn with a careful eye when she suddenly began to wobble where she stood and then curiously shrank back down to her more familiar, though no less substantial and imposing height. He stood at the ready to dash over and help her stay upright but thankfully he wouldn't have to in the end, as Lady Kathryn gave a few whoops of joy from not throwing up. Given what she had said about her last attempt with her runic magic he couldn't blame her. His own stomach however was still threading a revolt which only grew stronger when Barbel added onto Lady Kathryn's explanation of the creature, Ankhegs, with fun instructions to Kosara about how best to capture, prepare, and cook the beasts. For the most part he simply help his hand over his snout in an attempt to politely cover his grimace of disgust. It seemed like everyone was on board with the idea of collecting a good amount and bringing it with them, likely intending to fill the wagon as much as they could with whatever survived the gathering process. [color=00aeef]“Weren’t the big ones.”[/color] BlackBerry parroted Barbal with an incredulous tone as he gestured towards the Ankhegs. [color=00aeef]“Begging your pardon, but are you suggesting these Ankhegs get bigger? Actually, no I do not wish to know.”[/color] A horrible thought popped into his mind; he remembered not long ago taking shelter in a friendly homestead where he had been kindly offered a simple meal in return for tales and news from afar, the meal including a nice slice of meat the host had called 'Fields Fiend'. Blackberry chose in that moment to believe it had just been a fun name and in no way related to the current topic, likely it had been too far away from where these creatures roamed so there was no chance it could have been the same. It was simply a coinciden. Just a Coincidence. Lizbeth arriving with a small bottle of drink pulled him back to the present and out of his horrors. Graciously accepting the bottle he returned to the conversation but kept his gaze away from the impromptu lesson Kosara was being given. [color=00aeef]"It would seem there is a mystery then; Why are they here?"[/color] Following Lizbeths kind advice, he took a small sip of the drink and found it cool, refreshing, and did in fact calm his stomach. [color=00aeef]"Were the creatures brought here or came of their own volition? It does hardly seem that Mr Laurent is moving on from sheep to Ankhegs."[/color] Taking another small sip, he then continued the previous thought. [color=00aeef]"I would suggest it wise to check for any sign of a nest nearby. It would not do for us to go through all this trouble only for more Ankhegs to appear then again later on. However, if I may leave that to the rest of you, I shall attend our dear mule."[/color] He hopped back over the fence with slightly less spring in his step than before the talk of eating bugs, and headed towards to the party’s wagon where their mule waited almost exactly where he had left it. He gently patted the creature on the nose and looked into its big black eyes. [color=00aeef]“There you are Old Boy. I trust you are doing well?”[/color] BlackBerry fussed over the creature as he tried his best to figure out any tell-tale signs of stress, but otherwise glad to see the creature hadn’t bolted from its spot during the short skirmish. Overall the animal seemed, as far as BlackBerry could tell, but its ears kept snapping back and forth to any noise while fidgeting on the spot, and mouthing around its bit. It seemed to him that their poor Mule was at least bit put out by the whole ordeal, and perhaps trying to put brave face for everyone. [color=00aeef]“Ah, easy now Old Boy. there is nought to worry about now.”[/color] He stroked down the beasts neck making hushing and relaxing noises, hoping to calm it down. He snapped his fingers remembering something. [color=00aeef]“One moment, I have just the thing for you.”[/color] In the back of the wagon he found a small bag containing a few brushes and other tools someone back in the Township had said was a grooming kit, along with a small bag of what he had been assured was some very nice oats. BlackBerry returned to the Mule and spent some time feeding it the very nice oats before moving on to using the big brush from the bag, one of the few tools he recognised and he decided to later ask someone what the rest of the tools were for. Not long after and with the parties spoils packed and ready to go he took the time to relax a little to simply enjoy the scenery, as well as removing some of the strains from his new clothing, and hopefully take advantage of Victoria's prestidigitation abilities if she allowed. It seemed that Lady Kathryn was still taking the time to walk Lizbeth through her own impromptu training; showing the motions of swinging the hefty weapon before handing it over to the young girl, and then patiently correcting her mistakes while praising her accomplishments. [color=00aeef][i]Let them have their fun for a little longer[/i][/color], he thought, [color=00aeef][i]there is still time after all before dark.[/i][/color] He lent upon the fence while nearby Victoria and Madame L'Rose discussed matters around how to use the bug Carapace that had been gathered. The thought of all they were carrying still disgusted him but BlackBerry saw no need to argue against it now. Instead, he watched the lesson in front of him making sure that firstly, Lizbeth didn't come to any harm, and secondly, that no more Ankhegs decided to make another appearance. Placing his chin in his hand, the whole scene in front of him put him in mind of home, far, far away from where he was now, and to the thought of another young girl he knew. A heavy weight settling across his chest and heart, an oppressive weight which pulled his brows together in a sad furrow, while he tried to look far beyond all he could see at that moment. BlackBerry lifted his chin and began to play with the cloth wrapped around his neck. The poor girl had been through a lot but he wondered if this was really the best idea. [color=00aeef]"Very well done young Lizbeth, no doubt you will make a marvellous fighter soon enough[/color] He called to the pair. [color=00aeef]"Especially soon with Lady Kathryn as your mentor."[/color]