:: Mystery of the Godless Forest :: -{Aero, Nen, Spirit, Rogue}-

She smiled at the enthusiasm of the little dragon, wondering if the little paper creature knew what it was to be cold. Well, if he did, then she had a whole new respect to his cheerful manner. "Well, I'm sure we'll make it out alright." Taeo tried to be encouraging for the wizard since he was obviously so uncomfortable with the whole situation. Looking back up to the woman, she simply nodded her head. "We wait until the storm blows over. From what I've been able to gather on the way up here, this is a simple search-and-rescue mission. We just have to hope that the lumberjack hasn't frozen out there in that forest before we can find him." The bounty halved if they brought back a dead body, after all. "So, I suppose we all just cuddle up for the night and stay warm. I'm sure that tomorrow will be filled with a lot of trudging through snow." Though she smiled for appearance's sake, she really wasn't looking forward to such a journey.

*~*~*

By morning the storm had cleared out, leaving behind a cloudlessly bright day. Stepping out of the tent meant subjecting yourself to the intense white that the storm had left behind, intensified by the uncovered sun overhead. The wind still blew, keeping everyone appropriately chilly, but at least it wasn't dumping snow on them anymore.

Taeo stretched and pulled her hood down low over her eyes, pulling her scarf up over her nose. It wasn't much to keep the sun out of her eyes, but it was better than nothing at all. Solexa seemed more than content with it, however, taking the opportunity to leap out of the tent and flail around a little bit in the deep drifts. When the huge dog stood, she was covered completely in white and shook herself until her grayish brown coat showed through the thick powder again. Tongue hanging out, the hound almost seemed to be smiling.

Shaking her head at Solexa's behavior, Taeo picked her way over to the other tent close to the one that they'd spent the night in, wondering if this is where the bear-man had spent his night. She'd gotten worried when he didn't come back the night before, but Solexa didn't seem too worried about it, so she hadn't gotten worried either. "Hullo? You in there?" She called a few feet away from the tent.

Andyr came out of the tent, covered from head to toe in furs, a cloth wrapped around his nose and mouth. His exposed skin around his eyes looked shiny. "Yes. Come, you get frostbite like that" he said, gesturing to her exposed skin around her eyes. His wide swordbelt also acted as a pack, for he carried all the small essentials within it. Everything else, bone poles and furs, he rolled up and carried on his back. Tent furs doubled as clothing if the weather became especially horrendous.

He handed her the jar when she neared him. "Put on face" he said, gesturing around her eyes.

He began to break down his tent whether or not she decided to put the animal grease on her face. His people applied it generously, and it was the sole reason they did not have chapped, or reddened skin, despite their paleness. It also helped to keep the face warm, making talking much more easy than if the face itself was stiff with frost.

Finished with the breakdown, he carried the bundle under one arm and looked to her dog. "Good hound. Very useful. Best for hunting..." he said to the woman. "Okay we use dog nose, to find man?" he asked her.

It did not seem as though anyone had an actual plan, something that had bothered Arcania through the night, and was still bugging her that morning, as she rejoined the group. Eying the jar he had given the girl a little interestedly, wondering if she would bother to try it. Arcania certainly was not, whatever he said. Not until she knew this man a little better. And so she stood on the edge of the camp, waiting patiently for word of what they were going to do.

Temero had returned as well, though it was against his better judgement and he had no desire to save the human who was apparently lost in the woods. Let him be eaten by a tree for all the Wolf dragon cared. Then again, if left unchecked, whatever was going on in this forest could affect the dragons of the Cove, so Temero wanted to at least check it out just in case. After all, it would be bad if he did not do anything and something was to happen to a member of ME.

For just a moment the wolf dragon thought Andyr was suggesting he sniff out the man, before he realized the woman's dog was the mutt in question. Good thing too, he thought, narrowing his eyes and snorting softly, though keeping quiet so that he would not be overheard. Or so he hoped anyway. Not that it mattered to him if the humans were offended. "What are we supposed to do once we find this guy?" Temero asked suddenly, shuffling his wings and plopping his hind end down in the snow while he waited for an answer.

"While I am also interested in hearing the answer to that question, perhaps we should wait for the others to come before discussing our plan to avoid having to repeat it many many times," Arcania suggested, eying the wolf dragon who offered her a lethal looking smile, one she returned with exactly the same dangerous glint.

Zack had wrapped himself around the pole of the tent that they had all spent the night in, looking out at the snow with a grin on his face. It was fantastic, and best of all, he was up early, so he was the first one out. Taeo and her dog didn’t notice him, tiny as he was, but that was fine by him. He couldn’t help laughing as the dog started to jump and play in the snow though, unravelling himself from the ropes and fluttering over to the beast.

“Hello, good morning!” he said brightly as Taeo spoke, apparently not quite seeing her, as she was turned towards the tent where the other man had spent the night. He couldn’t quite remember his name- he had been rather busy fantasising about their adventure today. That was today! Andyr definitely looked like he was ready for an adventure, looking more like a big fluffy bear than anything else as he emerged from his tent. He took a look at the pot of grease he offered round, but didn’t think it was for him. It looked a tad too… liquid for his tastes.

Foen was the last to emerge from the tent, loathe to leave the warmth inside. He too had thick furs, but was less used to wearing them, and didn’t look half as comfortable in them as the others did. He hovered near Arcania, the woman looking capable, but less dangerous than the huge Andyr. He borrowed the pot of grease off Taeo, not really sure what to do with it until he saw the others had put it on their faces. Ohh, so that was how it worked.
“I’m a good healer. One of the best, some might say,” said Foen, speaking up to Temero’s question. He liked to boast, but it wasn’t like it was without a little grounding. He was actually very good at his work. “I might look a bit useless now, that I’ll admit, but wait till we find this man…” and things will be a bit different.

As soon as Andyr handed over the pot of grease Solexa tried her best to stick her nose in it but was cut off when Taeo tapped the large dog firmly on the nose. Huffing in disappointment, the hound turned her attention to sniffing at Andyr's gathered possessions, sticking her nose into the furs that he carried on his back, tail wagging gently as she explored all the things there were to smell. Hesitantly she put the grease on her face as the bear-man had gestured for her to do, seeing that his face was shiny and assumed that for whatever reason it was a good thing to do in this climate. Taeo was used to taking seemingly nonsensical orders from locals; they usually turned out to be the tips that were actually useful. Once she'd gotten some on her face she passed along the jar to the others that were appearing out on the white plain to join them.

"I think Solexa would be happy to help. She's got a pretty good nose." Taeo replied with a small smile behind her scarf, the dog perking her ears up at hearing her name and gave a soft wuff before returning to nosing through Andyr's furs. When the dragon came to join them however, she stopped her sniffing and came to Taeo's side, keeping her eyes on Temero and firmly planting herself next to her master, remaining silent though Taeo knew her well enough to know that the dog was on the verge of growling. Upon hearing that the man that had brought the small scroll dragon was an expert in healing, she felt a little bit better about this adventure. Hopefully he was decent at curing frostbite. "The plan," she started, nodding to Arcania "will be to follow my dog's nose to see if we can't find this logger. Andyr here is the resident expert, so I know that I for one will be doing what he says if we start running into trouble." She tilted her head slightly toward the big man covered in furs, her serious expression more or less hidden behind her thick scarf and low hood. "As for once we get our hands on him, well, he'll probably need some medical attention, but our biggest concern will probably be getting back. I don't want to spend any more time dawdling around in a haunted forest than I absolutely have to. So, grab him, get out, get the money and we're all heroes. Anything else?" She looked to the others in their little circle, honestly looking for further commentary on their impending adventure if there was any to give.

"Good, we go now." Andyr was not the kind to baby anyone. If someone couldn't keep up, they'd be left behind. They weren't members of his tribe, they were thrill seekers at worst, novice adventurers at best. "We go at dog's pace. It is no good to wear out dog, we lose tracking, we lose time, logger could be in worse shape, or worse." He was talking to Taeo because, to be honest, she was the only one he could trust to do as she was told. All the others seemed to think they knew better. Andyr had trouble with these kinds of people because they thought he had to prove something to them, and Andyr was not in the business of proving himself to people that had no bearing on his life. He retrieved a scrap of cloth from his belt and held it out for Taeo to take. "Let dog smell this. It has logger's scent. Loggers from his camp gave it to me. Let us start."

The healer would prove useful, but only if they found the logger alive, and only if he needed medical attention to that degree. Until then, every member of their party was a liability save for the dog and the wolf dragon. Those two could take care of themselves, with their thick coats and natural instincts of survival. People thought too much to be too good at survival in conditions they were not used to. Egos also got in the way.

A healer... oh yes, good, that would help. Well, neither Arcania nor Temero was going to say anything about it because it was just a little too early in the morning to be so openly hostile. So Arcania watched Foen for lack of anything better to do at the moment and Temero waited for someone to yell at Solexa for sticking her nose in everything. He certainly wouldn't be able to get away with that (if he had wanted to do such a thing, which he didn't). He was just glad they weren't actually expecting him to sniff the guy out. He wasn't some mutt that could be ordered around, even if he did look like one. But it was annoying to have to walk as slowly as the pup was going to. He could fly ahead so much faster. But Andyr was correct in saying that they needed to stay close to it. Getting lost was not in Temero's agenda for the day.

"Yes, let us," Arcania said softly, making sure she had everything in order. She didn't make the comment that she wasn't likely to listen to orders just because someone chose to give them, but out here she had a feeling that could be an excellent habit to take up if things went south. There was too much of a chance things could (and probably would) go horribly wrong, especially if the forest was truly haunted as they said. Dealing with the elements was bad enough, spirits were another matter entirely. But at least she could shift and fly away if things became too troublesome. Her and the dragons, they would be fine whatever happened more than likely. It was the others that would be a problem. Though she did think Andyr would be all right too considering he was built for this sort of environment and knew what he was doing.

Zack rather liked the sound of Taeo’s plan- quite the excitement awaited them, not something to pooh-pooh by any length! Although… he didn’t sound like he would be much use.
Ah, shame. Never mind, he was there for the adventure anyway! And the story afterwards, he could make this whole thing into quite the epic tale. In that, he wouldn’t have quite such a minor role, he could already see himself stylised as quite the hero, and they hadn’t even started.

They were quick to leave, which was a good thing. It was cold outside; Zack couldn’t feel it, snuggled deep inside Foen’s pocket, where he had made himself quite the soft nest.

Foen himself wasn’t quite so lucky (although his coat was deliciously warm). With all the others asserting themselves and already being useful, he thought it was high time to chip in something himself, even though he would hardly be useful until they came across whatever poor man they were questing after in the forest itself.
“Come on then, let’s go. Time’s a-wasting.”

They moved on a little, following Taeo’s dog towards the wood. Zack was quite excitable about the whole thing, popping his head out of Foen’s pocket and talking to whichever poor soul came closest , chiming on about all sorts of adventures he had supposedly gone on, so far as, he almost found himself falling out of the man’s pocket on more than one occasion.

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