Decent Into Darkness

[CyMage]

"I'm ready whenever you are." was Ailith's short reply.

[Priss]

"Very good."  Lain's reply is terse as best as she continues striding along the path.

She reaches out at taps Rackham's shoulder as she passes.  "Coming, Uncle?"

She knows the wild is no place for her.  She was born in the enclosed blackness of the Underdark, it was were she was raised.  She doesn't understand the ways of the wilderness as she does the absolute black paths of the underground.  And as she looks about the tall trees that yet enclose their path, she finds herself longing yet again for the dangers of her youth.  Though vicious and perhaps levels more dangerous than most they might find in the forest, they are still the dangers she knows.

"The caverns await us, but they are still another night's travel ahead of us.  Shall we try to make what speed is possible on our trek now?"

[Prince Herb]

"It shall be as you wish, of course," Moonshadow says, "but why do you talk in terms of a night's travel?   Is there a strong reason that we cannot move abroad in daylight?"

[Priss]

Lain turns to the elf with a slight ghost of an ironic smile hovering about her lips.  Her gaze burns with a fire all of its own to those who could see it.

"Oh, there are many possible reasons."  She replies to the query. "Perhaps it is that the darkness offers more protection from the creatures of this forest.  Perhaps it is that there are enemies of mine own who would hunt us in the sun's light, but avoid the paths of the night.  Perhaps it is that I am attempting to give your eyes time to garner the best of that poor vision in darkness that Abovegrounders can get. "

"Or..."

She pauses the smile becoming more ironic, holding very little real humor and no joy at all.

"Or perhaps it is that I simply to not wish to find myself blind in the midst of strangers whom I neither completely know nor truly have great reason to trust."

With that she turns back to the path and continues on.

[Prince Herb]

Moonshadow follows.

[Trunkyboy]

A fond? smile? graces Rackham's lips, so much like her mother...  He adjusts his googles and trudges on, always alert.  Perhaps the bloodshed wasn't over for that night...

[Priss]

The rest of the night passes uneventfully.

The sun slowly begins to peek over the looming hills before them as the party comes to the edge of the forest.

Lain barely even glances at the rising sun before she seems to shudder and almost withdraw into herself.

"I do not travel with the sun is high.  Thus, I choose to make my rest here within the cover of the forest."

[Prince Herb]

Moonflower settles down for a little rest among some soft mosses.   "Wake me when it's my turn to stand watch," she says.

[Trunkyboy]

Rackham slinks down against a tree and wraps his cloak around him.