Pappi emerged from the hidden tunnel into Shale's house, a short bit before dawn, rousing them with a light shake. They headed out of the runnel, Shale sealing the entrance behind them. Shale scouted ahead, with Pappi following between the other two. They walked down the cave, the darkness covering thier escape.

A slow walk along the far wall was all the stealth the situation required. Moonlight lit up the flowing wall of water ahead, making it glow with the trapped beams of cold blue. Instead of revealing, the shifting shadows and contrast in the cave covered their movements even further.

The ledge curved around, stopping several meters before the waterfall. They were able to move along the rough stone a little further, only making handholds as needed, but soon the wall smoothed out from the constant sanding inflicted by the eternal rush of water. At this point shale had to carve out a crawlway, slowing them down considerably.

The smell of wet stone and breathing grasses filled the air, almost competing with the slowly building avalanch of bird calls greeting the new day. The morning dew was brushed aside as four small figures crossed the tall grasses and started climbing the mountain.

The line of sunlight worked down the mountain as they walked up the slopes to meet it. The forest was thinner on the rocky ground than the fertile farmland below, letting the warmth reach the forest floor to dry their damp clothes. Pines draped in their ever greens started to replace the deciduous that were removing their fall colors one leaf at a time.

The bees buzzed happily, gathering from the late fall mountain flowers, stocking up for winter. Beetles and ants scrambled about the pine needles. Small animals went about their business. The adventures took it all in with a curiousity you would expect of a theroetical scientist who was finally allowed in the lab. It was almost as if they were seeing the broader world for the first time.

The determined Shale ignored the taunting of the smaller fluffs they passed, taking their role in the party very seriously. Even though they were helping their sibling and not mum, they still approached it with the same sense of responsibility.

As carefully as they moved, they didn't notice the young Rashna until they were in the strike zone. A rashana is a particulary vicious reptile, almost feline in build but with pebbly skin that shifted in tone to help it blend in to it's surroundings. It loved to sit and sun, an opportunistic predator waiting for nieve wee snacks to pass by.

Shale was scouting ahead as usual, looking for trap and demon fluffs, not aware that there was also sneakys on the mountain.

The rashna was just as tall and barely twice as long as Shale, they came much bigger, but for Shale it was still too big to handle. The mouth full of teeth and outstretched claws hit Shale hard. The arm got the worst of it, deep slashes bleeding severly. Shale was knocked down, the stone-like toughness preventing mortal injury. The rashna assuming it had made a kill kept it's momentum and headed towards the others. Not once did the rashna think these snacks were tough enough to snack on rocks.

Shale and Shale stepped up to meet the Rashna, one behind and slightly to the side of the other. Pappi drifted into some thistles and dissapeared from view. As the rashna bounded and came in for the pounce, Shale grabbed the earth and pulled up a rough spire of stone. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't large, but the rashna yowled as it's reptilian paw smashed into terrain instead of the snack it was grabbing for. Sharp cracking could be heard, as the predator broke it's own bones with the force of it's attack.

Not waiting for the blow to land, Light Shale dashed around Dark Shale's stone defense while the Rashna's focus was fully on it's target. As the beasts attack hit an unforseen wall, Light shale planted strong legs into the ground with a spray of gravel and pulled the razor sharp flint dagger low along the exposed flank with both hands. The attack cut along the ribcage and deep into the back leg.

Wounded twice in the same instant the rashna reactively kicked towards the pain, connecting with one of it's surprisingly fierce snacks. It jumped backwards to rexamine it's attack. Unfortunately that put into range of Medium Shale who had gotten back up to join the fight. Another unexpected pain exploded from nowhere, this time destroying the tendon in the previously uninjured back leg.

shale surrounded the woulded rashna, who was unable to to move with two injured back legs. A large branch came from nowhere, hitting it directly on the head, stunning it long enough for shale to finish the grim task. Three well placed cuts swiftly ended the threat.

An impassive Pappi dropped the large limb and went over to look at Shales arm wound. it took half a bottle of liquid from the small assortment to clean the wound and stop the bleeding, followed by a leaf that seemed to fuse with the liquid forming a patch. Shale moved the injured arm a little, the patch holding firmly with the motion.

Pappi moved Light Shale, who was having a hard time standing straight after the kick to the chest. With some light coaxing the dryad was able to convince some grasses to wrap tightly around Shale's torso, after some sharp cracks and sharper winces the grasses pulled everything back into place, firmly bound until had time to heal. A quick cut freed the leaves, now wraps, from the rest of the plant.

After a rest, they were ready to move on. Dark shale tucked the tattered hide that once belonged to ambusher into a crack between two stones. adding teeth and claws to the pile. The tattered remains were uncerimoniously rolled down the hill. Maybe it would reach mum and she could do something with it.

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The only other encounter they had that day was when they were climbing up a steep slope, everyone was focused on keeping their footing on the loose gravel while they were pulling themselves up on an exposed root of a tall tree. When they reached the top of the rise they were finally able to see a full grown portabique directly in front of them. Shale didn't know fluffs came this big.

Portabiques were large carnivoirs, at their largest their shoulders would be higher than a dwarfs, even when walking on all fours. They lived in the mountains, their smaller cousins, Escabiques lived in the forests. They were built like flying squirrel, if a flying squirrel had claws and teeth that could mulch a dead tree within minutes. Their heads were blunter, their eyes better and their reputation, deadly.

Hunters prized portabique hides, since a single large pelt could cover a family of six. The other reason hunters prized their hides is that when you went portabique hunting you always traveled in a party of at least five, so that when four of them died in the hunt the last one would be able to claim the costly pelt. Another reason you hutned in a group was because if you spent the whole time watching the skies and cliffs, that's when the one in the brush would get you.

Shale slowly moved sideways behind the tree. They didn't need to worry about Pappi, who blended in perfectly with the nearest plants, the plants themselves moved to help conceal the dryad. The portabique didn't seem interested chasing tiny creatures that didn't smell like food, but didn't hesitate to produce a low protective growl. The party didn't need encouragement to hurry along, they barely managed to turn around the last encounter.

It started to grow late in the day as the slopes grew steeper. It took longer for them to find paths that led higher into the mountains and they knew nightfall would soon bring unacceptable risks to their progress. When the party stumbled on hollow under a jumble of boulders they made camp. Shale worked as a team to fill in the gaps with stone while trying to maintain natural lines. They fused the individual boulders together to prevent something shifting and crushing them in their sleep. Pappi encouraged some scraggly grass to grow into a small nest. Shale simply formed small bowls into the stone to sleep in. The long day settled into their bones as they drifted off.

The morning came without incident, whatever nocturnal creatures had passed their camp in the night had either not sensed them or had not cared. Shales wounds were doing much better, the plants drying and flaking off on the edges revealing mostly healed bruises and cuts. They removed signs of their camp before continuing the hike.

It wasn't much longer before they were above the treeline, mostly birds, plants and rodents populated the bare slopes. At one point a large bird of prey had swooped down towards them. But they huddled together with daggers out, moving towards a rising cliffside. The bird saw their plan and tried to swoop in before they reached the shelter of the rocks, but the sharp daggers countered the piercing talons. The bird finally gave up after they got too close to the cliff; if it swooped one more time it would find itself decorating the rock face.

It was close to noon when they reached a plateau, small fluffy clouds passing ascross the deep blue sky. Looking out they had a wonderful view of the world around them. Shadows marched across the landscape, the mirror world twins of the clouds above, distorted by the landscape they creeped across.

The river flowed out of the mountains, fed by several streams that flowed from hidden sources back in the range behind them. In front the landscape flowed off endlessly, the plains pushing the mountains back on the right. There was the forest, pushing into the flatlands on the right side, but still maintaining a strong presence among the foothills. Farmlands and small towns filled in the rest of the landscape, copses and smaller forests filling in the borders.

A large city was far to the right, almost in the mountians, smoke rising up to form an oppressive cloud of progress above it. another city was striaght out along the river, almost at the edge of the horizon. It was a white gleam among the green. A third city was seen a little to the left where three rivers joined before straightening out. This one was smaller but still visable, looking like brown mold that was feeding on the deep blue stretch of water.

Winding vines of brown and grey showed roads linkin the three cities, towns, farms and beyond.

Shale notice Pappi wasn't interested in the view, but had instead been gathering flowers and seeds. The plateau was scattered with flowers blooming from the ground itself, leaves lying flat in a star shape around the long trumpet of white. The petals curved sharply out then up, as if trying to hold the sunlight, the pearly white petals seemed to glow.. Shiny golden stamen reachied from the centers as if they were trying to grasp the sky itself.

Known to Pappi, who was born with an intuition about plant life, but unknown to Shale, these flowers were called Starflowers. These flowers were very rare, only found in mountains were the natural magic was high, they captured the sunlight during the day, and continued to grow throught the night. The easiest way to find them was to wait until nightfall and they would each shine like a star in the sky.

Many people have searched for these fields, looking for enlightenment. It is said being among them on moonless night is like existing withing the heavens itself, surrounded on all sides by stars. Not many people who write about it have actually experienced this, most philosiphers wouldn't survive spending a night in remote mana rich mountaintop.

With the collecting of the flowers, their mission was completed, the quest would be too once they safely reached the cavern. They took one more moment to admire the beauty, then started the trek down. Going down was much easier with the slopes of the land laid out before them. They also knew to watch out for sneakies now along with the fluffs and prevented any more incidences.

They had to camp one more night, this time inside a hollow in a tree. Pappi encouraged the tree to grow out and seal off the entrance. Shale felt a little insecure being trapped like this, but knew they could always dig their way out if the worst case happened.

The pelt they had stashed was still there with the teeth and claws. The smaller bits went into a bag that was already half full with random seeds Pappi had snuck in there. Shale tied the pelt into a roll and carried it draped over the bag.

They arrived back at the cavern mid morning on the third day, backpacks full of claws, flowers and seeds. Mum had told them she would make sure the intruder would leave, so they walked right in along the path around the falls. As they walked into the bedroom they stopped short, almost bumping into the blade of the intruders axe. She was knelt down in front of them, her eyes lowerd, her knuckles white as she gripped the axe shaft with fierce determination.