Arysian Monastery I (Open)

[Circe]

"Yeah, I plan on using it if I have to," she said in response to Leo's question about mixing up a few vials of the Rosary Pea poison. "These mountains are too unpredictable." Circe looked at the items they gathered. A week's ration of food for each of them, waterskins that were already filled with water, extra bandages, a few basic antidotes, and they soon would have the vials of Rosary Pea poison.

Circe thought to herself, trying to see if they had forgotten anything. It was too early in the season for the streams to be frozen; the temperature was low, but not low enough to turn the water to solid ice yet. And if they ran out of food, she could Change and go hunt deer or something. "I think that's everything we need," she said to Raelie. "As soon as Leo finishes with the poison we can head out."

She separated the items they had gathered into stacks of three - one for herself, Raelie, and Leo. All the stacks had the same items, but they'd need something to carry their stuff in. "Hey, Leo. D'you have some sacks or something laying around here?"

[Leopold Martin]

“We don’t need to apply the poison to all our weapons,” Leopold said. He planned only to apply the dosage to his arrow tips if his used his crossbow. Of course adding it to an already deadly blade was a fun idea. “Indeed hard if we are counterattacked by the same poison, but I highly doubt that since this plant is the only one up here.” He held up the plant for show. It was not accustomed for a chilly place as this, so chances of the dwarves finding it were seldom to none. “We should be fine, if we cut off the main circulation after cleaning out the wound, we’ll get minimum side affects.”

“Yeah,” He said. “I have some sacks we can use. I’ll bring them in once I make the vials.” Yet again, he went into a separate room. Within held other herbs, medicine, mortars and pestles, and vials prearranged by size and use. Leo drained the main ingredient carefully into three glass containers.

Soon after, Leopold returned with vials and sacks in hand. “One for each of us,” He said regarding the vials. He handed Circe the sacks, and one vial of toxin. Leo then walked over to Raelie, handing her one of the two, and said, “You don’t need to spread this on your dagger unless you want too. Keep it though, just incase you need it. We may even be separated.”

[Destiny]

She nodded at the two of them, watching carefully as Circe seperated the items that they had to carry into neat bundles. Judging by the items they should not be too heavy. When you were a flyer, though, every little thing could make a large difference - a few grams here or there, a stray gust of wind, a very little bit of difference in temperatures. Especially when you were a flier as light as her, or when you were a flier who was trying to escape from danger. The few grams of poison could do her in if she did not balance the weight with the other items. She was already deciding what to do, when Leo brought the sacks.

She accepted the sack and the vial, slipping her dagger back where it was in the beginning, swiftly and with an air of practice. Then she took the vials and the rest of the items, balancing it carefully in the sacks, and debating how she could string it across her back so as not to hinder her wings or her hands. She was like to need both. She smiled suddenly, it was almost like preparing for a battle, the way her friend used too. It was nice to remember him, but sad too. She wondered how he was.

She stopped thinking about all that, and then stopped. "Hey Leo...two questions...do you have some string? And also, if we use this poison to hunt, will we be able to eat the meat?" They had come to her suddenly, products of a lifetime's thought of necessity and practicality, about what would be important on the run and what would be important on a camp.

[Circe]

Circe accepted the vial from Leo and put it in the sack along with the other items. She was wary of the poison vial being crushed and spilling over everything though, so she placed it gingerly on the top where it couldn't be broken. "Yeah," she said, "I'm only putting it on my dagger, not on the khopesh." She jerked her chin to the two sickle-like blades that hung from either side of her hips. "The dagger is strapped to my leg."

She slung the sack over her shoulder and waited for the others. "If we absolutely have to hunt I can always Change and use my claws," she said to Raelie and chuckled wryly. "Ready?" Circe walked over to the monastery doors and opened them. The sky was still dark and ominous, but it had stopped snowing for the moment. She paused and looked over her shoulder, "Storm might start up again, so we should get as far down the mountain as possible before it does."

Circe trotted down the few steps at the door of the monastery. Her boots crunched on the freshly fallen snow - up here, the snow was more ice than powder. None of that powdery stuff that fell at the base of mountain and blanketed the towns. The snow wasn't deep; it only came up to a smidge and a half above her ankle, but each step had to be more pronounced to walk through it.

[Leopold Martin]

“I’m pretty sure some string is around here,” He said looking around absentmindedly. He continued answering her questions once he acquired some green string from a yarn ball on a bookshelf. “Eating it will not affect you – unless you are deathly ill – but that’s another thing,” He rambled. “The poison is only lethal in the blood. So inhaling it or dripping some in a wound are the only ways to active it.”

Great, if Circe transformed and sliced up some dinner, then they could make shredded venison. Coming out of thought he said, “Yeah, I’m ready.” He picked up the sack assigned to him, and followed Circe. The monks would be fine without him.

The snow, as icy as ever, fazed Leopold none once he went out of the Monastery. He was used to it. The snow beneath his boots crunched loudly within the first few steps. Indeed, you could tell it just snowed ice.

[Destiny]

She took the ball of string from Leo gratefully, then tied the sack to her back neatly, making sure that it was far away from her wings. She lifted her arms, then rotated them. Yes, everything was free to move easily. She suspected that if something went wrong it would more practical for her to flee rather than fight, unlike the other two, and she thought that she should at least not be hindered in that. "Oh, ok," she told Circe. "If you can do that then that will save us all a lot of trouble." She could hunt...a little...if the prey was slow and she had the advantage of flight but she did not like such conditions.

She walked out into the hard packed snow, her footsteps light and practiced on the somewhat slippery and icy surface. She clenched her fingers into her long sleeves, balling up her fists so that they would not become cold, or worse, frost-bitten. She had been taught what happened to people who were touched by the bite of frost, who had lost fingertips and ears to those icy teeth. She hoped Leo and Circe were warmly clothed.

She took out her map..and then referred to something. "I think we should be going to the left." She started walking a few steps in that direction, then stopped to see if the others would follow."There is something alike to a trail if we walk a little more in this direction, which can take us upwards a little bit, so that we can go down the southern slopes to the wastelands. My camp will also be in it's way."

[Circe]

Circe looked over her shoulder. "What? Oh, sure." She turned and motioned for Raelie to lead on. As a general rule of practice, she had always avoided what few trails existed in the Khun. To her, down was down and up was up - not really a need for her to make use of trails in everyday life. There was also a greater chance of being attacked on the trails, but she doubted anyone used them enough to warrant any serious concern. "Just keep your eyes out for others," she said in a neutral tone.

The change in direction took them into a wooded area, but the snow here was lighter underfoot and the trail was still visible. It wasn't a wide trail or anything, just a narrow game trail. It took them down the southern side of the mountain and stayed within the trees for the most part. They passed a few streams along the way but other than that nothing moved within the forest.

Circe looked up at the sky whenever the trees opened up enough for her to see the clouds above. The dark storm clouds had filtered away and were replaced by the lighter (but still gray) clouds typical of early evening. "Do you want to try to find shelter or something before it gets too dark?" she asked the other two. She was fine sleeping out in the elements, the cold didn't bother her. "There's probably a cave around here."

[Leopold Martin]

Frankly, Leopold did not know whom he was following after he closed the doors behind Raelie. He guided along with the nearest footsteps. It turned out to be Circe, since her voice was close by. “Alright,” He replied to Raelie, soon before tagging along after her. She was their only guide to the camp.

Time passed before them quicker than the land stretched ahead. Leopold felt no fatigue despite the walking, the chill, and the uneven ground beneath the three. “Regardless of the season and weather, snow falls heavy at night. Also mentioning, the temperature drops unpleasantly cold.” It would be a good idea to find shelter before nightfall, but they could also brave the darkness and walk further toward their destination.

[Destiny]

"We're lost," she announced abruptly. Her feet were hurting slightly, but other than that she showed no obvious signs of fatigue, despite the long walk that she was ill-accustomed to. "We should have been quite a lot to the left by now. I think it's my mistake, I missed a turn a few yards back," she said, feeling guilty. She was supposed to be a guide, and she had really gotten lost. Only it was difficult to make out the same thing from the ground which was so evident in the air. She looked at the sky, which threatened evening. Nightfall without shelter would be a big mistake. "I agree, we need to be under a shelter for the night. A cave or something sounds good." She looked around briefly. "I'll fly up and find out where we went wrong so that we don't go wrong again tomorrow." She flew up, with a blithe grace, scanning the ground for the mistake that she had made.

She spotted it quickly. It was a many yards to the back, yards that they would have to cover on the morrow. She frowned at herself, and then took out her map, the old one, to look at the ground and map the route for tomorrow. It was not the hardest of routes, by the next day they should have reached the campsite without much trouble, but as she had thought that today, too, she decided that it was best to be cautious. She looked at a few more trails and then flew down to Leo and Circe, hoping that they had found something.

[Circe]

While Raelie flew above the trees to deal with her map and whatnot, Circe left the game trail and disappeared into the thick underbrush without a word. She was gone for a good ten minutes and then some, emerging from a completely different section of the forest. "There's a small cave this way," she stated before turning and disappearing back into the brush without waiting for comments.

She led them through particularly dense woodland, hopping over gargantuan tree roots and shrubs hidden by the heavy snow and unseen by the untrained eye. The 'cave' they eventually came to was more of a burrowed out hill. It was clearly not a product of nature; someone or something had to have dug it by hand. The cave entrance was round and only came up to about mid-torso but the burrow-like shelter extended well into the frozen earth; maybe fourteen, fifteen feet deep. It was just enough to keep them warm and Circe hadn't come across any remnants of its previous occupants when she had checked it earlier, so it would do for the night.

"I don't think it's been inhabited recently so we should be fine. If anything does live here it hasn't been here in a matter of weeks," she reassured them as she stooped down and walked into the pitch black of the burrow. She chose not to mention the bones that were at the very end of the tunnel-cave. They were too old to be significant, even if they were humanoid. "We'll only be here for a couple of hours anyway," her voice echoed cheerfully from the depths of the dark burrow.

[Leopold Martin]

Leopold went through the woodland with Raelie and Circe, dodging trees and roots as he went. It was not long before the three of them emerged from the forest into a less dense surrounding. When Circe pointed to a small, dug out hill, Leo had to concentrate to see it. A very small opening, he would have to duck down to not whap his forehead.

He was the next to enter the dark cave. Leo sat on a rock near the entrance and looked around at nothing. “This is good since it’s not like we are going to live here,” He said.