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Issildia only arched an eyebrow at Archer, "Indeed..." she said dryly as the rain decided to hasten in it's pace.

"Wonderful..." she said tightly as she tied the end of the horse's lead rope over the pike of a slender tree's splintered stump, the rain paired with a chill wind making conditions all the worse.

They stood in a drab clearing, the splintered skeletons of the deceased trees arched over them...doing nothing to stall the rain. Lightening flickered over head as Issildia glanced around, the clearing that they had stopped in.
It was q relatively bare place, a few trees lay on the ground, torn up from the roots by some former storm of years past and clumps of under brush covered the dead forest's floor.

"Should we even bother in building some sort of shelter." she stated flatly, considering that they were already rather wet from the rain and that even shelter would do little to improve upon their state.

Marley had headed out a good ways from his house, he was picking up firewood-- and quickly became disgruntled at the sight of rain, no use in wet wood. Marley headed in deeper, down the mountain to where maybe some of the canopy blocked rain so he could get dry wood. Marley started to sing a tune to himself as he worked.

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Khastur scratched his head, "We should do something, too much rain may make us weak to influenza-- and water may get in our packs if we stay in this too long." Khastur stretched his saddle blanket above his head and balanced it over some tree limbs overhead "That will do for now. Let's get out some food while we're at it...And does anyone have a map?" Something tickled Khastur's senses suddenly, a slow whispering melody in his ear that sounded familiar. Khastur craned his head to listen for it, but then quickly perished the thought.

"I didn't think so.." Khastur crossed his arms and looked at the ground for awhile before finally looking up again "Well do any of you...Hear anything?"

The fox continued to follow these visitor, feeling as though he had been discovered but still keeping his distance. He sat in the shadow of the remains of a large tree, his tail swaying softly batting at the raindrops, as his fur collected them upon it, causing him to become damp. He watched them for several moments more, looking over each of them cautiously.
Not as if it were going to help, he stood on all fours shaking himself off and turned back towards the direction of his small burrow. He glanced over his shoulder once more, gazing upon them once more with a momentary blank stare before he turned and trotted off into the forest towards his burrow.
The group interested him. They seemed to be traveling, and from the stress patterns that he felt, there was a feint urgency. As there were taking a rest, he thought he might take one for himself and go feast upon the carcass awaiting him.
Because of the interested they had sparked in him, he would continue to follow and watch them as they remained in the forest. He paused momentarily as the sound of rain suddenly came to his ears snapping out of his thought for a moment and into another. It had been about 3 years over a decade since he had seen ayother lands besides this forest.
The thought gave him a sudden yearning to travel, and explore what the 13 years had done for the lands as well as the people. It had probably been about the same time since the last time he saw anyone of another race, until now. He gazed back in the direction towards the visitors. He too had also been a man. He had been in animal form for several years now, he had no idea if he could complete the transformation correctly, or what he looked like in the forgotten form.
He pushed these thigns from his mind as the sound of rain falling returned to his ears as well with a sharp pain and growl of his stomach. He continued to head towards his burrow and once there would rip into his dead prey with an agressive hunger. Afterards he settled himself into a furry ball as his tail swayed slightly, his full stomach causing drowsiness as he drifted off into a short nap.

Issildia only arched an eyebrow at the two, but her attention immediately turned from them to something else, something that sounded like a horse and rider barreling through the forest.
There was a rasp of metal as Issildia drew her blade Sumar, her vision slipping into the infrared spectrum to sight the intruder. Her hand then relaxed on her blade slightly as she looked out into the forest with a sly expression. "This should prove to be interesting." she muttered to herself.


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The freezing rain had soaked through every particle of Sylph Zitara's being. Her green dress was limp from the rain and became tangled around her legs as she shifted slightly from the uncomfortable side-saddle position that she had been resting in in an attempt to make herself more comfortable.

Her once preened and flawless blonde hair had begin to come free of the barrette at the back of her neck and her delicate plaited waves had been washed away leaving her half bound hair straight and straw like.

Sylph did all she could to turn her mind from the more uncomfortable aspects of the ride from Faltora. Though the fact that she was soaking wet and bore the look of a water logged commoner continued to nag at her mind.

The ride across the plains leading to the east had been uneventful for her, though as soon as she had entered this accursed dead forest , things had taken a turn for the worst.
Brambles tore at her clothing and left her with thin bloodied scratches across her arms and face. She thought that things couldn't get any worse until her exausted horse began to stumble in exhaustion.
"No...no...just a bit farther." she pleaded to the creature as it took another barely caught stumble.

It was then that she heard a sound that she knew all to well, the sound of a blade being drawn...

All Sylph had with her to defend herself was a jeweled dagger that was more for decoration that anything, and a coarsely made bow tied to the saddle that she would barely be able to manage.

But she had little time to think about it as she realized that the origin of the sound was closer than she had anticipated.
Quite frankly Sylph had been so wrapped up in her own woes that she had almost waltzed into what seemed to be a motley group of soldiers or mercenaries. They could be larovian scouts, or worse, slave traffickers from the south.

Sylph tried to grasp the jeweled dagger that was lashed to the saddle but before she could pry the short blade from the sheath, the icy metal of a sword came to rest on her wrist to idly knock her hand back with the flat of the blade.

"That would not be wise." said Issildia in an entertained tone as she raised the tip of her blade to Sylph's neck...

((I knew I'd forgotten to do something before I went away. Well I'm back and, hopefully, things will go back to normal. If you don't mind me asking could you do a storyline update please Crow?))

Archer followed her with his bow. "Kill her!" A deep voice sang from his throat, but he quickly shut his mouth, and offered a feeble. "I think we should leave her for the foxes." He scowled angrily, this voice disturbed him, as he heard it calling from his nightmares.

Archer raised his bow to Issildia, but lowered it after she backed down. He let the arrow in his bow fly past Sylph's ear. "I would listen to her." He whispered gruffly. It nicked her ear very slightly, and 'thunk'ed into a tree behind her.