Now that Brisa had a plan she was all business. She wasn’t sure where her plan would lead her, but a starting point was better than nothing, If they could find more clues as to what happened maybe she could figure out how to get justice. She had a vague idea of capturing the culprits and turning them over to the law for hanging. She could see the end quite clearly, everyone praising her for solving the mystery and making those who wrought such evil pay. The beginning she could also envision very clearly. She would travel to Llorkh and find a bunch of clues. It was the middle part that was somewhat fuzzy. 

Brisa had heard of Waterdeep, from Autry. It sounded a simply fabulous place. She wouldn’t mind going there, though what help could be fetched she was uncertain. There was nothing left to do here at the town, whatever happened was done and over with. Now they had to find their families and friends. For Brisa she sought her family yes, but the real thing she yearned for was Justice for Autry. Justice or Revenge.

Brisa nodded when Argurios asked for time. Of course she would wait for him. She owed him so much for his help, she was still nervous around him but she was beginning to think that maybe she had let her imagination run away with her. He was a genuinely helpful person. 

While they waited she looked around. There were a few horses, they seemed “workable” save for the fact that they, like all the other village animals, were unnaturally quiet. The thing was she had no idea how to handle a horse at all, and had never ridden one in her life. She used to ride the goat when she was small, that memory brought a wistful smile to her face, but that generally involved just hanging on while the goat went wherever it wanted to go. 

Her family used pack goats to collect clay, they were small and light and able to forage anywhere, including the moor. She usually milked the goats, which were all female, in the morning but other than that she wasn’t even sure she could handle a goat. A horse would be much worse. 

Not certain if it would be helpful however she told Ronin where the few horses in town were, what families made enough money they could afford to keep a horse. 

“You have maps Dakin?” Brisa asked in wonder. She had heard that Dorn traveled a lot, imagine if he mapped everywhere he went. What an amazing thing. She was familiar with maps but the idea of actually drawing one, much less several, was almost impossible to fathom. 

“What does it say about travel between here and Llorkh? Anything? Any short cuts? I want to find them too…if we can figure out how to get ahead of them somehow.”

She looked over Dakin’s shoulder as he showed her the map. She was afraid to touch it herself, such a treasure should be…well treasured. She was disappointed however. The road between here and Llorkh was marked with nothing but a small set of triangles that crossed it…mountains she assumed. No trails, no other roads, in fact the land looked to be forbidding and mostly mountainous. She looked for a name and found Graypeak Mountains. She didn’t know the path went through the mountains, no one ever said anything about that. Maybe they were really low there or something. There didn’t seem to be any way to gauge how many days it would take to get there; from the few that she knew visited it took three days, they were riding horses however. How much longer would it take walking. She had no way to know that unseasoned travelers made very little progress each day, and the children were certain unseasoned.

She also spotted a note in teeny tiny writing right where the path crossed the mountains. “Raven’s Rest Inn.” She blinked startled. She had heard of the inn naturally, it was a popular stopping spot for caravans passing for people rarely stayed in Twiddledale. She was surprised she hadn’t thought of it before. 

“If we have money we could stay at the inn” She didn’t realize it would still be three to four days of walking for the children unless they somehow managed to ride horseback “or even if we can’t pay them maybe we can work for lodging.”

When Argurios returned Brisa blinked rapidly. He looked grown up in an instant. He was bristling with weapons, well she considered it bristling with weapons, and looked almost like his warrior father. A glance at the axe told her she probably couldn’t even lift the thing, it was definitely not an axe designed to chop wood. If she looked really closely she could see that it was well used and suddenly Brisa felt the enormity of what was happening. 

They weren’t talking a walk. They weren’t visiting relatives. They weren’t even going on a spell component collecting venture. 

She let out her breath in an “oomph” and tried to suppress the shiver that ran through her. Argurios and Ronin were warriors…that much was obvious. Even Dakin who was supposedly training with Dorn as a druid held his staff like he knew how to use it as more than a walking stick. What did she have? A book. 

She picked up the leads to her goat and nodded to the others. 

“Lets go” she said softly. “Can we seal the town behind us? When we get back I’d hate to find it destroyed by rampaging trolls.” She didn’t say what she was really wondering. [i]Would she ever be coming back?[/i]