Vala commandeers one of the beds, sitting down on it with a thoughtful expression. The barbarian warrioress was more used to roughing it and this made a pleasant if slightly strange change.

'I wouldn't say no to some food Delta,' she speaks up. 'Thank you. Your idea about a druid is interesting. i don't think I've ever met one before. Are they strong in battle?'

Tossing another portion of the fire, (and a bit more in case the Dwarf opted in later) the young Gnome pores over her limited experience with the pastors of the earth, as Da would call them.

"They certainly can be, from what I have heard, they are in touch with nature, and more powerful ones can cause lightning to fall from the sky or the ground to shake violently."

Her voice drops into her normal storytelling cadence, but she struggle to keep her information within the bounds of what she had heard without too much exaggeration.

"While I do not think they hate the cities of man, they certainly are no fens, and they strive to make sure nature gets her fair due."

She takes a sample of the boiling meat, and adds another pinch of salt. In a small pan she is stirring a few handfuls of flour in fat into what she hopes will make a decent gravy.

"I haven't seen it first hand, but tales tell that they can change shape. You never know when a bird or a fish might be a druid, spying to make sure you don't take more'n you need, or causing pain when a clean death would do the job.
I imagine if one felt the need, he might begrudge the branch family their efforts here."

Taking out her cup, she steps back and lets everything finish cooking, while pour herself a smidgen of the Branches fine cider from one of the small kegs, before offering it to Vala.

"Just a thought mind you, this entire thing has me mighty confused. We should ask if the beastie ate the meat from it's kills..."

She gets lost in thought for a second, then scurries back to her pots and pans, preparing to serve up the meal.

"Oh, I also dont turn an offer of food. Unless it smells funny and that smells good." He drops his pack in near one of the cot. "We should scout for sure." He looks at the barrels, trying to figure out how the apples are sorted.

Delta serves up a very good dinner.  There are barrels all over the place, sitting near every fence, and building, many with lids but some without, and a lot with apples in them.  Hard to tell if or how they are organized.

ooc: Where to you scout, does everyone scout at once, all together, how late do you start (like sunset, midnight, whatever) and for how long. 

Tanyl had volunteered to scout, Delta was just curious how close he wanted the others to be, in case of trouble. While the elf did still spook her a bit, she had grown fond of him during the course of the day...

Tanyl waits until well after dusk; within an hour of midnight.  "I will see what is to be seen for an hour or two, and I will focus on the area where the creature was seen," he advises.  "I don't expect trouble even if I see anything, as I will seek to avoid it."

"I will join you, if you don't mind. I am small and quiet. Well, mostly. When I don't drink much or if there aren't people telling jokes." Janek says, smiling.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:27, Wed 15 July 2020.

As Tanyl seems to wish for a small party, Delta will bed down early.

Tanyl frowns as he looks, unblinking, at the dwarf.  Then he sighs.  Then another moment passes.  Finally, the elf blinks and says:

"As you wish."

Janek's arm begins to raise but then drops suddenly. He smiles again and goes to his cot to rest. Better not tap the elf in back. "Someone lock the door, please. I don't want to wake up with a wolf licking my big nose."

Tanyl slips out an hour before the middle of night, shutting the door behind him.  The others, rest or sleep.   It is not quiet by any means, crickets, frogs, night owls and whip o' wills all create a tapestry of noise.  Outside, it is not that dark either, between stars, moon, and a million fireflies.  Into this, the elf slips on quiet feet.

Tanyl looks around . . .

Tanyl is able to stay fairly quiet, he observes many natural wild animals going about their nightly business, a fox, several deer nibbling the lower sweet leaves of the trees, once a thrush crashes from its ground nest and gives him a start.  Near the end of the two hours, he is standing still and hears a loud crack of a stick behind him, probably 20 feet away.  At the same time, he barely hears what sound like words, but they much further away and he can't make out what they say.

Tanyl will sneak, under as much cover as possible, toward the voices in the hope that he can get close enough to understand them.  Or something about them.

As Tanyl turns to follow the voices, he sees, about twenty feet away, a large animal.  It is hard to see, even with his elvish vision, it almost blends into the dark woods.  It lets out four ear splitting barks, and then dashes away through the woods.  Tanyl gets a bare sense of the thing, its head is as tall as he is, and it must be over 250 pounds but moves like scared cat, agile and leaping through the woods quicker than a deer.

Back in the guest house, the others, asleep or not, are awakened by the four barks, that echo through the dark night.

Given that it ran and is presumably gone, Tanyl watches the path it takes in flight.  He then approaches the area where it was standing to see what, if anything is there.

But his on guard: four barks could be a signal.

Startled awake by the sound, Delta slips on her robe and pads to the door, peeking out into the night. She doesn't need to light a light of any kind...
This message was last updated by the player at 21:19, Thu 16 July 2020.

Tanyl's best guess is that the creature, was there, keeping an eye on Tanyl himself.

Do I see or hear anything?

Delta pulls up, eyes wide when she peers out the door.  She hears nothing but just outside the door, a huge pool of blood surrounding the mangle body of a small deer.

Closing the door in panic, Delta throws the bolt, if there is one, then rushes to tell Vala and Janek what she saw.

"We need to check on Tanyl" she said, as she put on her clothes and shoes then strapped on her belt.

Tanyl . . .

PM

PM

Tanyl heads after the creature and soon passes beyond the orchard, heading up through a field of deep grass, but stops.

Something in him, feels exposed.  For whatever it is, he backs away, and heads to the farm.

Whatever drew him back, instinct, intellect, wisdom,  it saved his life, that night.