Rosa said nothing to Kye as she moved to take her position at the front of the party, but the look she gave her was one of complete confidence and trust. Meanwhile, Miriam had no objections to Kye taking point. "Scouting was Braden's job, not mine. That bastard - I'm not surprised he ran as soon as I went down. There's no loyalty these days."<br/><br/>It took the better part of an hour for the party to descend the scree slope safely. The rocks eventually gave way to a gentler grassy slope, dotted sparsely with small trees. The depression in the loose rocks continued into a pair of tracks leading deeper into the valley, like the furrows left by a heavy wagon with wheels a handspan wide. Broken branches and crushed bushes were left in the wheels' wake. There was no sign of any tracks left by the animals pulling the wagon.<br/><br/>"You might be right, Haysel," murmured Rosa. "What kind of wagon could leave such heavy tracks, and cause such devastation? I still think they must be coming from underground, or why would we not have heard of such a menace by now?"<br/><br/>It was almost night by the time the party reached the bottom of the valley. As Miriam had described, there was enough living space within the valley for a small community to survive, if not thrive. The land wasn't suitable for agriculture, but Kye spotted signs of plenty of deer, goats and rabbits in the area, and there was plenty of edible plant life to be found, with which they could supplement their rations if desired.<br/><br/>The next morning, the tracks still stretched away from them, deeper into the valley. It was now a week since the attack on the monastery, by the party's best reckoning. They were surely on the trail of the perpetrators, but they had a substantial head start, and, apparently, a powerful vehicle.<br/><br/>Over the course of the morning, Kye and Miriam discovered signs that they were moving into the territory of the goblin tribe that lived in the valley. There were snares set for rabbits, and pits dug to trap larger prey. Goblin footprints near these traps were more than a week old, though - nobody had tended to these traps for several days.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/32/GoblinScout.jpg)</div>It was nearly noon, with Miriam and Curra at the front of the party while Kye ranged ahead, when a shrill voice emanated from a tree above them, screaming something in the goblin tongue. A moment later, a goblin dropped out of the tree, brandishing a spear at them, shouting incoherently, then switching to a clumsy rendition of the common tongue. "Humans and drow again! Here to kill more? Begone! Not afraid you!" Kye had moved past the goblin's position without seeing him, but he seemed not to have spotted her either.