The bustle in the streets of the small mountain town was hitting its peak now that dusk was settling on the landscape. It was a place called Ertiseda, nestled in a pass between two mountains, near to the border of the Ascendancy and Mythadia. It was, for the most part, a trading post that had sprung up naturally along one of the roads leading from Mythadia directly to Arcaeda. It was in Ascendancy territory and majority Tekeri, though this close to the border, there was a fair Glen population in town. The two populations had something of a convenient arrangement for how they ran their town. In the day, Glen were mostly the ones out and about, running their shops and going about their daily tasks. Overnight, it was the nocturnal Tekeri who took over the same shops and did their jobs in the darkness. No matter what time of day a traveler arrived, every service the town provided was always available. Dusk and dawn were the only times of day where the whole town tended to be awake at the same time, right as one group was getting up and ready to start their day, but before the other was ending theirs. 

Kareet had been speaking with a Glen at his produce stall in the market. He was middle-aged, somewhat unkempt fur, though still…acceptably presentable. His antlers looked to be about halfway through with growing in for the season. A lot of the Glen around them looked to be closing up their stalls for the evening as the Tekeri came in to replace them, so Kareet would likely be one of his last customers for the evening. 

“And you’re sure it was to the north?” Kareet asked. 

The Glen gave an emphatic nod. “Oh, yeah, yeah. An Iriad comes strollin’ through town lookin’ like a bonfire, that’s not somethin’ ya miss. Didn’t make much sense to me; didn’t think those plants liked fire all that much. Innkeep made ‘em prove they could keep from burnin’ the place down before she’d let ‘em in, I ‘member. We still had some boys pull up some water buckets from the creek, but…well, they didn’t cause no trouble. Didn’t stay long, neither.”

Kareet tilted her head slightly, looking off to the north. “I see. Do you have any idea why they just went off into the mountains? There are no roads leading off that way.”

The Glen shrugged. “No clue. They didn’t come in off the road either, though. Just wandered in out of the woods from the south, from what I heard.”

“Hmm, well, thank you.” Kareet replied, giving a moment to take a look around the stall. After a few seconds, she pointed to a hard-shelled fruit about the size of her fist. “I’ll take one of those.” She said, mostly as a courtesy for taking his time.

Kareet slid over a pair of copper coins, then slipped the fruit into her backpack before moving on. She weaved through the crowd, ignoring the rest of the market around her as she made her way out of town from the north side. Pausing briefly, she gave a look up to the forest-covered mountainside, and the steep climb that would be ahead of her. “Why couldn’t they just use the road?” She muttered to herself.