<span style="font-style: italic">As ShadowBlaze departed, he gave a brief nod to the Peripomad Awinita.</span><span style="color: #0080FF">"Thank you kindly for offering your name, and I appreciate your hesitance and urge to help."</span><span style="font-style: italic">He added, having noted her fingers idling away with a small cylindrical object. It gave the faintest of whistles in her motions, giving away it's shape even though he could not see it.</span><span style="color: #0080FF">"I'm sure you will have time to use that, savor any moment you can avoid that need."</span><span style="font-style: italic">He also offered the same thanks to TiiLiiqia, noting a similar resistance in her body language.</span><span style="color: #0080FF">"There will be a time to fight side by side, just not now. You all have your own enemy approaching, and it will only gain ground while you tarry."</span><span style="font-style: italic">In effort to not distract them further, and knowing time was of the essence, he slipped off into the brush.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Each dagger mark was very methodical. She knew that properly covering their scents and tracks was a timely effort they couldn't afford with two very different groups of predators hunting them. So each throw sought an existing mark, barely deepening it. It relied more on one of them catching sight of the dagger, rather than the mark itself. Perhaps not perfect, but her zig-zag pattern was intended to help with that. She kept an eye to be sure at least one of the group caught sight and the rest followed, throwing again as needed to redirect them. She knew exactly where a good tree was, but was attempting to make as confusing a trail as permissible. To her dismay and annoyance however, TiiLiiqia did her own scouting, and after convincing them to leave their horses behind struck out straight for it, Morys and the unannounced demon in tow. She had half a mind to swoop down and berate them, but took a deep breath and thought of what her brother would do. He would note that 'they do not operate as I do, and that a better expense of energy would be new emergency plans, not nit-picking.' Sometimes she hated his obscene calm and understanding, but couldn't argue, and still preferred it to him nearly getting himself killed in a rage.</span><span style="color: #BFBF00">"Which he is hopefully not doing right now!"</span><span style="font-style: italic">She muttered under her breath and followed to the tree, no longer marking a course with her dagger. No need to leave other bonus clues if they were rushing right in.</span><span style="color: #BFBF00">"I just hope it's not occupied. We are not the only runaways in this forest.."</span><span style="font-style: italic">But it seemed they had lucked out and the outlaws of the forest seemed to be on vacation in these parts. As they settled into the hollows of the tree, the inevitable question of watch came up.</span><span style="color: #BFBF00">"I offa' fisst watch, and the'd. My sleep is a'watic, When my bwotha' weta'ns I can get mo'. Plus e may need to wawn me."</span><span style="font-style: italic">Not entirely sure if understood, she turned to Tiiliiqia and spoke in nature-speak.</span><span style="color: #BFBF00">"If not understood, me, first and third, in case my brother sends warning. I can sleep more later on the move."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">The closer the lupine got to the scent-voids, the more uncertain he was. They had not moved once, even slightly, and a few smells were changing around them but it seemed like some incredibly dense magic was interfering with identifying them. Then as he reached the edge of the clearing, he cursed his idiocy. There were no assassins, he was victim to the limited precision of smell in his assessment. No, it was in actuality a trio of portals, each spewing forth a different demon as it refreshed it's charges from whatever wizards controlled it on the other side. Whoever was in charge was yelling something about an opportunity to show up a rival who screwed up and lost.. something. His grasp of demon was sketchy, and amidst the commander's tirade of opportunity, another sound caught his attention a bit too late. The demon blundered into sight, yelling at him in frustration! If he hadn't caught two things, his sword would have been back in hand. But, it seemed the demon mistook him for part of their growing force and was demanding he get with the others and stop being lazy. So he made a distasteful remark back, as no demon took lightly to being bossed around, and headed into the clearing praying to any god that would hear that the others would also not recognize he was an outsider.</span>