Several days of travel had left Beth feeling tired. It wasn’t even from the journey in particular, her skills had kept the exhaustion at bay and her ability to traverse the leaves had continued to improve until the point where she was almost as good as a local, albeit a local who only occasionally left the village. The thing that had really made her tired over the week of travel was trying to keep up with conversation. She looked behind her to Pauline who had taken a permanent position at the back of the trio. She had also been the cause of almost all of the breaks they had taken. Despite that they were making good time and the forest was beginning to thin out. Nate led the way, showing the other two the fruits of his experience when the trees were getting thinner and so harder to travel by. The two of them had barely spoken more than a handful of words to each other at a time. They remain civil but they certainly were particularly friends and wouldn’t speak unless it was necessary. Unfortunately they both still liked to have some sapient interaction and conversation which left Beth having to be the sole converser with both of the pair, a role she would literally never have volunteered for. Not that she minded talking to either of them but she found it exhausting as often in the evening the pair would take turns talking to her leaving her no real time alone to decompress before she called in a night. An action that generally had resulted in her going to bed before the other two children just to get some time to herself.

The walk had been generally pleasant though. They had stuck to the top of the tree except the rare occasions they descended to scavenge for food or to check to see if there were any key indicators of Volisear . Beth had begun to pick up some of the telltale signs of their occupancy, the trees would be devoid of any mushroom growth below a certain height. In the areas with the berry trees the lower branches would look damaged and while not stripped clean it would be clear that something had barrelled through the bush unconcerned for preserving the food that sat upon them. Despite Beth have studied these telltale signs, and the fact both Nate and Pauline already knew them and more besides they still tested any area they descended by lowering some food on a rope like a primitive land fishing hook.

Eventually the trio reached the point where they could no longer travel by trees with any real ease. Carefully checking the ground for dangers they descended and began to walk towards the mountain. They had already begun to ascend however slightly, and the ground below their feet started to have less grass and weeds and more small stones and gravel. Due to the amount of time the ritual had been around and the not inconsiderable number of people who had approached the ritual from that point there were clear signs of human passage that implied the route most took to climb the mountain. They had slowed down a little having reached the mountain. All a little daunted by the task ahead and the change in environment. Beth focused her thoughts on the crunch of the gravel beneath their feet and considered their plan for when night fell. Currently the glow of the mountain was almost perceivable but as night fell it would become more and more visible. It would never be impossibly bright but Beth hadn’t grown up with much if any light while she slept due to the inherent danger of leaving a candle lit over night. They also wouldn’t be able to rely on the relative comfort of sleeping on the leaves, instead having to trust the rather thin sleeping bags they had been provided to keep them comfortable.

“Beth” a voice whispered.

She turned sharply towards the Nate who seemed to have whispered her name. He gave no reaction and seemed to generally playing it cool, acting as though he had done nothing. Beth wasn’t going to let him win at his own game and decided to similarly pretend nothing had happened. That didn’t stop her however from attempting to get conversation rolling as she had been brought out of her thoughts anyway. Once again she tried to think of a topic to engage both the pair.

“When do you think we will spot the first of those rocky things?” She asked, not named them because she knew Pauline would feel obligated to correct her.

Sure enough Pauline responded “You mean the Kapoals? I don’t know probably soonish. There are minimal rocks here to act as camouflage so I doubt they would be so far out.”

Nate chimed in “Not like we would be able to see them anyway, how many prey animals do you know that would just wander up to people?”

Despite the negative tone Nate was once again carrying Beth was determined not to loose even the very slight momentum she had built up. “Why don’t we make a game of it? First person to spot one doesn’t have to take part in helping prepare the food.” The other two agreed quickly and began to scan the surrounding area with a near fanaticism. Beth for her own part didn’t actually care. As long as they had something to eat she was more than okay with preparing the food. After all if they didn’t find food she would have to speed off by herself and she would feel guilty abandoning the other two so early in their journey.

The three spent another hour travelling before spotting the first of the creatures. There were a couple of near misses where either Nate or Pauline could have sworn they saw movement but when further inspected there was nothing there. In the end it was Pauline who spotted the creature they were searching for. It was bigger than Beth had expected. Much bigger. She was expecting something the size of a rabbit rather than the sheep sized creature the kapoal turned out to be. The three watched it for a moment as they tried to think up a plan of attack. It rotated, rolling over extremely slowly, unfortunately Beth couldn’t tell if it was now looking at or away from them.

Pauline had describe the creature as slow moving relying instead on it’s tough outer shell to protect it from predators. It wasn’t known to eat or drink and was thought to sustain itself simply by the glow given off by the mountain. In the end Nate elected to approach the kapoal. He was the quietest of the bunch and while both he and Pauline carried daggers he was the only one who hard more than a little passing experience using one.

He crept forwards, his feet touching lightly and silently in spite of the gravel he stepped over. The kapoal didn’t show any sign of acknowledgement, even when Nate climbed onto it’s back straddling it where it was nestled among other rocks. Having got himself properly situation on it’s back Beth watched as Nate carefully lined up his pair of daggers with the cracks in the rock, hoping to puncture deep enough to hit the flesh of the creature. He plunged them down together the force of which causing the blades to sink in just over halfway.

The kapoal instantly reacted it began to thrash wildly trying to buck off Nate. He grabbed his two daggers and used them to keep hold as the creature moved wildly. Beth and Pauline ran over unsure of how to help. The animal began roll again, much more rapidly, trying to crush it’s attacker. Nate released the daggers just as Beth grabbed him and heaved him off the creature as it rolled over fully.

The daggers were stabbed in such a way that the creature wasn’t damaging them by rolling over again and again in an attempt to disrupt the thing causing it such harm. Eventually it’s movements stopped and for all intensive purposes appeared dead. Beth was the one to creep forward again and grabbing the two daggers thrust them deeper into the creature to be sure it was dead. Fortunately it was and having confirmed the fact Beth and Nate got to work peeling the creature out of its shell. They used a combo of Beth’s half staff and rocks as a hammer and chisel. The shell of the creature wasn’t as hard as the rocks it resembled and after a short while they managed to get the meat out.

Beth was pleased to see that despite them all agreeing Pauline didn’t have to contribute to the food prep she none-the-less had prepared her cooking slab for the meat. As expected the meat even after cooking was extremely slimy and moist but ultimately tasted very good. Having left the forest and Volisears behind and not particularly needing to hide their location from anybody they felt comfortable cooking during the day. There was more meat than the could comfortably eat as the core of the creature contained no bones or organs that weren’t edible. They rearranged their packs so they could carry the meat evenly and had the rest for dinner that evening.

When they settled down for the evening, among the uncomfortable stones they all struggled to sleep. As such they ended up chatting a little. Not excessively but enough to take another step past the awkwardness that Beth had felt consumed by so far. It helped that Pauline had actually helped set up camp. Beth had noticed she normally only did token work to get them set up so was glad of the change however small. In the end their exhaustion won out against their tiredness and the three drifted off to sleep.