It was a bit disappointing to the whole patrol when the peddler turned out to be more cunning than they knew, having managed to be about his way with hardly a trace. Eventually forced to acknowledge they'd lost him, the little party paused to assess the situation. Lea's sense were alert. She took the finding of the peddler personally, considered it her responsibility to accomplish it, and she was determined to not to let them down. Still, she wasn't alone as everyone in the patrol contributed with their knowledge. She sniffed the air at Baba's order, breathing in deeply to sift through the scents in the breeze just as she climbed up onto the excellent perch DeeDee pointed out to have a look over the brambles. Eventually there was nothing to do but venture forth and test her skills against their prey's.<br/><br/>It was a comfort to have DeeDee with her but Lea remained largely silent, nothing like her usual garrulous self, instead focusing all her attention on the task at hand. Tracking was as much as art as a science, and an imprecise art at that. It was a matter of sifting through the details and having the perspicacity to determine which were significant and which were not. From the ground under their feet to the lay of the vegetation around them, nothing escaped her awareness. But the pressure of the task weighed on her heavily and as she got deeper into her task, her curious mind became something of hindrance. It was easy to imagine signs of the peddler just about everywhere and one after another there was a detail to distract her or something new to be explored. It wasn't until she was nearly exhausted, her eyes bleary, that she was forced to acknowledge not only was the trail good and lost, she was simply unable to find it again. Her heart was heavy like a stone as she returned to report, hardly able to look Baba in the eye.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry, I've failed in my task," she admitted, pained. "I could find no sign of him. It's as if he's vanished."<br/>