Neidr and Arrieta wanted to wait out the rest of the expedition in relative safety. They had hoped to stay in the cave, but it seemed occupied. With a shrug of the shoulders and a shake of the head, Neidr simply decided to wander around until they found a relatively safe location to stay. He spoke to Arrieta frivolously to pass the time as they scanned their surrounding s for a place to stay. A vacant glance at the ground allowed Neidr to catch the imprint of a boot in still wet mud in his sight. Smiling wryly, he decided to use the book Laszlo had given him. Looking out ahead of him, Neidr saw some depressed grass. No, the grass wasn't sad, it was forcefully pushed down, most likely by a shoe. Neidr could tell it was a shoe because rather than being bent, the grass looked like it had been shallowly cut, causing it to lean over. Neidr smiled and followed the tracks, Arrieta stayed behind him, keeping her crossbow up, ready to fire at a moment's notice. The duo's chatter decreased as they listened to their surroundings for anything that might pop up. Eventually, the duo came upon a relatively open area, where two young initiates sat cross-legged and meditated with their backs facing one another. Neidr's jaw almost dropped, He jus couldn't get away from this protagonist. Thinking it over, though, maybe he didn't want to. Although protagonists often drew danger to themselves, it was often danger that they could handle, afterall. Neidr signalled to Arrieta to approach the duo slowly and not to make any noise, he was going to use them as a shield, it wouldn't do to piss off his benefactors, would it? Neidr and Arrieta set up camp between the two of them, they quietly watched them meditate for a short time before deciding to play some games. Thumb wrestling it was. The duo played for a while, until they got hungry.

Seeing neither Liam nor Lizzy make a move, Neidr assumed they were in a deeper meditative state than he earlier imagined.

"I'll go see if I can hunt something, can you cook?"[Neidr]

"What kinda dumb question is that? I'll cook ya somethin' so good you won't know what to do without me."[Arrieta] Neidr smiled and said,

"Looking forward to it."[Neidr]

"Whatcha gonna catch?"[Arrieta]

"Whatever I find."[Neidr] Arrieta shut her mouth and looked at him sighing,

"That doesn't sound very dependable."[Arrieta] Neidr scrunched his eyebrows and said,

"Could you do better?"[Neidr]

"Don't hafta, I'm cooking."[Arrieta] Neidr rubbed his brow and got up and walked away, further engagement was futile, it was time to retreat.

Neidr made his way back into the woods and sat still and watched the critters move along the forest floor. Sitting still and waiting long enough, Neidr saw a Shratre. It was a quadrupedal, lanky creature. It had the body and neck of a deer, but its four limbs were elastic and tipped with human like hands to help them climb through the trees. Its neck was short and ended in a spherical head dotted with just two black eyes like gems. It had a trunk on its face that was lined with teeth rather than the ability to smell. It reached its trunk towards a small creature the size of Neidr's palm, before sucking it in and devouring it. Neidr aimed the crossbow at the creature's head as he watched its prey be slowly dragged up the trunk like a snake swallowing its prey.

Neidr fired, and a bolt went straight through the unsuspecting creature's eye. After a soft whimper, it crashed to the floor. Neidr let out a breath of relief. This thing should be good enough to feed to four of them, it didn't take much heed to his presence, likely because it had gotten used to humans trotting around grabbing at plants or sitting motionless meditating. He tied the animal's limbs together, which were made of cartilage, and carried it back to camp like a shopping bag. A very heavy shopping bag. Neidr smiled,

'How is this for unreliable?'

Approaching the area, Neidr took a whiff of the ingredients Arrieta had already mustered with a smile on his face. He tied the carcass to a tree and started to drain its blood.

"Fer a noble yer pretty clever, some people'd just stick the damn thing on a fire straight away. Neidr looked over at the small fire surrounded by stones sitting in-between his pseudo human shields and said,

"My family isn't that noble, we live out in the sticks up north."[Neidr]

"No wonder I like ya!"[Arrieta] slapped Neidr on the back, and he gave a sly grin. Time for revenge.

"Oh, is that a confession?"[Neidr] Arrieta looked away at the ground and said in a small voice,

"What if it were?"[Arrieta]

'Fuck, this woman moves fast.' Neidr was a little surprised, but his eyebrows danced in a bemused fashion.

"Arrieta."[Neidr] He said in a stern and solemn voice,

"Look here."[Neidr] Arrieta timidly cast her gaze towards him, uneasy and not knowing what to expect, and was rewarded with a huge smooch. Arrieta's face was colored with shock, and it took all the will she had not to holler at the top of her lungs,

"Scoundrel. Fiend. Shameless to your core. "[Arrieta] Neidr raised his eyebrows and asked,

"Didn't like it?"[Neidr] Arrieta humphed and went off to cook, Neidr chuckled and begin to skin his prey while humming a tune. Once he got a chunk of meat, he handed it over to Arrieta, who summarily chopped it up and cooked it over the fire. Once he was done, he moved over to her side and helped her cook. He didn't really know what to do, so he listened to her orders.

Elizabeth exited her state of meditation to the harmonized humming of an unfamiliar tune, and the tempting smell of cooking food. Her stomach rumbled, she had had nothing, but dried meat and rations since she got here. Even then, she ate it in small amounts, using most of her time to meditate. Thinking that her knight had taken it upon himself to cook her a meal, she was delighted. She slowly opened her eyes with a smile on her face, but that smile was soon replaced by shock. That bitch and here compatriot were sitting in their camp! She lost her lady like manners for a second,

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?"[Elizabeth] Her fury filled shout knocked Liam out of his meditative state, and he flipped around, looking at the duo sitting in his camp with equal parts shock and unease. Neidr looked at Elizabeth's expression which was painted in wrath and thought,

'Oh yeah, didn't she get the hell beat out of her last time I saw her?' Even if Neidr wanted to distance himself from responsibility in his mind, he knew that he would have to deal with this one way or another if he wanted willing meat shie...

'No , no, no , teammates!' Neidr thought, 'teammates!'