Brisa walked. And walked. And walked. She had never imagined that travel would be like this. When Autry had talked of adventuring there were…well…adventures. She never mentioned hours of trudging and sore feet and sore hands and aching back and bruised shoulders. 

She was a giant walking hurt right now and the only way she was going on was to keep reminding herself to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. When they stopped for a brief rest Brisa flopped. 

Her fingers were still holding onto the lead rope for her goat when she flopped onto the ground with a unceremonious thump. She didn’t even bother to find a place to sit alongside the others on the oak tree, just leaned her back against the roots of the tree, closed her eyes, and whimpered slightly. 

She didn’t ever remember walking that far, even when she went collecting with Autry they stopped regularly and though the distance was the same it somehow seemed easier. The goat munched on the grass nearby, ignoring Brisa. It was not bothered in the slightest. 

The lunch was simple enough but she felt immensely better for it, though still incredibly sore. She wished she had thought to bring Autry’s herbs though she wouldn’t know the first thing about what to use for what ailment. She had studied enchantment not healing.

When Dakin nudged her she looked up, she hadn’t realized she had been dozing. 

“Hmm. Ohh. Let me take a look.” Brisa was not at all bothered by the request, it was actually uncommon to find children who could read and or write. In fact it was uncommon to find adults who could. Most focused on more “useful” pursuits. 

She hauled herself up, wincing at feeling the sores on her feet, and sat down next to Dakin to look at the map. It was gibberish. Lots and lots of gibberish. She frowned. 

“I don’t know. It’s not in common.” She was about to turn away then she realized that some of the letter combinations looked familiar. Like when she first learned to read and understand magic she had some talent at quickly recognizing patterns in language. 

“Wait” she said and turned back. She grabbed her bag and pulled out her carefully wrapped spellbook. She pulled the paper out that she had so carefully transcribed the words written by the dead bodies. “It’s them!”

She was excited now, pain and tiredness forgotten. 

“Whoever hurt the town. This is the same language. Look” she pointed to the writing and then to the writing on Dakin’s map. “Could this be wherever they, it, the magic, whatever comes from or is going to? Would Dorn have known and drawn it out like this? I can figure this out. We have to figure this out." Her voice became softer and her eyes focused inward liek she was thinking. She kept talking however. "Something tells me whatever the words are, here and on Dakin’s maps, they are important. I need more though…something to compare it too…something I already know.” 

She was talking entirely to herself now. She had already folded the paper back up and slipped it back in her spellbook. She was wrapping the important book up now and talking as she did so. She had seen the others rising to leave, and Ronin packing his horse back up, and knew she didn’t have time to do what she needed to now. 

“Later can I copy the words Dakin? That way I can try and figure out what they mean?”

She picked up the lead to Daisy, her goat, and then at the last moment realized maybe she wouldn’t have to carry her shoulder bag of books and the few odds and ends she had. Daisy could. She began to carefully tie her bag to Daisy’s back. 

[i]How much longer[/i] she wondered. She was not an adventurer and she didn't know what she was doing. At the moment she was just following the others and she was too sore and tired to do otherwise.