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Draven and Sicily had followed behind the large group as they traveled back across the barrens. It seemed that the pair were glad to be together. Talking quietly to each other. When they reached Homewood, Draven looked at the large trees as they drew high over his head. Shaking his head Draven looked over Sicily's shoulder back towards the barrens. While they needed supplies, he was itching to return to his own travels, with the added company.

"Draven? You ok?" she asked tilting her head a little, the hood of her cloak over her ears.

"Just thinking. After a rest here, it will be time to head out again." he said simply looking back at the dark color doe.

"Head out? Don't you live in Homewood?" She asked a little confused?

Though in a way she had a feeling that Draven wasn't one for settling down. Well traveling hearts would ever continue traveling she supposed. With a giggle she nudges Draven to continue on. She would just like to rest in a safe place, a place where she didn't think she would ever see the sun again.

"We can talk about that later. Lets just get something to eat and rest a few days. I feel like I could eat all the greens in Homewood and still need more." Sicily said as she pranced forward leaving Draven to shake his head.

"So this was the one you were hunting for. Could have said she had white on her rump and freckles." Bluebell said with a bit of a huff, her voice not that loud.

"Yes well, you have half your memory of your other half missing until you see them again." He grumbled shaking a little as if to dislodge the Jack Hop before trotting after the doe.

[WC: 298]

The journey home was long but didn’t feel quite as long as when they traveled out here. This is how it usually is when one traces their path back the way they came. The group seemed to have doubled in size, now that they had Wanderlust and their party. Tempest looked over the nouls as they walked back. She was sure everyone would be happy to get back and recover from their travels before returning to their normal life or maybe something else. Tempest wasn’t sure what else was in store for her, just that she would be resting up at her parents’ home and then heading to the Grandfather Tree.

As the tree line of Homewood came into view, Tempest breathed out a sigh of relief. She had enjoyed her first big adventure but she was ready to rest. Everyone continued into Homewood but she paused, watching Wanderlust and Isra. She was glad she could help rescue both of them, a small smile appeared. Tempest trotted over to Wanderlust just as the doe, Ysalone, did. She asked questions that Tempest also had, but there was others as well. She nodded her head to both nouls.

“I too have questions. I recall someone saying that you felt studied by those beasts. What did they do to you and your party? Why did they keep you in a cage unharmed? The one attacked Vitalta and the others.”



The one oddity in the group was a talking adult dire rat. Not counting the four babies found by part of the group in the early stages of their journey. Elysia had left the very colony the babies had come from. Curious that these nouls had taken them after what the adults did. She left the colony and ran into the group beyond the bizarre trees. “Glad we’re away from there,” she muttered to Wanderlust, who was kind enough to let her ride on their back. She was big enough to travel the barrens but not big enough to keep up with noulicorn legs.

Elysia began to feel tense as the Homewood tree line came into view. Despite having left her home, the colony who are still stuck in their ways, Elysia wasn’t sure how the nouls would take having her there. Dire rats and noulicorns do not get along, of course it doesn’t help that her kind attack them and have killed their young. But now her and four babies where arriving into this noulicorn home. She moved up Wanderlust’s back and sat more on their shoulders. “I’m not sure I’ll be welcomed here, Wanderlust,” she said after they said their goodbyes to Isra. She watched hesitantly as two does approached. Elysia recognized them from the cavern, they and a buck helped free them from that terrible crystal prison.

WC:466

Ysalone was quiet as she pondered all that Wanderlust had said. Her gaze went alternately from the pale pink noul to the dire rat atop her withers, wondering at all the new things they had learned from this one odd trip. Everything was about to be shaken up with the discovery of the dire rats, let alone these crystal beasts. That was, of course, if nouls in Homewood actually believed it. Ysalone couldn't imagine there being much flat out disagreement, especially not when two Ascended like Wanderlust and Viltalta could vouch for it. But... she had to admit, without having seen the crystal beasts, it would be terribly difficult to believe.

"Do you think... if they were possibly trying to figure out what we are... that they would venture closer to Homewood?" she asked as the thought occurred to her. The idea that these crystal beasts might end up finding them was unsettling. But what was to stop them? Two bands of nouls had found them, after all, and what was to say that those crystal creatures couldn't travel the same distance? If they were in fact as old as they seemed... they might have the upper hand.

"I saw a vision of them too. Outside of the forest. It looked... terribly angry," she continued thoughtfully. "It felt like I was intruding. But that can't possibly be true. We're here to heal Vykeli, not destroy it." Perhaps the creatures didn't understand. Perhaps there would be a way to communicate that to them one day. That was far above Ysalone's know-how.

The doe turned to address Elysia. "I think you're quite brave for coming with us," she said happily. "Not that I think you'll have a hard time. Just that it's not easy to enter a culture that's not your own. I hope you'll feel welcome here. I suspect there's much we could learn from you."

"Oh, that's true, isn't it?" Ysalone said, wide-eyed. The doe scooted over to make room for Moon Mist in the little semi-circle they'd formed around Wanderlust, nodding as the other doe spoke. She hadn't been there to see Isra's contribution to the fight against the crystal beast, but everything she had seen of him on the journey - from when they'd first pulled him up from the gorge to now, splitting ways with him - Ysalone had seen nothing of the heartless traitor Viltalta had seemed to believe him to be.

"He seems like quite the sweet noulicorn, but Viltalta - and I'm guessing others - seem to believe otherwise," she added, mulling it over. Perhaps it was all just a misunderstanding. She hoped that somehow, Isra's name might be cleared up so he might return to society, should he wish to. "I don't think we would have made it across the bridge in the first place, if it wasn't for his help." She wouldn't have had the faintest idea of how to operate such a contraption, left to her own devices.

"You two seemed close, Penna," she added. "What is he really like?"

Draven and Sicily finally did catch up to the rest of the party. Seems they were all asking questions of the Vivify Ascended, Wanderlust. The thought of the beasts that were in that cave made her shiver. Shaking her head she leaned against Draven for a moment before pressing forward. He was not really going to gather closer to the rest.. He was going to leave that to her. She was the social one, he was happier watching from afar and only growing closer if something should go south.

Sicily stepped over to be closer to Wanderlust, they had been trapped in that crystal cage for weeks together. While there wasn't much they could have done to get out, there was a lot of talk to keep from going stir crazy..

"I think it was ancient Magic, perhaps much older then what we know of. Magic that is even older then the Grandfather tree." While this was already common to know, it was still something to say. "I believe it was that magic, the crystals of the cage might not have held any. That water did not feel like any other water in this land. Something untouched was there."

Sicily tilted her head to one side as if in thought. She was trying to really recount for the time that they were all stuck. The beasts had attacked, while none were really injured, they were forced into that cage. Shaking her head again she looked at the others, Everyone had been through a lot. Even those that had come to rescue them. Hopefully all would now get a good rest, she and Draven were in for a bit of a vacation or something...

WC: 283

As Ysalone fell silent, the little navigator from Wanderlust's team stepped over to join them. Despite the long days of travel and the fatigue that had settled after weeks of captivity, the doe had a contented smile on her face, happy just to be free in the company of all her newly made friends.

"I still can't believe all the things we've found," she said with a blissful sigh. "My father and I will have to update all our maps with these new discoveries. And... perhaps if you ever gather a party to go back, Wanderlust, I may come with you."

It wasn't just about the new landmarks, after all. The journey they had just been on was quite beyond anything even Arslanian could have dreamed off. What stories would come out of it! What more could they learn that would become history and lore in Homewood, passed from generation to generation in the form of tales and songs. The doe could think of nothing more grand than to be a part of all of that.

There would be, it seemed, no rest for Arslanian until after she had put everything they'd found down on paper. The maps were best made when the memories were fresh, and exhaustion would need to wait.

Her thoughts drifted to Isra's dilemma. What a journey he must have endured, to return with none of his party in tow. She could imagine the grief and the guilt that must plague him if he thought himself responsible for the deaths of so many. That he had accepted his exile without protest seemed right, but also not. Noulicorns weren't meant to live on their own, and Isra had proven himself terribly helpful and kind... Her thoughts broke off as a familiar black doe addressed her.

"Sicily," Arslanian said with a gentle smile as she turned to the black doe. She had grown not only used to, but fond of, the company of this small group. The thought of going their separate ways once they returned to Homewood left a small ache in her heart. It would be like a withdrawal of sorts, to go so suddenly without the constant company of her friends. "You can request any map of mine anytime, my dear friend. So long as you promise to share your stories and discoveries whenever you return."

She looked at Sicily fondly, thinking back to their journey's start, when they had stumbled across the doe looking quite the worse for wear out in the Barrens. Who would have thought that a taxing journey like theirs would help the black doe more than hurt? And yet, Sicily had proven to be an integral part of their team on this most spectacular of adventures.

"I am ever so glad that we found you when we did, Sicily," the little doe added, sounding every bit as content as she had earlier. It was a bittersweet farewell to them all, but Arslanian suspected they would all reunite soon in Homewood. "A grand adventure later, I'm happy to see you've found your love." And that he had come all this way and found her, in return.

The whole way back, Arslanian had been pondering that very point - or at least, one that was closely related. There was a well of wonder and gratitude building within her for the group that had trekked all the way out to the crystal cave in search of Wanderlust's party. As the little doe glanced about, gaze landing on each noulicorn in turn, she couldn't help but marvel at the tenacity of them as a whole. So many of them young like herself, a few without Gifts yet, even. They hadn't thought to remain safe and unfettered in Homewood like they so easily could have done. Instead, they had thrown themselves into a journey likely more harrowing than any would have expected.

Truly, she thought, these were creatures worthy of the highest commendations. It occurred to her that she had perhaps not properly expressed how thankful she was to the lot of them for having come out and rescued them. All of them had been strangers when they'd first appeared at the cave, and now, the navigator thought, they were all friends.

Arslanian turned to the other noulicorns in the group, the ones who had come out in search of their party, had risked life and limb to help see them to safety, and without whom she wasn't sure any of them would still be alive. "And all of you," she said gently, addressing the ones who had gathered around Wanderlust as well. "Please, accept my thanks, if I haven't said it already. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say how grateful I am that you all took on the risk to come after us. If ever I can be of help to you, don't hesitate to ask."