The discussions Chartose managed to have with the group's envoy were... pleasant. As she seemed to have a decent amount of concern for everyone's well-being balanced with knowledge of the ground ahead and interest in anything unknown to her kind, which mostly found its way back to something his scream-raptor would do whenever the group was idle.

At the same time, care had to be taken to convince Tricia not to eat the envoy's fjord-horse.

Keeping a fully-grown scream-raptor was a challenge, however; becoming an ever-greater uphill struggle until they came under the well-insulated protective shelter of a thick snow-bound forest-canopy. Despite there being very little light, the ground appeared lush and green, albeit a little soft and swampy. The air, although stale, was surprisingly warm; Tricia would often poke her snout out from under the tarp in an effort to get some fresher air, and to cool-off, but was actually finding it difficult to achieve either.

However, while crossing a refreshingly-cool stream, the mood suddenly turned sour as Rilana ordered everyone to close-ranks and tread carefully. It was even stranger that this order had occurred [i]after[/i] fording a stream without incident. The instinct to climb a tree for a better vantage point was strong, but for the time, he simply made-sure Tricia could cast-off her heavy covers should they need to flee up one of the trees.