It was the quietest meal Chamera had had in months. She had spent weeks with Pan and his company. Their campsites had been merry, a collection of misfits trading stories and laughter beneath Selune's shining face and her cloak of stars. When they traded the road for inns, Chamera had traded her songs for accomodations and glittering golden coins. And before Pan, there had been Everlund, the first home she had truly known since Athkatla.

She'd spent her whole life laughing over friendly meals, fingers dancing across strings and voice raised in song. 

There was no reason to sing now. 

Chewing her slightly stale hard tack, Chamera could no longer ignore the gravity of just how thoroughly she had bungled her mission. Be discreet, the order had told her. Do not let the Zhentarim know you walk among them. Report back when you have answers.

She had ravaged the town, thumbed her nose at the Zhents and might as well have screamed the Harper's code at them, and left with nothing more than sketches of the runes covering the town and a half formed theory as to how the bastards had conquered the dale.

As far as jobs went, Chamera couldn't think of anything she had managed to do quite so badly in all her years adventuring.

The dr--[i]Jeron[/i], she reminded herself sharply, had turned his back on her, hunkered over his bowl like she might rip it from his hands. Chamera didn't know what to make of the young man, so guarded and sharp. In a way, he reminded her of the alley rats she had known as a child; they had that same look in their eyes. Cagey, vicious, distrustful, like someone might strike them at any moment if they were more than shadows. Chamera hadn't realised how justified that fear was until she had been much older and elbows deep in the guts of slavers preying on the alley rats of another city. 


"I'll take first watch," Chamera remarked as she scraped the remaining foodstuff of her bowl into the flames. They would need to snuff the flames out soon and settle into silence. "We cannot linger here for more than a few hours. We need to get moving and find the road south to Suzail before the Zhents or the wilds find us."

Tucking her bowl and fork back into a canvas bag and depositing them in her pocket plane, she shifted through the pack until a coil of rope and hook and a spindly, green wand came to hand. She could find a home in the tree above Pan and get a decent view of the area, and hopefully pick off anything that might come for them in the night.

Chamera winced as she rose to her feet, joints creaking in the night. She gazed out into the night for a long moment, ears twitching faintly as she listened, cataloguing the low hum of the woods. She flicked her gaze back to her conscious companion, forehead creasing as she attempted a smile. 

"There's a bedroll in the tent you can use. Get what rest you can; I'll need you on watch in a few hours."