Investigation [Max]

[Treijim]

Murdock avoided Thane's eyes. He turned to Bhergen and nodded.

"This one will do. It doesn't have a smart mouth. Are you ready to go now? Of course you're ready." He was not looking at Thane, but his slightly raised voice indicated he was not speaking to Bhergen. "We are to leave at once. There is no time to waste. The sanity of these insane fools depends on you."

---------------------------------

Outside, it was bitter cold and the wind howled through the trees around and behind the fort. Before them, a vast, dirty wasteland stretched out for quite some time until viciously rocky mountains greeted it. There was not an animal or bird in sight. Murdock started down the road that led south without saying anything. Bhergen, who was carrying all the equipment, followed close behind. Neither of them said anything to Thane.

[Karl]

The lad glanced around the fort for a moment, awkwardly avoiding the disturbed soldiers' glares and staggered towards Murdock and Bhergen. He remained silent, right hand still pressing against the hilt of his sheathed sword relaxed.

He began tailing the two men down the South path, a worried gaze scanning the surroundings systematically as his fingers swirled around the handgrip of his blade, ready to be drawn at any given moment.

[Treijim]

For the most part, they walked southward tirelessly. The air was cold and the wind never died down, throwing all sorts of bizarre clouds across the sky high above. At one point, some very small hairy animals jumped across some rocks nearby, but other than that, nothing else moved. As the sky began to grow redder, they came upon some very rugged channels in the stone, as though an oversized piece of farming equipment had been dragged back and forth over a large area by a giant.

"I appreciate your astuteness, but there is no need to strain your cold fingers. Relax your hand, soldier, and spread a tarpaulin here across a narrow part of the trench. We'll need something to sleep under tonight."

Bhergen began to patrol the surroundings as instructed and Murdock simply jumped down into the dusty trench to observe the stones. Bhergen had unpacked a folded tarpaulin from his gear and left it at Thane's feet. Next to it were some metal pegs and a mallet.

[Karl]

Thane was ever so quiet, making his way behind the two men as the cold gust smacked against the side of his tilted face. Eyes narrowed and vigilant, he carried on gazing through the dust, twisting the palm of his hand around the hilt.

As the small animal suddenly popped out of the rocks, the lad quickly and abruptly drew his sword out of its scabbard and stood motionless, eyes widening and blade risen above his head. With a sigh of relief and awkward movement, he sheathed it back noticing there was no danger.

Grunting lightly, he kept his hand in position, by his side and stretched down to reach for the tarpaulin which he began to assemble slowly.

[Treijim]

The shelter was soon up and Bhergen had been standing there the whole time Thane was assembling it.

"They're just rodents," he said flatly. "They'd bite your finger if you let them. Otherwise harmless, though. Best not be drawing at every sign of movement else the captain will think yer on edge, ya hear?" Bhergen had a flat accent and spoke with a frown, and his eyes shifted from side to side as he spoke, as though he was looking for something he had dropped.

There came a terrible scream from high above. Through grey clouds, there were what seemed to be giant birds flying high above. They circled the humans for perhaps half a minute before flying out of sight again.

"Those... a bit more dangerous," said Bhergen. He turned around to see Murdock trudging over a hill towards them. "Good enough for a trophy, sir?" he called out as Murdock came into hearing range.

The captain shook his head. "No, and we have no bows. We need something that is actually going to come within range of my blade." He noticed the shelter was up and looked at Thane. "Good. It's no good sleeping when it's dark. It get so cloudy that the day looks like dusk. Get some sleep now and be ready in a few hours when we continue. There's a ridge some way off that would make good shelter from the wind and there are nests near it."

[Fast forward to the point of awakening at the end of your post, if you want]

[verbed]

[Bringing in Amon to join the fun.]

Amon praised his luck. The dirt and stone provided a convenient background to hide in with his rusty color. He had already completed sneaking behind the backs of the two men, rummaged through their luggage and pocketed the small amount of food he was able to find. All that was left was to escape unnoticed. Remembering all that he'd learned, he kept himself low enough to crawl along the ground, but not so low that he dragged and left a trail to be followed.

He was nearly to the crest of the hill he had chosen to escape over when a new human, and the biggest he'd yet seen, made his way over the summit. He quickly dropped his body to the ground and rolled to his left, behind a boulder. He lay flat on his back and hoped the new arrival didn't notice or hear him hide away. As the man passed the rock Amon moved as well, keeping the boulder between the two of them.

The man began to speak with the others and it was apparent that Amon had gone unnoticed. He inadvertently let out a deep sigh then quickly brought a hand to his mouth in a desperate attempt to muffle the sounds of his breath.

What was probably the biggest mistake of his life was closing his eyes and waiting.

[Treijim]

[Murdock isn't that big ]

"Real pity that the kid turned out to be a coward," Bhergen grumbled. "Who woulda thought he'd turn back at the first sign of danger? What's he doing signing up for Curin then, hm?"

Murdock was standing beside the shelter, staring out with impressive vigilance. It took him several moments to reply with, "Indeed." And then he fell back to silence.

The silence served them in hearing a nearby sound, like a shuffling or something alive making accidental noises. Bhergen turned to look at Murdock, but the captain's gaze was fixed on some boulders.

"Another rat?" Bhergen asked. He drew his blade with a shrill ringing and stepped toward the rocks. "We could eat it."

"It sounded larger," Murdock said. "Significantly larger..."

Bhergen nodded and approached the boulders fearlessly. The largest and nearest one was the one he checked first. Instead of going round either side, he climbed on top and looked down. Beneath him was what appeared to be a young Ildemin. A grin spread onto the large man's face.

"Runt! Been stealing out food, hm?"