Following the conclusion of the fortress battle the expedition conducted four days of cleanup and convalescence. Two days journey westward to regain our original course came after this before the northward route to Kudstugul could be resumed. General Kutumush was thoroughly satisfied with the expedition's efforts and provided a travel token to be shown to all in the khanate that our progress was not to be impeded. The members of the Silversheen Mercenary Company who had joined the battle also traveled with the expedition during this portion of the journey to aid in the support of their wounded and in the hopes of finding additional work further north.

It was a distinctly somber portion of the travels. The need to care for the injured slowed the pace and the overall mood was soured by loss. The fallen members of the Winged Cavalry had been popular among the company, given to riding up and down the line of march on patrol throughout the day while sharing news and jovial anecdotes. There was also a distinctive awareness, at least among the officers, that while the spoils of battle allowed the expedition to remain solvent in funds despite the considerable expense of hiring the Silversheen force, it was impossible to recover the time lost in the badlands and it would be necessary to stop for the winter and find cold season accommodations significantly to the south of our initial goal. This would, in turn, limit the time that could be spent hunting for the dragon in the coming year, a concern of great significance. The malaise attached to this reality filtered down to the remainder of the expedition, and all mirth seemed to vanish from the enterprise.

Certainly I, burdened as I was with the new and unfamiliar set of feelings attached to having taken a human life, was not immune to this generally depressive cast. A deep gloom threatened to take hold of me, throughout the monotonous days of late summer travel. This was not aided by a loss of variation in our diet. To account for the delay, the expedition traded with local Kharal clans for food. This led to a steady sequence of identical meals day after day: yogurt with ground meal in the morning, hard cheese and jerky eaten on the march or in the saddle at midday, and mutton stewed with whatever local greens could be gathered each evening, all of it heavily seasoned with thick butter. This applied a dense milky, greasy, aftertaste to everything we ate that lingered on the tongue throughout the day. No amount of warm and gritty steppe water served to rinse it away.

Each member of the expedition found their own path to equilibrium. The soldiers and mercenaries took the opportunity to reminisce and brag about past glories as they swapped stories with the newly arrived Silversheen contingent. All three groups of fighters, Imperial, Greencoats, and Silversheen took the opportunity to procure as much fermented mare's milk as could be found and get mightily drunk singing the praises of the fallen. General Kutumush had been generous in this regard, as it was apparently traditional after summer engagements among the Kharal. The caravaneers, being the part least impacted by these events, took refuge in the reduced pace of our progress to take their ease and relax a little as the slow grind of the march across the uneven ground slowly brushed all their concerns away beneath its perpetual winds. Greatest difficulty was found among the officers and mystics, forced in most cases to stare heresy in the face for the first time in their lives.

Most turned to Princess Romou for counsel, appropriate as she was our priestess. This left her very busy between conducting regular services and engaging in long conversations with those forced to grapple with those who would reject the revelation, something many of us had never really considered in more than the most remote manner. To her own great credit and to the honor of the Husun lineage, the Princess rose to the occasion most gracefully. Until arrival at Kudstugul she held daily ceremonies and while on the march she continually rode slightly apart from the line engaged in constant private consultation with one or two others of the expedition. This endless discussion took its toll on her voice, and by the completion of this leg of the journey she could barely speak. Yet through such obvious exhaustion she obtained an additional avenue of respect and all the doubts that had long circulated through the expedition regarding the ability of a supposedly coddled imperial scion to make such a journey were forever silenced. Thereafter, none raised any doubts regarding her presence as representative of Imperial and Divine prestige.

For my part I was roused from melancholy first by the actions of Lady Indili, who had spent her time camped at the edge of the badlands acquiring a treasure trove of bone fragments from ancient eras she did not hesitate to speculate upon at great length. Apparently some of these held shapes completely unknown to any sorcery chapter. Such speculation eventually expanded to that of the entire steppe. The expedition had, by this point, reached a region where the nature of the land changed subtly but significantly. A fact revealed in pronounced fashion by the arrival of the end of summer rains and the occasional savage thunderstorm.

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The grass, as one moves east and north from the desert, grows thicker, but prior to this point it had not become significantly taller. Instead, a truly exhaustive diversity of forbs, the small and soft-bodied flowers of the grasslands, fills in the gaps. Potentially there are hundreds of different forms, well beyond the ability of myself, and those others with us possessing any interest in such matters, to record and list them all. Though flowering in the spring is the most common pattern, sufficient varieties and numbers spread their petals following the blasting thunderstorms of late summer to flash splashes of color all across the landscape.

This combination of increased fertility and variation among the plants is mirrored among the animals. There are many small birds and mammals here, including the gracefully ferocious shrikes that spear locusts upon thorn bushes and small rabbit-like creatures known as pikas that forage amid the grassy clumps as if they were tiny sheep. These creatures are small enough that they can be easily held in one's hand, but they breed often and in areas with sufficient amount of rubble to serve as their dens may be wildly abundant and out-graze much larger animals. Kharal hunt them extensively using falcons, which seems to contribute to their appreciation of those birds.

Lush grass means this area is grazed heavily and, in the winter, contested violently. The clusters of white-walled yurts are prominent, each surrounded by bobbing gray flocks. Such devotion to the practice of herding does have consequences. After leaving the badlands behind there were very few trees to be found even near streams, and smaller woody shrubs were likewise rare. This made it necessary to cook using dried dung, a common Kharal practice well known to caravaneers. Thankfully, covering the stew pot avoids the smell contaminating the meal, but it does not make the cookfire a pleasant place.

Wide and flat, the land afforded broad sight lines, and with the local Kharal well-disposed to us, Erun allowed some dispersal upon the line of march. This sat well with all who needed to find a path to come to terms with recent events. It afforded me a chance to scramble around in the rocks beside Lady Indili hunting for stone bones and assisting in her sketching. Neither of the sorcerers were much disturbed by the encounter with the Sunfire Cult, but it seems that those who dare such direct manipulation of the energies the Divines have left flowing through the world find heresy darkly comical and viewed the deaths as a peculiar form of absurdity. Not a viewpoint others can fully appreciate, but it marked a point in the journey where relations between the pair and the rest of the expedition were perhaps their most jovial.

This region can, in a sense, be considered the core of Shdustu. The hand of the Kharal, though still far lighter than that of any people who have ever put their lands beneath the plow, lies heavy here. The grasses and forbs we encountered were almost universally nutritious forms suitable for grazing. Inedible and poisonous plants had been steadfastly removed by centuries-long application of fire, poison, and sorcery. Other obstacles that might threaten the livestock, such as snakes, have also been thoroughly culled. Wild cats and weasels could be seen at dusk and dawn by the keen-eyed, out hunting mice and other small creatures, but wolves were rare and extremely timid. Monuments, both circular rock piles trailing wind-snapped flags and raised pillars of stone carved with abstract faces, were found at irregular intervals. These displayed great age, being much worn down by the weather and if they were meant to acknowledge some ancient battle or mighty khagan, no such recognition was possible. There were also stones cut into rough tetrahedrons laid atop earthen platforms commemorating the missionaries of long ago who brought the Enlightened Revelation to this land, though no names were recorded. I spoke to one of the shamans regarding these monuments and she said that one was raised each time a tribal chieftain acknowledged the proper cycles of life and put aside previous beliefs. Some of these stone points bore marks from swords, axes, and arrowheads, all signs that the conversion of the nomads had not been uncontested. Curiously, neither the Sunfire Cult nor agents of the wizards of the Obsidian Order, who all Kharal believe operate in hidden places in the depths of the wildest portions of the steppe, have ever attempted to destroy these monuments. No one could supply me with a reasonable explanation as to such restraint.

Though late rains offered a brief burst of vigor to the grass and turned the steppe green once again as we passed, the growth here was universally short, grazed hard by the local herders, with many areas depleted to the point that our animals struggled to find enough. Though the nominal border remained several days journey to the east, the war parties of the Kharal can cover vast distances, and it seemed that the local clans of these region prefer to withdraw away from contested territory as the peaceful summer period draws to a close. Among the Kharal, there is a proverb that 'war is fought on short grass.' Judging by their preparations in this region, it seemed likely that the winter would be quite bloody, something supported by the warband of General Kutumush taking the field in late summer. This placed considerable pressure on the Dragon Expedition to try and avoid regions of conflict as the seasons turned. Erun committed to the utilization of every daylight hour once the wounded were recovered and pushed the pace hard, even to the point of overriding Master Lam's wishes. Such were the few measures within our human hands to control.