The ride was pleasant enough, as far as things could go. The lack of saddle left Alice's haunches burning, and she couldn't imagine what it was like for the other less experienced riders. Geradin was complaining about it greatly until she corked out some of her stashed ale which he promptly complained was watered down human stuff. After his initial grumble he promptly became more amicable and although the horses were travelling at more than leisurely pace they still managed to have a good long conversation, it never failed to amaze her how much experience the dwarf had gained over his many centuries of living, and the Dwarven tinge of 'Ragnarok this,' and 'my honour that' only brought it's own charm to the stories. Sett remained quiet throughout, and thankfully inactive. He instead preferred to hold her shoulders and jostle, suffering in silence.

The wind swept her hair as they swept across the greens, making it beyond messy but in that pleasant and freeing way. Why hadn't they set off with horses to begin with? Suddenly the horses came to a sudden halt, and Alice knew what was coming next. She quickly wrapped herself around the beasts neck and hung over one side (so if she did fall she'd have some control to roll out of the way of stamping hooves). Sett however did not have the same chance to react, however, and as the beast reared her promptly fell off the back of it with a loud rustle and 'oof!'. She heard Geradin off behind her somewhere curse out as he made the same tumble, this time punctuated with the chink of armour.

Her next step was to leap off the side, and try to calm the beast before it started careening, but when she started petting it's side she noticed it's eyes were far from wild. It simply regarded her calmly and promptly ran off. They were trained to do that?!? "Thrice cursed elves and their lack of saddles!" she shouted after it in Vrettonnian, she never would understand why they decided to do that. No doubt her legs would be killing her promptly, but for now the adrenaline of swift action still suppressed such pains. She turned to Sett in a composed manner to help him up, looking past him to see Geradin hefting himself up on the handle of his hammer and An-Hasst...

... Staring down an imposter. She could have sworn the beasts were not driven to flight, but she quickly drew her hand back from her wheezing countryman and reached to her Fan-wand. The confrontation didn't seem hostile, though the woman had drawn her weapon. At least Alice thought it was a woman, thought she looked fairly small and androgynous. Alice's and Geradin's first thoughts considered an ambush, and he cast his eyes about in front of her, one hand on weapon and one hand clutching at his pendant in a pre-battle prayer. But the woman looked like a very strange bandit, and if there was an ambush Alice would likely be sporting several arrows in her midsection by now, which she felt was a look that wouldn't suit her very well. 

Settionne took this opportunity to take his own stock of the situation, standing up and sticking his hand on her shoulder. He started as he always did, with honeyed words. "Now, Madame, you are a highly educated woman, if you don't mind my saying so," she would have rolled her eyes had she not been trying to survey the situation, so instead she twisted the corner of her lips into a subtle grimace. He continued "By your estimate, would you say that that smoke beyond yonder horizon is of the right quality to have been generated by, say... dragonfire?" he pointed behind her, and she considered the question. After about ten seconds she didn't know why she had taken so long looking for any identifying features, there was no way to tell if it was dragon fire from the smoke alone. She couldn't even tell if it was a lot of smoke because of 'yonder horizon' in the way. While dragon fire itself was slightly easy to identify, mainly in the respect it was coming from a dragon, anything set on fire [i]by[/i] the dragon would be using the burning feature as fuel and wouldn't take on the same qualities. She replied to the priest [color=royalblue]"A fire is a fire, Settionne. I have no idea, but I wouldn't rule a dragon out of the question."[/color] at least she wouldn't in their certain circumstances. She noticed Geradin head over to the new woman, but she brushed off Settionne's hand and fixed him with a stare. [color=royalblue]"I don't know whether you can pry to any gods that could help us in endeavours of subtlety, but I would suggest asking. We're going to go scout ahead."[/color] likely they would be in the safest place doing so, and the party would need to make friends very quickly if it was as Settionne had suspected. 

She turned to the Lizardman with them, but he'd already started heading off towards the smoke, having not been held up by the fickle steeds, and probably having smelt the flame a ways off. She started after him