Lily

"Okay, if we have to hurry, then let's get going." Lily urges, knowing a dismissal when she hears one. "Come on Billy, they'll have Vorel open the bubble, so we can leave now." she adds, already on her way out.

Janelle

"As you wish, Ellie. Are you going to be all right while we're gone?" she asks lightly. "I know you've come to rely on some of us here, after all." She's trying to put a good light on the trip, and leave everyone feeling a little more at ease. Since Karl addressed the question of learning to fly, she felt she could let it slide without further comment. She stands up to go and offers a slight curtsy to the queen.

Billy



Billy bobs his head to Ellie, not completely forgetting his manners for a change. He trots out after Lily and follows her asking, "Do you need to take anything Lily? Extra clothes or food?"

Billy doesn't need anything as he plans to hunt on the way for food.

Lily

Lily answers on their way to the wall, "Thank you, Billy, but I'll be fine. This trip may be a bit longer than the ones we've taken before, but I don't think it'll be any harder to find food, or places to wash up. And carrying more gear would just be a hassle. Now, is there anything you need to do before we go?"

Billy



"No, I'm fine. I'm sure I can find stuff to eat on the way too.", Billy answers. Reaching the barrier, Billy holds a 'hand' against it till he's recognized and an opening appears.

Billy waits for Lily to go through first, then with an explosion of wings streaks through after her, passing her quickly.

Billy climbs to a couple hundred feet, rocketing along at his full speed for a few minutes. He then looks back till he finds Lily. Once he locates her, he slows down and makes a large leisurely circle back towards her, till he's flying along close enough to talk easily.

"How far ahead of the others are we going each day?", Billy asks Lily. "I mean, we're just going to scout for them and be with them each night right?"

Lily

Lily is just drifting along, enjoying the breeze, and the freedom of being outside the wall. They're in familiar territory, and the others will take some time to mobilize, so she's not in a hurry just yet.

"Yes, Billy, at least I think that's the plan. We will want to check back more than once a day once we reach the mountains--the last thing we need is them spending a whole day going somewhere they didn't need to be. But here we just need to scout ahead and make sure that everything's safe, so that they don't get too many unpleasant surprises. We'll camp with them for sure."

Billy and Lily fly on ahead, moving faster than the eight people following them on foot. It's tough to guess how far the walkers can get in a day, and they have to fly a little later into the night than expected to reach where Janelle and Karl and the six others pick to rest. For the first night, no one dares to set up a fire, but the weather is pleasant enough that the only problem this creates is a cold meal. Since they packed trail rations, it's not really a problem.

As the flying pair scout, they can see dark shapes here and there, on the move, flying in the distance, or just sitting there. They're both high enough and fast enough that these things pose no true hazard, but they are there, reminders that safety is an illusion out here. None of them seem to be in clumps or groups, but all seem to have some kind of mission or task, rather than just running randomly amok. What kinds of goals they might have is unknowable without engaging them, but that would be foolhardy at this point, not knowing what each kind is capable of.

Two days pass, then half of a third before the blue stone begins to glow in Billy's claw. The glow gets brighter as he gets closer to a place where boulders and huge slabs of rock look to have fallen at some point. It doesn’t look exactly like the picture drawn by the Chosen, but it does bring to mind the tunnel from that cave, and the closer they get to those rocks, the more the stone glows. It even gets warm as they reach the first of the rocks.

That just leaves them with the choice of investigating further or returning to the main group to guide them here.

Billy



Looking up from the blue stone to the area of fallen rocks, Billy turns to Lily and suggests, "I think we should take a quick look around the area to see there are any of those demons nearby, then go back and get the others."

Lily

"I think you're right, Billy," Lily agrees. "The sooner we can get them here, the better. Especially if it's dangerous.

The pair take a sweep around the area, watching carefully. They catch sight of something small, but it also sees them and flees for safety. No way to be sure what it was, as it hid very effectively in a small crevice. Could have been something as harmless as a dog. Neither Billy nor Lily can make themselves small enough across the right dimensions to get into the place where it went, though, so there's nothing to investigate.

Janelle

Janelle nominally directs the setting up of the camp, not really feeling like she needs to get involved much with giving orders, since the teams have done it many times before by now, and know the routine. She keeps an eye out for Billy and Lily to return while she pitches in with her share of the work.

Lily

Lily and Billy return to camp, and explain their findings to Janelle and the other seven. It's to late in the day for them to make it all the way there on foot, though, so they need to set up camp one final time.

With the decision apparently already made, the group moves along as far as they can before setting up the next campsite, and come morning, the site that the two fliers found is the day's goal. it is reached within a few hours, but at this point, they aren't the only ones who've located it and determined there is something of interest to be found here.

Four large creatures, presumably demonic, are busily smashing the rocks that form the imperfect tunnel. They are likely doing this because all of them are actually too big to move through the tunnel with anything like ease. Each is a little different form the others, but all are generally humanoid in shape. They have the requisite skin-so-dark-a-red-it-looks-black and claws and fangs and spikes and spines and plating, and extra parts that make them look appropriately grotesque and demonic.

Due to a friendly quirk of the terrain, mostly because of rocks and rolling, the group has managed to get close enough to see the proceedings without alerting any of the four of them to the approach. The closest one is about 200 feet away, and the rest are near to it.

Janelle

Janelle has to fight down the peculiar urge to attack the creatures on sight; she knows it would likely be fatal however, and takes a few moments to think. Coming up with a sort of plan in short order she turns to the others, "Right, it looks like we'll need to deal with those things, so let's do it on our own terms. We'll set up an ambush in one of these ravines, and send out someone as bait to lure them in. Any volunteers for the lure?"

BILLY



Billy looks over to Janelle and answers, "That should be me. I'm faster than anyone else. I won't have any trouble keeping in front of them and a little blast of breath should get them chasing me."

Lily

Lily, too, has to tamp down her own impulse to strike the demons immediately. "I like the idea of fighting them one by one, but not the idea of getting trapped in a ravine," she whispers, an undercurrent of suppressed fury audible in her tone, "If one of them got above us, it could drop rocks on us, or even jump down. I guess if that happens, I could guard us from above, and try to keep one or two of them busy. Let's try it. Billy, just be careful." She speaks that final warning softly, without any of the rancor in her voice that the demons had engendered.