Among the travellers, there was a woman wearing a simple but bright green tunic, with her long, black hair braided and wrapped around her head a few times to keep it out of the way. She had a cloak, but in the sunny weather, it was folded and strapped on top of her backpack. A lute with carefully carved embellishments sat at the top of her back. Cadence could the exhaustion starting to creep into her muscles, as the weight of said bag and instrument started to cause an ache in her shoulders. Despite being used to her travels, she had owned a horse for a long time in recent years and wasn’t as accustomed to walking as she once had been. As the music faintly crept into her ears, she felt both relief and excitement. Slowly, Umber’s Cairn became visible. The next part of her story was about to begin. The closer she came to the Cairn, the more the music and the sunlight had her itching to dance, but the weariness in her feet from climbing the stairs stopped her.
Many people in the travelling group kept to themselves throughout the journey, especially those in groups. Some people had been more open to speak with her than others, but she had made to great friends on the journey, despite chatting with a sizable number of strangers. As she reached the top of the steps triumphantly, she considered the many new people there were for her to meet here.
Her thoughts strayed briefly to Kadia. She clutched a letter she had recently received from her inside her pocket. The contents were benign, detailing her arrival in Andred. The bard worried, despite the letter. It was loyal to Kadia’s character to lie because she didn’t want Cadence to be concerned. After all, she knew the woman felt some guilt about parting ways with her. Cadence missed her dearly. As she fiddled with the page in her pocket, her gaze flitted to a pair of dwarves smoking from pipes. She briefly wished she had one, before turning her attention to finding a separate log to rest on.
Usually, she might sit down next to someone who looked friendly and try to engage in conversation; however, after the long trek to the outpost, she was feeling rather exhausted. She chose a log not immediately next to anybody else and sat on the ground in front of it, so that she could rest her sore back. She pulled her knapsack off and set it down next to her, though she took much more care with her lute. That, she propped up against the log, making sure it wouldn’t get dirty. She missed having a case for it, and thought that perhaps she could find one while she was at the Cairn. After all, what was a musician without her instrument, she mused. As she leaned back against the log and took a long drink from her waterskin, she began to survey the other travellers. One thing was exactly how she expected it to be: the travellers seemed very diverse, and she was sure they had interesting stories to tell.
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