[b][center] Sir Kay [/center][/b] Dusk went past. Light gave unto darkness, as a small spectacle of beautiful eerie light set ablaze. The night was alive in the swamp, that was beyond doubt. But Sir Kay knew that looking into that enrapturing spectacle could prove fatal to the unskilled. He pressed the fresh mud with his finger as he knelt by one of the swamp many ponds. It certainly was soft, and imprints and tracks left on that mud were clear as a day... if they were recent. Those tracks he had found earlier, and had justified a more throughout inspection of the swamp, were actually not remnants of an ages long past, but they were quite recent. Given the nature of those, it was an alarming finding. Were them hoofprints or trails, he would not have given them a second thought. He could have accepted normal human footprints, but those... A shallow depression with the shape of a foot... were it to be stripped completely out of the flesh. Something unnatural. A skeleton footprint. As if the beasts and slimes weren't enough, the swamp had the telltale signs of undead. [i]The nature here is warped. It's not readily apparent, but it is warped.[/i] He added mentally as he strained his sight to see in the shadows to see where the trail ended. It disappeared in a puddle of some sorts. Apprehensively, Kay grabbed a pebble, and tossed it to the apparent puddle. It writhed and reacted to it. Damn slimes, they had erased a vital clue that was most needed. Kay felt defeated, but there was so much he could do in the night in the particular swamp. He stood upright and tried to get his mare's reins, when his mount turned to a side. She had heard, or seen something. Kay knew that horses could see much better than humans at night, so he stood silent. The ramblings of a man could be heard, in harsh whispers. A intermittent source of light was shown at times. A bandit? No, he did not move like someone trying to be stealthy. He... seemed incovenienced. A traveller, and probably a highborn, given his overall shape and the glimpses he could get out of clothes. He didn't look to be a necromancer either. [i]Damn...fool.[/i] Kay resisted the temptation to facepalm as he swiftly grabbed his mare's reins and caressed her nose. "Easy, girl. We need to do a last stretch of travelling and then I will let you rest." He whispered into her ear as he moved to appear in front of the stranger, his mare behind her. "Hail traveller." He said curtly. "I do not comprehend what would push someone like you..." He paused for a second, eyeing the strange contraptions the man seemed to have"...of noble repute to prowl a swamp like this at this time of the hour, but you should make haste to reach town." That man seemed familiar? Maybe one of those arrogant faces of his youth? Who could've known. He inhaled, as he finally realized the man had been zigzagging through the dry spots. He would never reach town at this rate. "Actually, it's better if you hop on my mare's rump. We may have to wade through if we want to make haste." [@Eisenhorn]