Atamai and Willa lead her to Mr.- Sir Schel. On the way through the chaotic caravan camp, Quinn’s mind couldn’t help but churn. Now that she could cast at least a tier two spell, all sorts of ideas were popping into her head. One in particular stood out among the menagerie. Mainly because sit was the only one remotely possible.

Although she had gotten used to the constant rain, there was no denying it was annoying to be a step-off soaked all the time. This was where her new idea would come in. Using Water Magic, she could potentially create an aura around her that repelled the rain. It was still in the preliminary stages, and she barely had a clue on what runes she would need to use. Still, it was a nice thought to never have to deal with soaked clothes again…

She continued to think about her ‘umbrella’ magic until the trio arrived near one of the many carriages of the Schel Caravan Company. Sir Schel himself was standing inside the carriage looking over the boxes of cargo with a clipboard at the ready. A couple of guards stood by around the carriage, but they looked more for an intimidation tactic than actual protection considering none of them were the ones who had been in the Veiled Grove.

“I brought her, sir,” Atamai said as she halted just shy of the carriage and waved at the nearby guards. Willa just stood behind her in what Quinn was beginning to expect of her shy attitude.

She caught Arnz Schel’s eye as he looked over and handed off the clipboard to one of his guards. He smiled at her and then turned to the other two. “Thank you, Atamai. Willa. You lot are free to return to your duties.”

The two nodded and walked off back towards the carriages. Presumably, they were off to do their other duties, though she had no idea what those were. She had barely even seen them in the past week. That left Quinn with just the merchant and his guards. “Um, you wanted to see me, sir?”

Lightning flashed in the distance and thunder drowned out half her words, but he still seemed to hear what she said. “Yes, I did. As you’ve probably seen, we aren’t far off from leaving the Steinten Mountains.” He hopped off the carriage and paused before her.

Of course, she knew the Steinten Mountains referred to the area around their current location thanks to her maps. The mountain range was just shy of the Skathi Mountains on the northwestern edge of the Empire of Storms. With her current location in mind, she still didn’t have a clue why he asked for her. “Yes, sir.”

“I suggested you search out Badgius tracks back in Mauershein. We’re just about to enter the preferred terrain for the buggers.” He sighed and dragged a hand down his face.

Quin could understand his sentiments. The mountains were dangerous, of which there was no doubt. Between the complicated terrain and creatures, there was a high chance of fatality in her own world, much less this one. The danger from creatures here, however, was centralized around the glacier peaks and the deep caves more so than the paths and trails they took.

The alpine meadow surrounding the icy mountains was an entirely different story. Just from glancing through A Traveller's Handbook: Monsters, she could see various monstrosities. There were dangerous creatures of all kinds, each more abominable than the last. Badgius would be the least of their problems if they came across something more dangerous, let alone anything from Myths: Fight or Flight. The last thing she wanted to do was head out in search of those dangers.

But… she did agree to look around for Badgius trails. If her father taught her anything, it was that a Nightingale always keeps their word. Quinnzel wouldn’t let her father’s memory down again.

She had been rather lax in tracking, figuring the man had forgotten since he hadn’t approached her about it. Or maybe she was just supposed to keep an idle eye open while walking. Either way, she had been busier reading than being observant. Now that the opportunity arose, however… “D-do you want me to search for signs?”

She really, really didn’t want to go out into the alpine meadow by herself. If she ran into something… Quinn wasn’t optimistic about her chances. She might have a chance against common creatures like the Badgius and Lightning Spines - if they were alone. That chance dropped to near zero when thinking about the rarer creatures from Myths: Fight or Flight like the Rain Wolves or Thunderbirds. And that number might as well be negative if she were to run across the Storm Whales who supposedly operated around the northern side of Halis.

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“Kind of. I want you to join some of my guards in taking a look around ahead of the caravan. Should just be a routine checkup before we set out.” Sir Schel said, his attempt at a calming smile failing horribly as lightning only illuminated half of his face.

Well, at least she wouldn’t be by herself. She still wasn’t confident in her survival abilities when by her lonesome… just a thought back to Umbersnecht shattered any confidence. Sure, she could cast a tier-two spell, but what if something caught up to her in the thirty seconds it took to cast it? Or what if she couldn’t even cast it due to her heartbeat beating too erratically? Better yet, say she cast the spell with all of her current faults, what if the thing she attacked was immune to Wind Magic? It's not like she had a long list of spells she could cast. Realistically, the opportunities for failure were endless when it came to true combat.

But she didn’t want to be known as someone who broke her word. “Yes sir. When do I meet up with them?” She asked as her brain automatically catalogued everything that could and probably would go wrong.

“About that… How's your night vision, kid?”

And that’s how she found herself here, surrounded by yellow grass blowing in the winds. The rain had thankfully slowed down quite a bit since she had first set out. It was barely even a mist clouding the land. The thunder was as hard as usual - deafening with a slight side of silence. And she was quite thankful for that. She had grown used to the Eternal Storm and found it oddly comforting. As long as she didn’t look up, that is. The ominous clouds just had a way about them. Their twisted mass resembling curled maws and gnarled claws.

Quinn was walking barely a hundred feet between two guards, keeping her eyes peeled for even the hint of activity. Arnz had ordered a frontal sweep of the first quarter of a mile into the hilly grasslands, so she and about twenty or so guards and several adventurers had spread out and walked around the dirt path. The idea was the scouting party could get an idea of what to expect in the morning.

As for visibility at this time of night? Almost zilch. She could thankfully see quite well in the dark, but a few of her fellow searchers were only walking around based on the flashes of lightning. This much was evident by the way they paused in the gaps of arcing electricity.

She had questioned the viability of checking around during the night, but Arnz had assured her it was the best way. Badgius were nocturnal, so the group were more likely to see activities of one during the night. If they searched during the day, the entire rest of the caravan would be on delay.

They wouldn’t see one, at least according to the guards who were with her. This was just a routine search. Of course, she doubted that. Anytime someone said ‘Oh it’ll be fine’ or ‘Just a routine check’, it always went wrong. It was like those phrases were a curse that warped the laws of reality. And who knows, maybe they were in this world? She had seen some weirder stuff…

Quinn pushed more overgrown weeds out of her way as she sifted through the tall grasses covering the hills. It was quite annoying to force her way forward, but she couldn’t back out now. Although she was admittedly not the most courageous, she would at least keep her word and look around. She could always dip at the first sign of danger. And she wasn’t entirely defenseless. She could still shoot her bow, slash with her dagger, or cast a spell if she was lucky.

After nearly twenty minutes of searching, she didn’t find anything interesting, nor did any of the others considering the radio silence. She had almost zoned out entirely, mainly just putting one foot in front of the other as she tried to look around. There was almost zero tension in her body and it was almost as if she was taking a stroll rather than looking for dangerous predators in the middle of a storm.

This was in part due to her tiredness and how relaxed the night's stroll was. If she was asked, Quinn would deny anything about being tired. To tell the truth, though, recently she had been having a hard time keeping herself up at night without the aid of caffeine. Even just the thought of it made her mouth water. To think, it had been nearly a month since her last coffee. It was almost torture for someone as addicted to the substance as she was. The migraines still hurt every once in a while.

The only reason she was half paying attention was due to the potential dangers of the alpine meadows. The swaying gold belayed the dangerous critters roaming about its wind-coated hills. This fear of, well, death, kept her aware enough to notice anything actually dangerous. She would one hundred percent see a predator before she stumbled across one.

At least, that's how she felt right up until Quinn stepped on something unexpectedly hard and heard a low snap!