It was a good thing Lauk was slow to react, as he had never been much good with horses. For some reason, they never quite seemed to like him. Give him a good giant lizard any day in place of a horse. Fortunately, the horse’s owner—Aurix—kept it from running off. There was no doubt about there being someone or something out there. Beyond the obvious fact of what this place was, of course.

“There is something ahead,” he muttered softly as they started moving out, “not sure who or what, but we’re decidedly not alone here.”

He kept his eyes open, only occasionally blinking with his nictitating membranes to keep them wet. The light from his spellflame-wrapped staff didn’t go far, but at least the orange-red flame around the pale green crystal didn’t mess up his sight too much. Idly to himself he wondered whether that spell could be cast on a person, such as around their hand or head. That could look… [i]interesting.[/i]