[b]Waterfall Clearing[/b]
Following the cliff face had been a good move. As they continued alongside it, the trees slowly grew thinner, the gravel less gravelly, and the cloudy sky could occasionally be seen overhead. Eventually, the team reached another source of water, this time a great, roaring waterfall, which fell into a large pond. The pond didn’t drain anywhere, which was a little weird. 

More importantly, around the pond was a good deal of space clear of trees, brambles, or any other such nasty things. In fact, the raw dirt, after spending so long with the strange green gravel, actually looked a little bit unnatural. The sun, so far as they could tell by the darkening sky, was setting. It was time to set up camp. 

Piper, of course, had no interest in actually helping with that. Chumi had all the camping supplies, anyway, and there was a great, wonderful, beautiful waterfall pool right in front of her! She had barely taken her boots off, before she leapt into the clear waters. Her hat nearly fell off, but it quickly grabbed her jaw before it could. 

Beneath the surface of the water, the water was... Deep. Really deep. So deep that despite being right next to the shore, she couldn’t actually see the bottom. Small, oddly shaped fish swam past her without a care in the world, as though young witches popping into the water and creating a great cloud of hair behind them were a perfectly normal occurrence. One of the fish, some sort of weird carp with a mane of silly bubbly tentacles gracefully floating behind its fins, swam in front of her, inspected her, and swam downwards. 

Piper, curious as to just what was at the bottom started to follow, but stopped when she realized she didn’t remember to bring anything to provide light. Instead, she contented herself with watching all the exotic, unnamed fish that swam around, doing their own business. The waterfall, when viewed from underwater, was really very pretty. It was as though there was a constant stream of bubbles, which, when viewed upside-down, looked like a sort of magical, underwater fire on the surface. 

She closed her eyes, and smiled. It really was wonderful, being underwater, when you didn’t have to worry about coming up for breath. She did, however, still have to come up to eat. She opened her eyes, and swam back to the surface. That silly carp was back again, watching her with almost sad eyes as she left. She blew it a little kiss, as though to say that she’d be back later. 

One quick drying spell later, and she was warm, and facing a moderately annoyed Chumi. He didn’t say anything, but she could tell he didn’t appreciate the way she left him to do all the setting-up of camp. She’d change his mind, though. She pulled her hat off and reached within, pulling out all of the ingredients and cookware necessary to make a small meal of fried vegetables. 

[b]Thunderstorm Tent[/b]

“Hey, Piper, do you remember any warding spells or anything?”
“No, you know I’m awful at those. Why?”
“There’s something... Odd, intensely magical and disturbingly bored, in the forest nearby. I think it’s watching us, and I don’t know what it is,” 
“Something’s watching us? Since when? Where is it?”
“I’m not sure. I started to sense something odd nearby while we were following the cliff after we ran into that really big, ugly tree. Don’t look, but I think it’s in the forest on the far side of the clearing,”
“Don’t look? Why? I want to know what’s creeping on me, if something’s creeping on me!”
“I can’t detect any sort of malevolence from it, so it’s not hunting us, and it’s concealing itself very well. I don’t want to startle it, it might attack if we do,”
“How strong is it?”
“Strong enough that if it were a person with that glow, I’d be making getaway plans,”
“Geez. It’s not a person, though, is it?”
“No, definitely not a person. I can’t even comprehend that thing’s emotions, aside from an overwhelmingly intense boredom. It might not use its magic for anything but good, like a unicorn or something,”
“Maybe it’s a magical cat or something,”
“Not a cat, either. It doesn’t want to ask us any riddles,”
“I wonder what it is, then,”
“Me too,”
“You have a getaway orb ready, right?”
“You bet I do. This one’s configured for the orb pile we left behind, I made it there,”
“I hope I don’t have to leave my skillet behind. I left it outside to cool off,”
“Me too, those vegetables were good,”
“I’m gonna try to sleep now, let me know if the bored monster is gonna cut our heads off or anything,”
“Goodnight, Piper,”