We Are On Our Way( Salamandastron Ambassadors Log)

Happen ICLY 10-26-15(Reposted due to editing)

Zinnia, Leon and Dorarose are about 5 days into their trip now:

Zinnia walks through the trees silently, she was very quiet at the feast and mainly stood listening and nodding to others, she hugged a couple only to make them happy, not cause she wanted to, and then they left. They are making good time so far and the trip has not had any trouble, except for a small light rain earlier but that has cleared up now.

Leon frowns, he has not minded the walking, in fact getting away from the abbey was a good idea and he has been fairly busy the last couple days before they left.

Ah, traveling! DoraRose Strongheart has missed this. Like, allot. She is clothed in her black tunic, leggings, and boots, and over her haversack she has draped her long, mottled green-brown cloak, its hood pulled up over her ears. Having left her sword at home for Lily to start training with should she become ready, the mouse Warrior hefts her black axe, Nightsong, as comfortable with it as a seamstress is with a needle. She has only spoken when necessary, rejuvenating after being surrounded by scores, hundreds, of pacifists for many seasons. She seriously needed a break from the Abbey. It was getting to be a bit much for her. She looks around, ever on the alert for danger, but still looking more relaxed than she has for quite a while. She's been looking forward to this for weeks.

Zinnia has maybe said two words..TWO WORDS, the whole trip and it was only to say camping here, other times she simply stopped and when asked if was stopping here for day she would nod. She looks around and kicks a rock idly.

Leon glances around and then speaks, " Well, so far the trip has been good right? No troubles and nice weather and sort of ...quiet."

Dora looks over at her husband and nods, smiling. "Aye, quiet. And I can keep my weapon with me." She brings the huge axe head to her face, looking like she wants to hug it. Instead, she just reaches over and goes to take the Healer's paw as they walk along, giving it a gentle squeeze. She continues on in silence.

Zinnia looks back to the two mice and sighs, she walks on down a path and stops to look at the map quietly and looks around and back to the map before walking on down a path and making sure the others follow her.

Leon smiles "Well quiet is ok sometimes." He lets her take his paw and watches Zinnia, looking concern but doesn't say anything right now , he looks to Dora "You think she will be alright during this trip, she seems to know the way, I mean I do trust her ...just she is so quiet."

Shrugging, the Warrior stifles her annoyance as her precious silence is disturbed. "Well..." 'Rose starts, not really in the mood to talk, but feeling the need to answer him. "I think....I don't know...maybe. Maybe if she has some space she'll sort it all out and start talking to us?" She doesn't really seem to believe this, she's just trying to say something.

Zinnia walks along quiet and then points to a path for them to go down.

Nodding, Dora follows the badger down the path, releasing her husband's paw at the sound of the bird. "Catch up with Zinnia, please," She says to him, in a voice that sounds more like a command than a request. She stops and eyes the tree line, then jogs to catch up with her traveling companions.

Zinnia looks back and watches, waits to see whats going on. She looks around, still silent and seems very good at being silent as most would probably talk by now. She shrugs at the birds cawing as it seems to be nothing more than noisy birds, she shows them the map and that a stream is close by, they could stop there maybe for a break perhaps.

Leon frowns but he does catch up to Zinnia "Hey Zinnia slows down a little, also are you ok? You have been very quiet today, well the whole trip."

Catching up to the pair, she goes to lay a paw on her husband's shoulder. "Don't speak so loudly. I don't like the sounds of those birds. You can never tell when blackbirds will get aggressive." She looks at the map and nods, indicating that she's okay with stopping at the stream for a small break.

Zinnia shrugs at the question of whether she is ok and leaves it at that. They walk a little ways and find the stream after maybe half an hour and then it seems a good place to stop and eat, and no birds seem to be here either.

Leon nods as he whispers "True...we don't need trouble while traveling." It’s clear he dislikes birds, well most birds anyways he is ok with sparrows from the abbey and has even managed to learn their odd speech, just no invites of flight, that will end in a nope.

Keeping careful watch on the surrounding forest, Rose follows as a rearguard. When they come to the stream, she goes to make the other 2 stay hidden behind some bushes, then silently goes forward, making sure the coast is clear. She is holding her axe at the ready, just in case.

Zinnia lets Dorarose make sure all is well before doing much else right now. She is listening and staying alert though, so that’s good. Other wise..yep quiet.

No danger seems to be around, some crickets sound and a dragonfly passes. The stream sounds nice and soothing to hear.

Leon stays quiet as he looks around. The trip so far has been ok and he has even gotten a couple herbs that are usually a little hard to find. He is in fact well stocked with herbs in his surrcoat and has bandages in a knapsack as well if needed ever on the trip.

After making sure that the area is secure, DoraRose turns and says loudly, "All clear, you can come on and join me." She smiles as the insect flies past, then takes her haversack off of her back and sits down, her axe within easy reach.

Zinnia nods, she looks to see what was packed for today. Mainly fruits and oak cakes, things that won’t go bad easy and they can find berries on the trip, and maybe the apple trees she seen from before. She brushes some head fur out of her face as she looks in a pack and one thing packed she shakes her head and tosses off to the side. A small bag of hotroot..though why she seems to not like it is odd, she hen even more oddly picks it back up and places it in her robe pockets and starts to eat her lunch quietly. They also can refill water at the stream if needed.

Leon watches the badger and blinks, he shrugs to himself "I wonder if fish would stay good long?"

Dora has been silently eating, and now she shakes her head. "No, I don't think so. Besides, we need to get more traveling into the day, so a fire right now would be imprudent." She starts filling a couple of canteens with stream water. "Zinnia. Are there any more streams in a half-day's walk from here? If so, maybe we could catch a fish for dinner tonight."

Zinnia looks to be trying to remember and shows they can always follow this stream a little ways, then head off down another path into more woods, soon there will be no more woods it seems , but that’s a few days from now looks like.

Leon asks, "cause that’s true, the sooner we get there maybe the better right?"

The Warrior goes to rest a paw on his arm stump, as naturally as she would reach for his paw, if it was still there. "Not necessarily. It depends on /how/ we get there." Dora furrows her brows. "Zinnia. What's there after the woodlands? Is it wetlands? Grasslands? Foothills?"

Zinnia now says her third word "Flatlands " She shows where it is and also where swamps are and she has noted a lot before the trip a large NO to this area and how they will avoid it and it does look easy enough to avoid, well most of it and the tiny bit they would go into isn’t the dangerous area as she was in before, well before they were limited on time and they took a risk, no real time limits this time.

Leon hmmms "I remember flying over open land.." He shivers, he remembers the swan and he hated the whole trip, all of it by air. "Umm..on that swan..remember?"

Zinnia nods simply, she remembers that day, she just didn’t record all the details.

Still looking at the map, Dora is obviously lost in her own thoughts. "Mmm? Oh, yeah, that's nice." It takes a few seconds for her to figure out what was just said, but when it does, she looks sharply up at her husband. "Wait, swan? What swan?"

Leon frowns "It was a friend to the Gawtribe. Trust me not a fun ride. It was..when the Marek takeover was happening and I somehow got..well taken to..where the hares wee when they were half way here, when I disappeared for like couple weeks or...so"

Zinnia looks between them but doesn’t add what she knows and sits down away from them, she folds her paws in her robe and again looks at the small bag of hotroot, maybe she packed it, she isn’t sure why but she has kept it either in her small personal pack or in her robe pocket since before this whole trip, she never used it, heck she hates hotroot so it’s curious why she has it.

Rubbing the very faint scars on the side of her head, DoraRose looks distraught as she struggles to remember. "I......I think I......might remember........you........was that before or after you made it to Ferravale and I hit you?" She looks at the map, not really seeing it right now. After this whole thing is over, she might ask about the hotroot, but for now, she's a bit distracted.

Leon sighs, he honestly doesn’t remember. "Let’s not worry about it, it was a while ago dear and there is no swans around "

Zinnia looks between them and starts to clean up, it is time to head a little more up the path, she clears her throat and points down the path as if to show its time to head on and walk till dusk most likely, or little longer she will let them decide.

Sighing, DoraRose nods, then goes to hold her husband's lower right arm for a minute. "I'm glad. Swans are frightening sometimes." She looks up at the badger, then nods and stands. "Aye, we should move on. I want to make some good distance before dark." She slips on her haversack underneath her cloak and hefts her axe. She's ready to move on.

Leon nods and smiles, he gives Dora a quick hug if allowed and they travel on down the path.

Zinnia nods as she pockets the small pack of hotroot again and walks on along the stream, it’s a fairly good path and will save most likely half a day of travel for them, they do pass a pear tree but whether they get any pears will be up to them, she didn’t get to see the couple apple trees but that’s fine, this path is better in the long run.

Allowing the hug and returning one of her own, the Warrior goes to hold her husband's right arm stump, her own rights paw busy carrying Nightsong. She picks some pears, then continues on.

Leon smiles "Well. pears help us need less food and so will the fish. Maybe we can find more berries or wild greens as well. I know there are some herbs to be found, well in case needed that is"

Zinnia nods, she nods a lot to them, she also keeps that emotionless face, only rarely maybe a sigh, and once..maybe once she frowned but otherwise nothing and when she speaks it’s also in a flat tone.

Dora smiles at her husband and goes to give him quick kiss on the cheek. "You make it hard to listen and see if we're being followed," she says in a light, happy tone. She looks ahead to the badger and says, "Zinnia. Is this lengthening or shortening our trip any?"

Zinnia rather not talk but does find a way to responded, she shakes her head to its adding more and nods to its adding less. She stops and writes in the dirt..-less- and then brushes it away after she lets them read it and walks on for a while, the rest of the day is quiet. Then whats news he been silent a lot and it’s now starting to get dark slowly, they are led a little ways more as it gets a little , more dark before she stops and looks to see if they would like to rest or not, it is a good area..some bushes, cover by a couple trees and the stream is in view a few feet away, well safe amount of feet away to not dampen camp.

Leon smiles, he follows and looks around, he stops when Zinnia does and looks around "Seems..ok, maybe Dora can make sure, and there is always what we been doing, taking turns to keep watch when we do stop"

Following the badger, DoraRose reads the note and frowns. Okay, in the mouse's mind, that's close enough to talking that she might as well have said it with her mouth. As they walk along, the Warrior keeps silent, just enjoying the travel. When they reach the spot, she takes a look around, then comes back and says, "It looks safe to me. Leon, would you mind catching a fish for us? Zinnia, please start a fire. I'll do the cooking." And her cooking is delicious.

Leon smiles as he nods he is good at catching fish and goes to catch some, he ends up catching a couple fish and even finds some watercress to go with it. He is enjoying the time away from the abbey, a vacation sort of..maybe, but he is concern for Zinnia, he just hasn’t told her yet.

Zinnia nods, she gets out the flint and some wood she has and after a couple tries she manages to get a fire started, she sits down and is silent the rest of the night, nodding or shaking her head as she replies or maybe a shrug here or there, she also decides to go to sleep earlier than they do.

The scent of cooking fish floats through the campsite as Dora proves to them what all she is capable of when it comes to food. Fish cooked with watercress and wild garlic. Toasted oat farls, spread with . 'warmed and mashed fresh pears' Warm fruit pie as dessert, seasoned with some wild mint she found along the way. Cool, fresh water to drink. The Warrior takes first watch and climbs a tree, watching the surrounding wilderness. Maybe tomorrow will bring something to help her badger friend.....