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Hisoka's first reaction when he heard the news about the kalona heading to the pass from the jungle was to worry about his daughter's safety. He could see that Torao wasn't in any better of a state. Torao was planning on marching himself down the mountain to take care of the kalona threats himself, in the shadows, just like old times. "We should send her a bird." Hisoka said in his native tongue as he started off to the nest of crows that served as their own personal messengers. Torao snorted and kicked at a rock but other than that he simply followed along behind Hisoka.

"After we send word to the other mountains?" He didn't want to make their daughter seem less important but he got the feeling that this was the way things were going to go. Hisoka nodded to no surprise of Torao's. It was their duty now to make sure all messages were relayed properly. Joining the effort had seemed like the only way to keep tabs on Uwasa while she was off in the jungle. They hadn't wanted her to go but it seemed she had inherited much of Torao's stubborn nature. Hisoka was dead set on performing their duties first, anything personal could come later, as always.

Hisoka let Torao relay the message since he was more adept with the local language. Then they directed the bird to Padmapani under orders to go faster than the wind since this was the last chance to make sure word arrived on time to make a difference. Hisoka watched as the crow flew off looking like a vengeful spirit was chasing it down. Once it had made enough progress he turned to Torao, "Now, Uwasa."

To say that life had been hectic for Lorenna since she started her little mission would be a gross understatement. She hadn't had a waking moment that wasn't filled with traveling to meet potential links, convincing those links to be part of the chain, or sending out information where it was need through Khaa. It was more work than she had ever anticipated but interestingly enough large numbers of soquili seemed interested in joining her effort. The hardest part of her job was just coordinating the messages. She needed a base of operations desperately but that would have to wait as her network seemed to be at work again.

She watched as the bird landed in the center of herself, Shrivatsa and Hayagriva and introduced itself, "I'm Skipfoot, from the hot springs. Got a message for Hayagriva from Padmapani. Told me that was you." He said looking to the golden stallion. Lorenna pulled up a mental map of her agents and determined that this message came from Hisoka and Torao. She then listened as the bird informed them that a group of kalona was heading up to Padmapani from the jungle. Their believed target was the leader of the herd and the leaders of herds in surrounding areas. The nerve of those kalona was astounding. They had lofty ambitions and Lorenna wanted to show them just how foolish they could be.

"Since I am standing here speaking with the both of you I can safely assume that they have not managed to strike as of yet. This puts us at an advantage." She couldn't help be feel a bit proud to find out that her network was actually effective. "Now, we can come up with a way to stop them."

Haya wore a frozen snarl of surprise and anger. Lorenna and Shrivatsa speaking snapped him out of it, but he could still feel the fire of anger building in his chest. "For what purpose are they attacking us?" he asked, though he knew the question couldn't be answered. "Why? Do you know if this could be Samsara?" He looked to Lorenna.

Whatever it was, he hoped that the leader they wanted to kidnap was him. He would gladly shoulder the burden of the danger if it meant the rest of the herd would be kept safe.

Shrivatsa swallowed. The kalona were after her? And it was Xelloss, too. He was the one who had killed Bodhisattva and attacked Auva on the day of the fight. He was a force to be reckoned with. She gave herself comfort in knowing that he didn't want to kill her, only kidnap, but a lot of very unpleasant things could follow a kidnapping.

Despite himself, Haya felt relief that it was the laughing kalona rather than his daughter. Xelloss had dogged at the Padmapani for years and killed one of them, yes, but he still ranked as easier to deal with than Samsara. It was bad, but it wasn't worst case scenario just yet.

"If we can catch them before they reach the herd that will give us a chance to give them a preemptive strike," mused Haya. "I don't know much about Xelloss other than that he hates the Padmapani for some reason, but even kalonas have to rest. Do you think your birds could form a concentrated net to our north to watch for him coming down from the mountains?"

"If we hide the others, let's make sure to bring the defenders along until they're safe this time," said Shrivatsa. The last time they had separated out the noncombatants during a battle it had turned out to be a trap. She didn't want to fall into that same nightmare again.

"And we won't leave them undefended," agreed Haya. His thinking had automatically jumped to the same place as Shrivatsa's. It was a quick plan and one that could be set up quickly. They could even send the noncombatants over to the neighboring Miakoda herd for protection. Once they reached Miakoda, their guards could come back to Padmapani territory.

"We have many members that can fly too," Haya said thoughtfully. "We can send them out in addition to the birds."