[center]Baeshri Hills - Near Southern Baeshri Pass[/center] "No, she isn't a druid but she is the best friend I've ever had. I owe her my life." Rem answered. The sun was almost down. He paused on the natural trail near a small copse that opened up to the star-lit sky. Mushrooms, flowers, vines. The forest was heavy in vegetation here. The mushrooms in particular seemed to line the sides of the natural pathway. Rem knelt down beside some of them a sniffed at the air. "These are what I am looking for, the mushrooms." He took a seat, criss-crossing his legs. "Or rather what is hidden among them. You see, most of these are poisonous. They all look the same, smell the same, they even taste the same I'm told." He shrugged. Not like he'd eat poisonous shrooms just to find out how they taste. "There's a trick though. A beautiful trait in some of nature's more secretive flora and fauna." Rem sat back, leaning the palms of his hands against the ground. "Just watch closely." As the last rays of light ascended and disappeared from the horizon the mushrooms in the grove began to glow. Not just a few of them, all of them. They lit up in a cascade of several different colors: red, blue and green. The forest was dark around them but in this small grove the bio-luminescence of the mushrooms gave enough light for them to see each other's faces. "The people who know about them call them Wisp-caps. Beautiful aren't they? Go ahead and pick a couple of the red ones. Just don't touch any of the other ones." He smiled wryly. "They are known to have paralytic effects. Wouldn't want you joining my friend now." __________________________________________________________________________________________ [center]Caravan Centaurus[/center] Daelin waved the can through the air to clear the mist, coughing slightly as some of the backspray of the mace wafted through the air. "Whew! A couple more seconds and you'd have officially made this my worst caravan run yet." Daelin commented. He was thinking purely of the kill count of course. No one had ever tried blowing him up before. A tactic that he definitely didn't approve. The caravan was a mess inside and out but as it stood they were sitting ducks. They had no idea how many marksman were outside or if they had any more [i]unapproved tactics[/i]. Daelin stowed the can back into his belt and rummaged around through the cabin for what he really wanted. He spotted just what he was looking for in the back where Lyullia had initially fallen. It must have been thrown back there in the crash. The crossbow! He rushed over to it, pushing debris off and pulling it out from under a partly broken box. It was scuffed up a bit and the stock had a new scar that he didn't put into it but it seemed operable. He tested the string, unsatisfied with its tautness he twisted a small crank along the center of the bow. He nodded at his work and turned to face the others. "I'm checking outside. I know they have marksman but we can't sit here either. For all we know they want to dump that rock above us on the caravan and be done with it." Daelin mused. He stopped at the ladder and looked up. "Cap'n! You okay up there?" He asked.