It wouldn't be hard to find them. Not for Ace or anyone other creature that was, at the moment, looking for any nosily chirping beast. This was mostly (if not all) because Caine hadn't stopped ridiculing Dane for several minutes now. The hoofprints led directly to the ever growing sound of bickering, a certain amount of snip to his voice that hadn't had the opportunity to snap out before.<br/><br/>"-the words 'duck, turn around'. Any one of the sort? None of them? They never once occurred to you do anything other than that? Anything but the potential danger of just swinging at or at least in the general direction of my head?!"<br/><br/>He was sitting on the ground where he'd fallen or, well, more accurately where he'd been deposited after his horse and him had startled at the same time. Hands were splayed, as if he thought about picking himself up but had allowed his fingers to dig into the earth. His knuckles, if they could be seen, had gone white.<br/><br/>It was hard to tell where thick black goo ended and his own same dark locks began, though they were all matted to his head at this point. Those icy eyes that had seemed so demure and inviting were now harboring a steely glare upwards at Dane who was still very much on his own horse and, in fact, was holding the reigns to Caine's.<br/><br/>Dane looked rather unphased by it all, one fine brow arched as he looked down on what he figured was some sort of temper tantrum. It had seemed to him like the obvious motion, gaze shifting over towards the now perfectly split creature that was just a breath off the path. The creature had long spindly legs, eight of them, to be correct. Some thick blackness still pooled out from it. One on edge, there was a small flame that flickered and was dying without a stable wind or new fuel- that fuel which would have been Caine, had the man simply allowed the ugly beast to drop from the trees and light the other man.<br/><br/>Some would have figured a bigger cut of the pay for them. Thankfully, for Caine's sake, the thought hadn't even been a ghosts of a thought in Dane's noble little mind.<br/><br/>He felt someone coming, gaze twisting up and over Caine towards the path. Not heard, but felt. That happened sometimes. Sense on their tip top at the moment, he knew that someone was inbound and the man leaned back on his own demure stallion (who had yet to recover from its strange state). His hand gently moved back to the blade that had been wiped clean, hovering and waiting there for the traveler to-<br/><br/>He sat up straighter, twitching ever so gently.<br/><br/>Oh.<br/><br/>The man relaxed, hand falling back to his side as he calmed his own mind. He knew that feeling. Not that he enjoyed it at all, but knew it was Ace. Even a single day of riding with the other man had given him enough time to become accustomed to the familiar thud of the heartbeat, both of rider and animal, that echoed in his ears. Reeling his sense back in, he knew that they'd be of use to him here again. They had been, in select times, welcome before. Not that he didn't prefer to hold to play them close to his chest lest something...unfortunate happen.<br/><br/>With a deep breath, he leaned forward on his saddle and waited while Caine bickered on.<br/><br/>"- even a sound would have sufficed but, at this moment, I would gladly accept an apology!" He waited.<br/><br/>None came.<br/><br/>Dane simply tipped his head forward, motioning in the direction from which Ace was coming.