<strong>Eshalu - on the move in the wilds of Dra Sirdu</strong><br/><br/>The night had passed without incident and that was a blessing. Eshalu was tired and she sank gratefully into much deserved rest. Aeryn's proximity was deeply reassuring. A familiar warmth, heartbeat, scent. It was different from that of her lodge-sisters, still strange and exotic, but it was now familiar enough that she no longer felt the pangs of nostalgia assail her.She was faintly aware of other presences in the night. Movements in the air, changes in its scent, scampering, claws scraping against wood - but they were impressions. Eshalu embraced her rest, her eyes focused on the slightly hazy milky light of the night sky, stars like little pebbles in a moonlit pool. Again, it struck her how the sky was different. The constellations she had spent nights pointing at with her playmates when she was a child were out of place, warped beyond familiarity.<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Roll Result: Eshalu rolled: 4d6<br/>Comment: Eshalu - Notice check<br/>Result: 1, 1, 5, 5,<br/>Net result: <strong>+2</strong> (+0 dice rolls, +2 Notice skill) a <strong>Fair</strong> result<br/></div></div>When morning came, she rose and stretched and then leaned forward to meet Aeryn's kiss. She ate sparingly and refilled her waterskin from a stoneware ewer. With the morning came her daily ritual of sharpening and oiling her blades and she concentrated on this, pensively rolling a stick of the half-chewed tough and bitterly medicinal root she used to keep her teeth clean and her mind clear. "The fruit is good," she told Aeryn, "but it is very ripe - too much will bloat you and I do not know what effects it may have if it ferments. I know berries which if left to rot become a sour mash and, when you eat this mash, you can see the true colour of the spirit world with its dancing lights and only awake two sunrises later with your head and belly in agony."<br/><br/>This deep into hostile territory, she thought body paint in honour of the Moon Huntress would be appropriate. If they could pause outside of Cold One territory, she made a mental note to ask Reliyian or Aeryn if they knew the right patterns. But she was reluctant to proceed with any ablutions in the Saurian village. The risk of leaving her scent was too dangerous. If the Saurians did not pursue, something else might.<br/><br/>"We should be on our way, then," she called, her spear polished and at the ready, "once we find the trail down on the forest floor, we should try to track back in the direction from which we came."<br/><br/>With that, she led the party out of the Saurian village, watching the camouflaged abodes fade almost seamlessly into the dense forest. From the thick-grown forest floor, she sought the trail again that would bring them closer to the true quarry of their hunt.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Roll Result: Eshalu rolled: 4d6<br/>Comment: Eshalu - Notice check<br/>Result: 4, 1, 5, 6, <br/>Net result: <strong>+3</strong> (+1 dice rolls and +2 Notice skill)</div></div>