"I've been in the area before," Sef replied after some thought. "There's a series of caves on the shore a mile or two out from here. They should be safe unless something else made them its home first, of course." She glanced at the outpost entrance and added seemingly in afterthought. "We can return tomorrow to collect their things."

Patting the skin just underneath one of Dessa's shoulders, she drew her back and faced in the direction of the ocean. The smell of it immediately rid her nose of the awful and familiar stench of death. "If you stay, good luck."

The great lizard jumped into motion with a whip of her tail and with little more than the scrabbling of rock on rock they blended into the night.