The party gathered their wits for a moment since having resolved to continue. Alice set her pack down, pulled out her water-skin and took stock of the situation. She still felt strong, and looking around it seemed the party had remained mostly unharmed.
Except for Argon, she thought as her eyes fell upon him. He had taken the brunt of the attack, and he looked a little wretched. As she was watching him he stooped over the fallen foe, probably to inspect it. She continued to drink as he lowered his jaws and ripped off a morsel.
Alice spluttered in her drinking, taken totally unawares. She hurriedly stoppered her drink and lowered her head, blushing deeply and hoping nobody noticed her outburst. She felt embarrassed, though she had no real reason to. A lizard had just taken a chunk out of a freshly slain monster and
she was the one feeling ashamed. She'd spent years in the company of Dwarves, who lacked any decent table manners, and still her time in the courts haunted her. When was she going to stop clinging to the restrictive etiquette of an empire miles away, one she would likely never visit again? When would she finally become her own woman and stop trying to conform to ridiculous standards that weren't even present? She'd decided she'd had enough of a break for now and moved on with the rest of the party.
They marched in relative silence, barring the crunching footsteps and occasional munching from the Lizard. As time wore on Alice thought of piping up another dwarven marching song, but as the terrain shifted from wood to grass to rock the overwhelming feeling of destination made her too anxious. Soon enough the trees had fallen away to reveal an old and well-dried riverbed, one that had likely dried up years ago. But most significant were a pair of giant statues that stood aside of the road.
An-Hasst made his observation as the rest of the party emerged onto the scene.
"The statues look quite intact, so I doubt they have been standing here for eons. The question is what has made all the plantlife disappear and not repopulate this area over time. I don't see even as much as grass."Alice started her own investigation. She murmured a quick spell to herself, drew her hand over her eyes and felt the rushing falling sensation as her senses moved to the plane beneath this one. She looked and saw various unrelated energies eddy naturally in the changing of terrain, and sought to look deeper into them. She also tried to scan the statues, as much as she could. She doubted she would find much, but she thought it was better to investigate every avenue she could.
She was dimly aware of the Skayleigh moving along the statue, noticing the younger shape contrasting against the aged stone. For being such a large man he was surprisingly deft. He descended again and spoke,
"Nothing... at least for a mile. I don't see why we shouldn't continue here as we'll probably have to cross this area on our journey anyway, but I also wouldn't be surprised if we'd encounter different animals than in the forest. If any, that is. Does anyone in the village know about this ?"Alice turned the now incandescent globes where her eyes normally were to Calanon, his elf-blood and magical steed easy to see even on the magical plane. She turned to him because if anyone knew the answer it would be their ranger.
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High Moon