Godsday passes with the evening spent in a comfortable camp safely inside a protective ring of Cactus and Saxaul trees. Small game is caught by Salen, enough to feed the group for their evening meal.

The next morning finds the Rangers wandering North once more, continuing conversations and keeping alert in case of encounters.....

It's Freeze Day, Harmony Week, the sky is clear with the hint of clouds to the East. A wind has begun to blow carrying the faintest whiff of poisoned air, heralding a possible storm erupting out of the central Wastes in the next day or two.

Both Condor braves estimate that they will reach the Northern Bog by evening and the spring, if they can find it, the following morning.

Hopefully.

As they settle down and prepare their new camp Ohanzee takes the opportunity to try to stock up on nature provided supplies that can be either useful directly or in trade or gift.

Grabbing his digging stick he settles under the branches of the Saxaul and begins searching for a good place to dig for Goyo. After an hour or so searching, the light failing fast, he is rewarded with a different find ”Borji!” he exclaims ”This’ll make a nice addition to the gifts for the Earth Witch, or maybe even come in handy before then.”

He grins wickedly and holds up the short length of yellowish shoot with a pinecone like structure on the end ”You need this Amara?” he calls and prepares for the hail!

Waking the next morning Ohanzee sets about prying the crystal from the haft of his father’s bronze axe. He has decided to concentrate more on learning and using Orlanth’s weapon in part, but also after the incident on the boat he realises that to have Enapay’s crystal on an item that may well be dropped in combat or similar is a bad idea.

Once it is free he wraps the crystal about with bindings and ties it about his neck so that it is hidden below his leathers.

With Freezeday upon them and a wind picking up Ohanzee decides that it may be cool enough to wear the full armour and so after eating he dons it ready for the day’s riding.

As everyone is eating breakfast, Taya trots up to Amara, with a half rotting chunk of meat in her mouth, and drops it in front of her. She looks up at Amara and bats her armoured eyelids, "Do you need this or can I eat it?" she asks sweetly.

Looking up from a bite of food, Hoskar sees Taya move towards Amara with something that smells like it died a very long time ago and almost chokes in surprise. For some reason, he suddenly decides that this is a very good time to move away and groom his familiar; keeping his head down but ears open to await results. Four Paws submits graciously, purring faintly but narrowing her eyes as she cranes her neck round his body in sheer curiosity.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:56, Wed 11 Feb 2015.

Tarnessh tried very hard to cover his mouth and stifle his laughter, and looked back to grooming Grumpfy, who was very much enjoying the attention.

Melock looks across at Taya and then to Amara and shrugs his shoulders and smiles. He quickly finishes off his breakfast and packs away his gear.

Amara glared at Ohanzee "I'm not sure if the talk around the campfires back home is true, but the talk among the women.... you might need this more than I." Amara responded acidly.

She looked at the hunk of meat in Tayas mouth. Deciding she was not going to lose a battle of wills with Melocks familiar. "Drop it and I will decide whether you can have it." Amara inspected the rotten meat before beckoning Taya forward "You can have it. I don't want it."

"Looks like Taya's having better luck then you with talking to Amara, Melock." Tarnessh joked.

Ohanzee grins expecting such a rebuke and returns ”Yes well I’ll have to take your word for that, I’m not the type to sit around the women’s fire clucking away with the other wild fowl.”

“Ah well, if that’s the gossip then I’d best keep it myself then.” and he slips it into his bag suffering from a slight coughing fit as he does so, one that by the end sounds remarkably like wild fowl clucking away.

"Thank you mistress" She picks the meat up and throws it straight up in the air and as it comes down, her jaws snap shut round it.

"I think that's wisest Ohanzee. You wouldn't want to disappoint." Amara said unsure who had won in the verbal sparring, but taking comfort in the fact it was Ohanzee that walked away.

She watched Taya eat the rotten meat impassively "you know if you chew it last longer and will satiate your hunger more. Food is not always readily available out here and there's only so many of Melocks fingers we'll let you chew off."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:27, Wed 11 Feb 2015.

"Its only worth chewing if I can't fit it all in my mouth" She turns and takes a running jump and lands on Stinky's back and disappears in to her saddle bag.

"Considering why Taya's being like that, I'm happy with the way things are between Amara and me" He smiles at Amara and the climbs in to Stinky, checks his weapons and waits for the others to get ready. "Ohanzee, fancy riding with me today?"

Still smiling Ohanzee nods "Sure, fine by me." he says. "So, any idea how we're going to convince Kinope to come help us out?"

Rikki returns from hunting with a large mouse which he proceeds to play with tossing it up in the air and catching it, leaving it and pouncing on it and then finally devouring it before he looks to Henal to pick him up and seat him on the baggage on Whiteblaze.

Henal looks a bit grumpy that his foraging didn't find him any Borji cones or Goyo roots and says little for the moment.

He grins, Well as it happens, I do know something. While others were only thinking of themselves in Corflu" he says in a loud enough voice for Amara to hear and glances her way, "I was think of others and how to help clear the water at the Giant Finger holes" he tries to look serious, but fails and laughs loudly. He drops his voice back down to its normal level, "Basically I had a chat with the River priest and he said because of what we did to help the newtlings, Kinope should be willing to help. She will still want gifts though and she likes poetry, songs and beautiful things, just like any lady. But the priest who lives there doesnt like nomads much so we need to be respectful. I think we need to be very careful what we say to him."

"If he hates nomads so much, isn't he in the wrong place?" Tarnessh quipped after getting onto Grumpfy. "Anyway, I'll try to think of some poetry to please Kinope with."

In reply to Tarnessh Listens-To-Silence (msg # 17):

"From what I could gather, the spring is somewhere in a place called the north bog, near the river. So I think we'll be the ones in the wrong place, lets hope we don't have to hunt too much to find it, at least the flies wont be a problem. The dinosaurs might be but I would like to see one, just not too close." He smiles, "Hoskar, do you know any songs from Pavis? If she doesn't see many nomads, maybe she'd like to hear some of our songs." He thinks, "I'll see if I can make one up for her" He starts humming and singing under his breath, there was a young lady from... No that wont work... There was once a beautiful lass, Who had a magnificent... What rhymes with lass?"

"A Bog...How we going to bring the mounts in or for that matter find the place?" asks Bamled.

Nixa and his brother are larking around staring on their Bison'd backs, but at Bamled's question they both stop to listen.

"We going in to a Bog?" asks Nixa

"Lost Uncle Freshfoot in quicksand chasing Broo, weren't there but Father would recount the tale with some horror."

I just hope someone knows a spell to find a safe path in a bog. We don't want to lose anyone in quicksand or mud. Henal says looking around the Rangers.

Musing over next steps, short on plans for getting through a bog unless Condor can help,Hoskar has at least one idea as he realises how hard it'll be to negotiate past a possibly unfriendly guardian. He fumbles about in his kit and comes out with a small humanoid clay statue.

If it's sweet talk or guidance we need, time to start praying. Issaries is a talker and guide, after all. Know you lot don't worship him, but I daresy he'll be pleased enough with sacrifice from anyone really. Know I'm going to prepare by offering him some of my spirit. He's a busy god - not like the spirits - so maybe he'll not listen; but it surely can't hurt.

Anyone want to join me?

”Maybe we should not all go and those who do go on foot. If he hates nomads so much then us turning up all together and with our mounts trampling the land about the spring and shitting near the water might not get us off to a good start?” Ohanzee suggests.

”As for finding it, the bog has little in the way of high plants does it?” he half asks and half states ”So no canopy to cover the stream from view above. Tarnessh’s hawk might prove useful in this?”

To Hoskar he replies ”No thanks Hoskar, he might be Orlanth’s guide but I don’t think he can do better than Raven for song and dance, sweet talk or music. I’ll stick with what I know.”