[quote=Morly]"As long as we're on the river we're safe. Everybody knows that. But once we cross the witch's barrier at the lake, she'll come running. We just gotta be quick. I'm the quickest, though."[/quote]

Anise nodded as Morly explained how the river was safe, but the sound of witch was a bit unnerving. "That's good the river's safe. How long should it take for us to get there? How quick will the witch take to come?"

She felt a bit of a rush as soon as the boat started to pick up speed. There was no way that they were far from their destination. This left her feeling eager to return the Lady of the Pond to her home and get to her next objective: the remaining lanterns. She knew there was one at the pirate ship, and if she made it there safely then she could get right to work on returning the forest to its natural state.

[quote=Morly]"So yer lookin' for the pirate ship, huh?" Morly called over the sound of the rushing water. "There's lotsa neat things on the ship, I heard. Maybe even a dragon egg. How're you plannin' to get past the gryphons, then? They like to sit on the mast. Everybody knows that."[/quote]

Anise opened mouth and then closed it to think a bit. So they were called gryphons? Like the fairy tale monsters? "Do you know any way to calm them and maybe keep them from hurting my and my friends?" She felt she could actually calm them down with the help of the Spirit Egg, but she wanted to have another option available just in case that wouldn't work. "I don't want to have to fight them if I can help it."

She the suddenly thought up an idea as the Lantern passed her thoughts. She concentrated on the egg within the lantern itself and tried to make contact with it. [i]Hello, I'm Anise Sinclair, Princess of Riverforde. I want to help bring the forest back into its proper balance, and there are going to be gryphons in my near future. Can you help me?[/i] If the lantern held an egg within it that meant she was carrying a living thing, and this egg seemed to be beyond normal conventions. Thus she thought perhaps she could communicate with it on some level.