<span style="font-weight: bold">â€œSince youâ€™ve made it perfectly clear we are expendable bodies for you to trip when the hordes are running after you, I suppose it wonâ€™t hurt to ask you if you come here often?â€</span><br/><br/>The remark earned a slight groan from Holt in the back of the line--Deidrich simply shook his head slightly and continued onwards, no response necessary. Quinn looked amused, though he didn't turn to look at her.<br/><br/>"Relatively frequently, though hardly in this section. There always seems to be something worth killing in it." He offered pleasantly, his boots tromping down the dirt beneath their feet and the mail at his joints clicking only slightly. "You more than I, from the sounds of it, though if this is where you choose to find your company then I can't say it says much for your taste."<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"Where exactly is our destination?"</span><br/><br/>"Eyes on the forest, not on each other." Holt pointed out curtly, with a slight roll of his eyes before Sydney tossed his question out to the group. Many of them must have been wondering it, certainly--the Knights hadn't asked, but they certainly seemed to be walking with purpose.<br/><br/>Looking to Sydney, Deidrich motioned to the forest with a gauntlet. "The forest." he said in his deep, calm voice. If it was a joke, he didn't indicate as such, but he continued. "The outer reaches of the forest--the first few leagues--is something of a haven for the wretches that can get by within its expanse and filled with little fiefdoms and territories. If we're lucky, we'll pass through this area without incident--if not, we will respond accordingly. Several leagues into the forest, however, the land surrenders to the trees and begins to drop off. Here not even the people of the forest pass, for it is a land of monsters and creation run free. It is a scar in the earth left over from ancient times, and we must delve within it to bore the sickness out."<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"The hell are you? Nevermind, move."</span><br/><br/>At the end of his plan, just as they were about to resume their gait and enter the forest proper, Til slid her way from the grass and began her verbal assault on the party. Deidrich watched her slide around him with some slight confusion, his stony face cocking very slightly to the left as though trying to determine quite what the odd little thing was. Quinn barely moved from the impact of her shoulder, though as she did so he narrowed his gaze and let his gaze follow her back to her mother duck.<br/><br/>"No pets on this trip, my dear apothecary." Quinn said pointedly, eying the girl with barely concealed venom and a smile as soft as a knife's edge. "Your mutt can wait in its kennel."<br/><br/>Holt was well aware of her since she'd left the grass, and though he hadn't leveled his crossbow at her it was in his arms now, and he rolled his eyes. "Your mistress," he said dryly, for that was what he assumed she must be, "is busy, girl. If she's such business in the town, then you'd best get back to it and hold it together for her."<br/><br/>"We're wasting time." Deidrich reminded them in his smooth bass, allowing the interruption to roll of his plate like water. He turned and began his march once more, expecting the others to keep up. He called back without looking. "If she can be of use and can keep pace, she may."<br/><br/>Quinn looked torn, briefly, between turning her away properly and following his senior, but after a moment he slid shrugged at his shoulders and turned with a slight sound between his teeth. "I had thought you more skilled than to have need of hired hand, my lady." He added over his shoulder before rejoining the march to the forest.<br/><br/>Holt said nothing, and got them all moving again from his position at the back.<br/><br/>In a few minutes time they had crossed the grasses proper and begun to slide into the forest itself. The trees at the periphery looked still young from where they had been cut and replanted, but even so they were still almost too large for a man to grasp around with his arms. As they passed within the world became cloaked in dappled green shade, the path beneath their feet giving way to a rough game trail leading on beneath the arbor. The canopy was lost overhead between boughs and foliage, and the woods was surprisingly quiet in their passing--the birds fell silent on their arrival, as though they knew they had unwelcome guests, and but for the leaves and twigs they disturbed as they walked there was little to hear but their words.<br/><br/>In the trees above them, too high to see clearly, something clambered after, visible only in fleeting glimpses between branches.