Thea's plan was a solid one, and one she had used before to great effect. She turned her eye to the hills rising on either side of the trail, and assessed the land ahead of them for the most defensible position.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, the land had other ideas. Almost immediately after the point where Kye had spotted their watcher, the hills began to rise up on either side of the trail much more sharply, forming into almost the cliffs of a canyon. The trail narrowed to become only barely wide enough to allow the wagon to pass. Up at the tops of the rises to the left and right were enough rocky outcroppings to hide an entire platoon of soldiers, or at the very least, a dozen bandits. If it wasn't already obvious that this was a perfect ambush site, there were signs of rocks or bushes being piled up along the edges of the cliffs to create artificial cover.<br/><br/>The watcher had disengaged from his watching and now had disappeared beyond the hills on the right. As the party approached the ambush site, Kye could again spot him crouched behind some bushes on top of one of the cliffs. If there were more people present, they were fully concealed at the moment.<br/><br/>There was still opportunity for the party to turn around, or adopt a defensive formation in the canyon, but the site of the watchers' desired engagement was clear to the party's eyes, and there was no other practical route ahead.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Map</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/3f/DesertGrid.jpg)<br/></div></div>