Arngrim had noticed Velatha pursuing him almost immediately, the elf making no efforts to hide her movements from him, or anything else that may have been lurking in the ruins.<br/><br/>And so it was that Arngrim had revealed himself to the elf, his expression making it no kind of secret that he was displeased with being followed. And than the pompous oaf had chastised him and followed along pleased as she might be like she was doing him a favour by echoing her footsteps all over the former keep as she shadowed his every move.<br/><br/>Arngrim kept his voice hushed, not any louder than Velatha's careless footsteps, as he chastised her back, "That was very much the point of me heading out to scout, alone. You never know what might be lurking here, now aware of our presence thanks to you clopping about the place like this is a picnic. Could you at least try to be silent if you insist on making a fool of yourself trying to scout?"<br/><br/>Luckily, despite Arngrim's misgivings, the place appeared to be completely abandoned, eerily so as they got farther inside. Arngrim could understand why men had forsaken this place, near as it was to the blight, but there were no signs of any animals having taken residence in their vacancy. Something about the keep must have made them instinctively avoid it. Perhaps it was the blight itself. There was a reason the most corrupted animals stayed inside of the forest deeps, they felt more at home among the blight than away, and the reverse held true for the less blighted, who recoiled from their corrupted brethren. This keep was right on the precipice, not blighted enough for the blightbeasts, and too blighted for everything else.<br/><br/>Arngrim kept his observations to himself however, only breaking his silence to berate the Elf for her clumsy stealth. "If that wall had been a mimic, that crack just alerted it to our presence." "Are those limbs or a giant eat me sign, keep your posture tight woman." "I've seen recruits who were quieter than you. Mind your footsteps." That last bit was technically true, but only so far as the shorter races were just quieter in general, Arngrim had to admit she wasn't completely incompetent at stealth, for one of the big folk anyway. He had a strange way of praising her though, "That was good! You might be able to sneak past one blightbeast, but gods help you if there was a herd of them lurking in here."