The group slept through the night; some fitfully, some wracked with guilt, some grieving....others untroubled.

No more of the fell pale folk came close in the night, though Aphail did note one form in the distance in the wee hours.  As the companions woke the suns first rays shone upon the camp and illuminated the area, no longer stained with black blood and twisted bodys but rather the camp was now surrounded by a series of white stone outcrops surrounded by gravel, sand and smaller stones.

" Well...that clean up was easier than expected.", said Aphail. " I guess thats why they only come out at night."

"Let's go and find Chlainn and bury him. These monsters will not bother us," Lann says.

"No wonder there are so many rocks across the moor." Caith says, looking pensive, but grateful not to have to dig any more graves.

"Ser Vacrolann's remains may not be as easy to find." she adds softly.

Her expression is worried as she says quietly to the Hunter "I will do what I can to find a way to pay the bloodebt for the Hewells, Alphail, even if they never know of it. There is truth in what Usopi says, but justice needs mercy to it too."

" Usopi? Can Gat track the way those two went last night, I could but his senses are keener than mine.", Aphail asked quietly.

"Gat's in need of healing." Caith says in dutiful reminder, then hurriedly looks to Usopi and adds in an apologetic tone "Ye are as well, I would say by the look of ye."

OOC: Caith heals both Usopi and Gat, but the dog is currently more wounded than than the knight.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:06, Wed 31 July 2019.

Usopi stops in his task of breaking down his tent. He had not slept much, or at all, but he had spent much time in thought. At Caith’s healing he gives her a sad smile and a nod of thanks, then he turns to Aphail, ”I would put trust in Gat’s tracking senses, yes.”

Usopi shifts to address the group as a whole, "Friends, before we set out, I wish to apologize for the things I said and did once the fey creatures were dispatched. I am deeply sorrowful for any pain or betrayal I may have caused you. My only defense can be that I do not truly believe such things. I admit that I can see the seeds within me that might have grown in to such a harvest, but these are seeds that provide sweeter fruit when watered with compassion, as I have strove for all my life. You hold religious beliefs and practices that were taught of to me as, at best quaint delusions, at worst blasphemy. But I have always turned from descriptions of a heretic, and have seen your deities and magics with my own eyes used for good against the types of evil priests of the true faith can only imagine. While I will not turn to from my own beliefs, and will gladly speak with those who have chosen the same path as I, I can not in good conciseness think your cultures ignorant, misguided, or deluded." he glanced at Moralltach, still planted in the ground, “I suspect that the blade feeds upon even the smallest kernels of darkness in one’s heart and amplifies them without the constraints of sense, respect, or honor. I shall endeavor in the days ahead to confront my own... cruelties, but for now I wish only to apologize to you all for my behavior.”

Instead of waiting for a reply he sets back to the task of breaking down and gathering his things together. Gat approaches the knight, and though Usopi instinctively lowers a hand to pat the hound’s head, he stops himself, hesitates, and returns to his work.

Caith gathers her courage, then walks over to Gat, pats him, and says in a tone of reassurance "Ye are what ye are, wolfbrother Gat." and does what must be done.

She carefully looks over the hound's injuries, brushing great clouds of fine white sand from his matted coat with her hands in the process.

Her expression is calm, but more than a little concerned as her patient eyes and gentle hands find the rips and gouges left by fey claws under blood crusted fur.

"Nay wonder ye tore them a new one..." Caith says in sympathy to the dog "...They kicked ye as hard as they did me, and for the same bloody reason."

She looks to Lann a moment with furious contempt in her eyes, then turns her back on him, and gets on with the task at hand, murmuring strange words as she knits flesh back together.

"Good dog." she says, and turns her attention to Gat's owner. Caith notes the odd hesitation in Usopi to greet the hound with a puzzled look, then a grim one at the sword still stuck in the turf.

Caith gathers her courage again, made easier by the anger she feels for a servant treated badly by their master, and strides up to the knight, intent on healing a different kind of rift.

In a tone no less furious for it's quietness she tells Usopi "Punish yourself if ye must, but I will nay let you punish Gat for defending ye, even in a battle fury ye believe ye have nay defense against."

Caith makes a visible effort to drag her own fury back, then softly explains "Know this, Usopi, and remember it well. I call to the messengers of the Gods for aid and understanding. That is part of what I do as a witch to help those who need my sort of help."

The frustration in her tone is obvious as she whispers fiercely "The only God I called on to aid ye when the blade's wrath held ye in it's grasp was Gatenades!"

Caith concludes, more in sorrow than anger "Did nay think ye'd heed any other God's advice, to be honest with ye, but if I have done wrong by ye or your God? Then say so, and I do what I can to pay for the offense, aye, but nay spurn the dog for doing it's duty by ye in battle. That is crueler than death, and I nay reckon ye to be a cruel man, whatever that sullen bit of swordcraft would have ye believe."

She sighs, and offers an oddly practical bit of advice in her next remark of "And ye best shake that gravel from the tent before ye pack it away, ye daft man. Nay wonder ye nay slept well. Ye have rocks in your bed!" as she grabs an edge of groundsheet to help shake it free of the weight of stone.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:17, Thu 01 Aug 2019.