[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220419/d955e440c95ac6f731dc5e649ad359eb.png[/img][/center][hr]Lilann was beginning to think restful sleep was beyond her. Between her nerves, that eerie dream, and the [i]music[/i], she could hardly bring herself to shut her eyes for fear that something might be waiting for her the moment she opened them again. It was embarrassing. Years spent living in cave towns, sleeping in alleys where she ran the very real risk of waking up to a knife in her gut, and here she was, exhausting herself over fairy tales. 

Except they weren’t fairy tales. The smell of death had been real, the Rancor had been real, and the godsdamned music was so real she’d be hearing it in the back of her mind for the rest of her life. However short that seemed it might be. 

Truly, she was tempted to retrieve her lyre and play along. That duet from her little excursion hadn’t been so bad, and while the melody sweeping through the trees was lovely in its own right, it really did want for a partner. 

Then again, if she woke the brute he might just kill her. 

The choice wasn’t left to her in the end, though, as there was a commotion not too far from their camp. Something falling, someone shouting angrily. She sat up and saw she wasn’t alone in noticing; Kyreth was motioning for Esvelee to be silent—not an idea she found disagreeable. 

She ran the gamut of possibilities in her head. Thieves were likely, as were fellow merchants. The idea that it might be the necromancer crossed her mind, briefly, but she figured if they were looking to pick up where they’d left off, they wouldn’t announce themselves like this. Likewise she put the thought of the Rancor from her mind—there was still color, and the smell was wilderness, not rot. These were people, she decided. 

Getting to her feet, Lilann pulled her mask over her face, and donned her hat. “[color=skyblue]I’ve had about enough of being snuck up on.[/color]” she mumbled, and motioned to get Kyreth’s attention, before pointing towards the voices. 

She found a modestly-sized rock and touched it, flooded it with her aether, and picked it up. As she walked towards the tree line she let it go, and with a quiet hiss and a twist of her wrist, it floated up beside her. She kept one hand in a rigid form, almost like she was knocking back an arrow. A fast rock might handle a thief, and if it [i]was[/i] something more sinister…well, she had suggested being on the front lines. 

Casting one look back to her companions, she drew up to the trees, trying to peer through them at whoever, or whatever, was making all that noise.