The water was crisp and clean, and the berries sweet with a just a slight tang to them that let Leanna know they were unfamiliar.  While she was more used to being hunched over books in the library as opposed to going on a nature hike, she felt somewhat enthused about her mission in the fresh light of day.  Her sleep had been dreamless, and when she woke, it was to a peaceful morning.  It it weren't for the completely unfamiliar plants and odd looking, she could almost feel like she was simply on a nature hike.<br/><br/>No... no she corrected herself.  She'd never take a nature hike wearing nothing but gauzy, see through under robes and a loin cloth.  Plus the air here felt... off somehow.  The air was already warm, not uncomfortably so, but certainly not with a morning chill like there would be around the mountain home of the monastery where she'd grown up.  Occasionally she caught sight of the purple grasses moving far off, and she assumed it might be a rabbit or some other small animal.  She knew the mechanics of hunting and trapping, but had no experience, and wondered how safe it would be to eat.  Luckily, she only really needed one meal a day, and that was a 'safe' meal in her bags.  As long as she could stay pure, she could probably trade with that rat man for safe food.<br/><br/>She realized then one strength she still had in this strange place.  While she had no magic, and she didn't know much about this land, she did still have her personality.  She was always good at getting the cooks to make sure there was a little extra bread on her plate at dinner.  She always knew just how to bargain with the local villagers.  She knew when to smile at Mother superior and when to appear chastised.   Maybe these skills would somehow carry over?<br/><br/>She felt her hopes buoy as she gripped the walking stick and kept moving around the lake.<br/><br/>It was about forty minutes later when the stockades of the human settlement of Kleine came into view.  She remembered what Rathazul had said about the strange human town and wondered if she should check it out or steer clear.  But from the settlement, a river flowed south, draining out of the lake and moving steadily southwards.  There was no bridge to cross the river, which looked at least thirty feet across.  The water looked calm enough, but she had no idea what lay beneath the surface.  The river flowed southwards into the rolling grasslands, and Leanna wondered how far it was to the other spots marked on her map.  She didn't know if the map was to scale, and there was no legend that she'd seen.<br/><br/>So the choice to follow the river seemed to be clear.  But as she thought about heading along the river, she saw something at the very edge of her vision.   Off in the distance, across the river, but far south of the wooden palisades of Kleine, she caught something... a flash of light, like sunlight off metal.  But then it was gone and she couldn't make anything out at the extreme distance before the fog engulfed the distant grassland.