The search continued for perhaps another twenty minutes. Most of the time was spent weaving between the various hills and rocks looking for anything that look remotely like the frame for a passage. There was only one that could be described as what they were looking for, but it was so covered in loose gravel from the slope above that it was not going to be a passage for anything.

After a time, the search appeared rather aimless. They were looking for a big hill amongst many big hills, from the bases of all the big hills. Uthri eventually spoke up with a suggestion, "You know, I could climb up one of these hills myself and shout down what I can see." Uthri pointed her thumb to the rocky hill beside them, "It will probably be easier to judge where the biggest hill is."

Gallus gestured and raised his mouth in an expression that held no objection. "Go ahead. We'll look around here for a bit while you do that. Just stay in view of us."

With a nod and a smile, Uthri began to ascend one of the hills at speed. The way she stepped up the loose stones and clambered up the handholds spoke of some experience with climbing. While the rest of the group poked around below, she would be up there in a few minutes to give them some direction.

[hr]
Sabine at least removed her hand from her face when Peiter kissed her cheek, but she still didn't look very mollified. "I know I do not [i]have[/i] to," Sabine conceded, "but...now everyone will [i]expect[/i] it. I just want to stay here and hide until we find the clanhome."

With one hand, Sabine grabbed at her cold snake skin. After a moment, she turned herself onto her back to look at Peiter worriedly, "Could you...just tell people that I am not around until we pack up camp again?"