Alice, though at first disturbed about how easily a Dark Elf could gain the trust of her comrades, thought well of the new party member. If Geradin thought she was alright, then she must be. She was surprised when no-one offered their interloper medical aid, or food, but the elf seemed none too offput by that. Alice was among the first to lie down to sleep, the events today had left her in desperate need of rest. After realising no-one else had put up tents she didn't bother herself with the extra effort. She did need to perform some arcane rituals to try and restore her power, as well as smooth over the arcane influence left in the cavern, but she decided to leave that until morning. And if anyone ambushed them she was pretty sure she would sleep through it. And if any sort of..... zzzzzzzzzzz... Oh, it was time to get up. --------------------------- She heard the hubbub of the party getting ready for the day ahead and stretched. As always, sleep had gone too quickly. She did feel better though, and while others were fussing over sorting out breakfast or their ablutions she sat over near the water and started performing a few minor rituals. She waded through the river and scooped up a hand sized rock from the centre. She carved and intricate series of 'c' marks upon it and then restored it to where it came from. There, that should help pull the excess magic into the river and downstream, where it can dissipate naturally or at least collect in a lake somewhere. She smiled to herself, Vrettonnian's where one of the few races of people to actually exercise environmental care with their spellcasting, a responsibility too often left until too late when monsters start cropping up after a couple of centuries, or the dead rise. Onto the next ritual. --------------------------- Alice travelled by herself, in the middle of everyone. She mainly studied her spellbook as to try and sort herself out, occasionally shooting looks at any who might be getting too close. Of course it was ciphered, but one can never be too careful. What most of her thoughts idly dwelt on was who made these tunnels? Why were they so large, and why did so many of them open up next to villages? Maybe no-one knew, maybe no-one ever would Aeryn had led them true enough though, something that spoke well to her character, and they eventually came out into the light. Alice felt a cold chill in her bones she didn't even realise had fallen on her dissipate. The Dark Elf had been scarce on details as to what village this was, maybe she just didn't know, but the general attitude of the party was that they didn't care. Alice lacked anyone to share in her amusements, but she didn't miss the opportunity to childishly snigger at Settionne's heavy handed attempts at flirting with the next feminine thing that had walked into their lives. One part of her did so out of force of habit, cruelly mocking other court girls for similar attempts. The other part of her did so out of much more refreshing reasons. It was always nice to see romance not as some scandal, or as some huge life changing thing. Just a few quick words, maybe a blush and then nothing. No gossiping for the next few months. No enforced social isolation from overdramatisation. Gods did Alice not miss that part of her life, she shared a few of her thoughts with the hulking lizardman, who seemed to listen in-between bites of a possum he had somehow found along the way. She was sure he only heard one in five words, but she didn't care. The whole world seemed a better place today, and Alice could hardly wait to get to the village and see what was in store for them all -------------------------------- [@POOHEAD189][@Gardevoiran][@BCTheEntity][@Fetzen][@Stormflyx]