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quechianCor and Thymelixsen too the first eight-hour watch, and May and Jack and I took the second eight-hour watch. We weren't in the same hurry, now that we know we need to wait a while before getting to the city with some Ult threads in some of us, giving time for them to change over.
There was time for all of us to practice during our watches. I used my active-watch time in alertness, worked on Touch of Purity, then asked May to help me with resisting layered magic.
When Thymelixsen woke up, he found that the bird spell had worn off early. We debated taking the time for him to cast it again now, but in the end, decided to get closer to the city first. I suggested we continue running, since that would leave us the most time for practice, and for Thymelixsen's casting, if that was what he wanted to do.
I changed my clothes around, putting the Ult clothes under my armor and other clothes, so they couldn't be seen; the others did as well. I put the other Ult stuff (bags and belt pouches) into other sacks also. Cor thought we should bury the things, but if they're hidden, I don't think it makes a difference, unless we bury the Ult clothes as well.
May blessed us with Guidance of Nature, and we set out, pausing whenever we needed to refresh that blessing, and for me to heal whatever losses people had from the run.
It was during the third time running that Cor and Thymelixsen noticed motion off to the left in the woods. The kathel children were back, and pacing us. There didn't seem to be anything to do about it, really, other than stay on the trail and continue.
After nine hours, we stopped for the day, which left more time to practice. I was pleased to have the chance to work on two more of my blessings.
We set up the watch for the night, careful to have more than one person awake and at least one person alert, given that we knew the kathel children were out there. Thymelixsen started casting his bird form again, Jack went to sleep, and May stayed on watch while Cor and I prayed.
I'm so glad she did: she saw some large shapes coming towards us in a line. She used Jack's spyglass to see a line of woruckus coming towards us, huge green and brown ones with spiny backs, tusks from their cheekbones, and short trunks. They were huge, the width of the whole path, and it seemed like we'd either be crushed or pushed off the path, even though Cor thought it unlikely that they were real, given how single file they were coming. I had a sudden thought and woke Jack. "Jack, take us into shadow on the path!" Which he did, though it shook Thymelixsen out of his casting. He even took us past the woruckus on the path, and we noticed that they didn't have any shadows: they were, in fact, illusory. Thymelixsen confirmed by sensing magic.
When we came out of shadow, Cor yelled, "Nice try, but you could just come and talk with us!"
Thymelixsen noted that amongst the group of kathel children tracking us, they have Visic, Astaric, Pauchy, and Esmic magics for sure, and possibly more (all kinds, since they're kathel?), and walk in the trees. They can read our minds, since that's how they got the woruckus, from May's mind (the ones I've seen looked a bit different). And distance probably doesn't matter with the mind reading. His best guess is that they chose something that would be recognized by the one person watching.
Why did they do this? To get us off the trail to mess with us further? Or to break Thymelixsen's casting? Or to see how we'd react, testing us? None of us know.
There was time for all of us to practice during our watches. I used my active-watch time in alertness, worked on Touch of Purity, then asked May to help me with resisting layered magic.
When Thymelixsen woke up, he found that the bird spell had worn off early. We debated taking the time for him to cast it again now, but in the end, decided to get closer to the city first. I suggested we continue running, since that would leave us the most time for practice, and for Thymelixsen's casting, if that was what he wanted to do.
I changed my clothes around, putting the Ult clothes under my armor and other clothes, so they couldn't be seen; the others did as well. I put the other Ult stuff (bags and belt pouches) into other sacks also. Cor thought we should bury the things, but if they're hidden, I don't think it makes a difference, unless we bury the Ult clothes as well.
May blessed us with Guidance of Nature, and we set out, pausing whenever we needed to refresh that blessing, and for me to heal whatever losses people had from the run.
It was during the third time running that Cor and Thymelixsen noticed motion off to the left in the woods. The kathel children were back, and pacing us. There didn't seem to be anything to do about it, really, other than stay on the trail and continue.
After nine hours, we stopped for the day, which left more time to practice. I was pleased to have the chance to work on two more of my blessings.
We set up the watch for the night, careful to have more than one person awake and at least one person alert, given that we knew the kathel children were out there. Thymelixsen started casting his bird form again, Jack went to sleep, and May stayed on watch while Cor and I prayed.
I'm so glad she did: she saw some large shapes coming towards us in a line. She used Jack's spyglass to see a line of woruckus coming towards us, huge green and brown ones with spiny backs, tusks from their cheekbones, and short trunks. They were huge, the width of the whole path, and it seemed like we'd either be crushed or pushed off the path, even though Cor thought it unlikely that they were real, given how single file they were coming. I had a sudden thought and woke Jack. "Jack, take us into shadow on the path!" Which he did, though it shook Thymelixsen out of his casting. He even took us past the woruckus on the path, and we noticed that they didn't have any shadows: they were, in fact, illusory. Thymelixsen confirmed by sensing magic.
When we came out of shadow, Cor yelled, "Nice try, but you could just come and talk with us!"
Thymelixsen noted that amongst the group of kathel children tracking us, they have Visic, Astaric, Pauchy, and Esmic magics for sure, and possibly more (all kinds, since they're kathel?), and walk in the trees. They can read our minds, since that's how they got the woruckus, from May's mind (the ones I've seen looked a bit different). And distance probably doesn't matter with the mind reading. His best guess is that they chose something that would be recognized by the one person watching.
Why did they do this? To get us off the trail to mess with us further? Or to break Thymelixsen's casting? Or to see how we'd react, testing us? None of us know.
