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"I think." Angel says as she dismounts Praesul and helps Salia down, "That you should rest awhile, sore aching joints won't help anyone if something does happen, I will ask Bastian to take the first watch, Papa second me third and Elias last." She grins her hand falling on Liri's shoulder.

"If there is someone coming, we will know, and yes, it is quite clear we are being followed, but we can do nothing about that now."

"Loose the jacket and sit down please." She orders, caught in the moment, if Liri agrees she removes her cloak and sword and sits her near a tree. Sitting behind the Elf she gently rubs her shoulders and back, attempting to remove the stresses of the day.

"We will sort the pain in your legs when we scout the camp a little later." Angel adds, her voice soothing, yet there is a hint of nervousness in her voice, plainly visible to Liri, her firm hands shake slightly with each touch.

Liri opens her mouth in protest when Angel orders her to sit down. Her idea of getting to feel better again would have been to move, but why not try the other woman's methods?

She closes her eyes and enjoys Angel's ministrations, after a while, she lays one hand on Angel's. "Thank you. This helps. But I would still like to stretch and walk a bit. Why don't we do a perimeter check together?"

Bastian has been unusually quiet the whole day. Almost as if something was bothering him. He really couldn't place his finger on what it was exactly, though. He was about to go talk it over with Angel (Or maybe flirt with Liri if Angel proved preoccupied) but after he see them, well, occupying each others company he simply snickers to himself and look to "Muggy".

He guides Gertrude over to where their guide is standing (Working, resting, watching?) and starts to remove his mule's burden. He casually glances over and says, "So....bats, huh?"

"I.. Umm.." Angel blushes, realising what she had done, she goes to move away, yet Liri's hand on hers both calms her down and causes her heart to jump through her chest.

"Let me set up the watches for the night, and then we can." Angel manages to say. Standing she grabs her cloak and sword, striding over to Bastian.

"Bastian take the first watch, Papa should take the second, I'll take the third, and Elias last." Ignoring his gaze she looks at Maghus and smiles, "I will not seek to tell you what to do." With that she turns "I am going to check the perimeter."

Flashing Salia a smile she heads back to Liri, "Shall we?" She smiles, offering Liri her hand.

Liri shakes her head and doesn't take the offered hand. "Not here, not now" she says. "Let's do our job first.

Have you learned to move silently?"

Angel shrugs, the Elf obviously didn't want her help standing. "That is not something I have been taught, I can move quietly, if desired."

Strapping the Longsword to her back she motions for Liri to lead the way.

Bastian stands dumbfounded. "Well, I suppose I'm on watch...." He turns to Salia who is preparing to cook the evening meal. "There's not much to watch out for while it's still light, so I can help cook if you'd like."

Liri nods and leads the way, trying to circle the camp some distance away, looking for trails or other signs of passage or human presence. She wants to get a "feel" of the land, too. She won't talk, trying not to make more noise than is unavoidable given Angel's armor. If nothing happens or nothing remarkable is found, she'll stop when they've completed their circle, before returning to camp.

Angel follows behind, keeping her gaze fixed on the trees and the surroundings, trying to see what she can see, she is no tracker, yet her elven nature allows her to move with some grace.

She stops when Liri does, waiting to see what happens, trying to open her mind to see what she might see around her.

[OOC] Sorry - I've got some catching up to do. [/OOC]

Maughus looks at Bastian warily. He's clearly on edge, but nonetheless he's maintaining a professional attitude. As Bastian approaches, he's busying himself cutting saplings into spear shafts. "You think it's funny, priest? When Dirtnap comes for you, are you going to grin at him and make jokes? Maybe he'll grin back - ha! - he really can't help but grin, can he? Got no lips to frown with."
The ranger stops speaking, then, and goes back to work.

Bastian finds Salia more talkative, although the baleful eye of her brother puts a damper on any topic of conversation more substantial than the weather or cooking.

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Liri and Angel swing around to the group's backtrail. Attuned to her surroundings Liri notes that the nearby crickets tend to go quiet as she moves towards them and after she moves on they resume their chirping.

This continues for the duration of her walk until...until she comes to a place where the crickets are already quiet.

The effect is disconcerting, like walking into your living room and finding no furniture in it.

Seeing Liri suddenly tense, Angel is alerted to a possible danger.

The sun has set, but there is still a bit of light in the sky - enough to make one doubt one's eyes. After a time, though, one of the bushes at the treeline resolves itself into a figure.

She's tall, even for an elf. Her hairstyle is severe - jet black hair pulled back tightly on her head from a prominent widow's peak, then spilling in elaborate braids from the hairclasp at the back of her head. She is beautiful in the way of old elven nobility - the ones who can trace their lineage back to the days when the first words were spoken - but with a slightly feral cast to her features rather than the placid look most such elves exhibit. Her eyes are large and dark blue or indigo or maybe black - it's hard to tell in the fading light, even though her irises are so big that barely any white is visible.
She is clad in an elaborately made dress of dark blue silk, heavily decorated with embroidery and beaded with small gemstones, but with silver chains and even a bit of chainmail mixed in in addition to the stones and a few jewels. Her skirt, although ankle-length, is slit in both directions for freedom of movement. She wears tooled leather boots on her feet, with a sheath worked into one of them.
Several belts adorn her waist, with a variety of pouches and other object suspended from them, and on her right hip, hanging diagonally, is a long slim sword with a curved blade.
Her hands are gloved in dark leather, with bits of chainmail for decoration. Her left hand is empty, her right is closed, with a slim chain wrapped several times around it.

"You will surrender the body to us, immediately," her voice is calm and quiet - just loud enough to be heard over the twenty feet between you. She speaks courtly elven with an odd accent, not one that Liri or Angel have ever heard before.

"Vedui' (Greetings) Brethren there are two answers to this, the first being well, No... The second being slightly more long winded." Angel keeps her distance, keeping her voice formal, stumbling over the Elven.

"I would think that those who have a claim to this body would not be sneaking through the forest, hiding themselves in plain sight." Angel replies, hand on her sword hilt.

"Identify yourself."

Liri listens to the other women, she's been sent as observer, that's what she does.

"Truly, you have no idea of what is happening here, do you?" the woman asks. Her eyes narrow as Angel reaches for her sword hilt, but she does not make a move towards her own blade. "If you insist on keeping the body, you will cease to be. This is not a threat."

"Let us end them and be done with it," another voice says nearby. The voice is similarly accented, and the speaker is standing off to the woman's left. He is shorter than she, clad in a dark cloak over glittering armor, and standing beneath a very broad pear tree, laden with fruit, some of which is quite ripe and inviting, better than any fruit Angel has ever seen on a fruit cart in the marketplace, and much better than any she saw during her time in the legions. There must be something in the local soil conducive to growing good pears.

"Then perhaps instead of threatening us, you could go ahead and explain this.." She removes her hand from her sword, she could draw it quick enough, that wasn't a problem.

"Something is wrong here, I get that, we all get that, your Kinfolk do.." She looks to Liri, "Let us begin this once more. I am known as Angel." She offers her hand in greeting, "You are Elves of one sort of another yes?"

"My name is Liriodendra ti Corylus, imperial messenger. I have volunteered to accompany the body to a place where someone can tell us what it is and what happened to it. I do not care where the information comes from."

Speaking Elven, Liri steps up next to Angel and offers her hand, too.