[center][h3]Helena[/h3][/center]

With a combination of Wide Warp and Spatial Haste, the scouting team made easy work of keeping up with the carriage. The five continued moving across the grassy hills, using the terrain as a barrier to avoid detection, until they came to a higher knoll a half-minute ahead of their quarry. Helena barked out a break command, and her squad fell to its collective knees. Psugeoth and Gretchen hurried to regenerate their mana, while Odile and Tungus stood by. Their commander, however, crept up the side of the knoll on her belly until she could peer over the top at the process coming into view. 

Though her subjects moved with haste, her keen eyes took in what she could of their features. [i]Wealthy,[/i] she observed, not just by the make of the vehicle but by the armament of the paladins. Even normal full plate cost a pretty penny for humans, and the gear of these two -while laughable compared to even the dinkiest armor found in her Guild- stood above standard human fair. Then again, she couldn't presume that this world operated by the societal rules of the one that came before. One rider's face she could see, and noticed by his ears that he seemed to be an elf. The carriage's driver she could also see, a homely man fixated upon the path before him with a baleful sort of rigidity that, to Helena, suggested anger. As the entourage flew past she attempted to spy inside, but opulent curtains blocked her view within. From the carriage wheels a great plume of dust flew up to obscure the vehicle's passing, but before she lost the view she spotted a few buildings in the direction her quarry appeared to be headed.

Helena allowed a short time to pass before she straightened up and waltzed down the knoll. “Nothing much of interest. Somewhat better-off compared to the average human. Settlement ahead. We should hurry.” A billowing darkness spread over her the next moment, and the scouting party disappeared, its pursuit re-engaged.

Before long Helena's squad came to another stop inside a small ravine, and the five either jumped up to the edge or stretched to see what lay beyond. A few hundred meters away, the pitiful cluster of shoddy huts stood like a huddle of old men, lost in the middle of nowhere. The carriage and its escort would arrive only a moment later. Sound would carry through the still air, Helena knew, and afford her team a chance to sate their curiosity. As insignificant as this village seemed, it proved the new world's first glimpse of civilized life, as well as their chance to get an idea of what sort of place their organization found itself.