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-----The grandmother hobbit and the young boy enter back inside the home. Alber follows them, first turning and waving to the riders with a glum smile.
-----Sol and Raven lead the others toward the trees not more than a half mile away. At different times, before they approach the forest, Raven halts and leaps off his horse, scouring the surrounding brush. The wolf leaps to his side quickly sniffing through the high grass. As Raven seems to pick up a hint of tracks, the wolf looks at his master excitedly. The ranger nods and as he mounts up again, the wolf runs ahead only to stop a few yards away closer to the trees. There the process between the ranger and the wolf begins again until they verify their quarry.
-----Finally the party gains the overhead canopy of trees where the birds and insects fly about the woods. On the soft floor of the forest, Raven is able to pick up what he tracks and the pace quickens.
-----Soon they come to a place where the forest begins to dip down into a wide valley, but the riders skirt around it on its western ridge. After a while, Raven turns his horse to the west. After a few more yards, the party seems to exit the woods once again. There before them in an enormous field are high, thick briar and vinelike bushes. Off in the distance toward the middle of the field, there appears to be a single wall of stone almost completely covered with green vines.
-----As Raven dismounts, he checks the ground once again and follows a trail to a place at the edge of the overwhelming bushes. Crouching low on the ground, he points out a place under the shrubbery that resembles a tunnel leading through the underneath of the bushes. The tunnel looks to be large enough for a human to go through in a stooping position.
-----The others can see that the bushes are too tangled to take the horses into.
-----Making a conscious effort not to whine about going through shrubs and such Sarah’s mind races for another way to get out of it. "Well, guys, looks like we need someone here to watch the horses." She sighs dramatically. "I suppose I could do that. Yeah, I'll stay here. You guys go off and kill stuff, don't worry about me." She dismounts and looks for somewhere to tether Marlexana and the other horses.
-----Sol dismounts and looks at Sarah in consideration. After a moment he says, "From what we've seen lately, Sarah, it's each other that we need to watch out for. The horses can take care of themselves." Sol's expression turns slightly pained as he adds, "An' fer the sake o' propriety, can yer not be so flippant about 'killing stuff'. We're here to try an' find Alber's and Arian's families."
-----Despite his quibble about that issue, a grin begins to grow on his face as he turns and looks back at the tangled mess of bushes, "Still...Doesn't mean this can't be fun."
-----"All right, then. Let's go have some fun already." Kazel stretches a bit and starts to pace back and forth, all raring to go.
-----Since Sol has already turned down Sarah in guarding the horses, Seth resigns himself to the crawl. He hops down from his horse and makes sure his pouch, sling and pack are secured for the crawl. As a last ditch effort, he moves over near Sarah and makes the following offer, "You know Sol, I could stay with Sarah, then she would not be alone."
-----Sol turns back to the two spellcasters, the grin still plastered on his face, "Ah well, the two of ye should do what ye prefer. There's no real harm in keepin' the horses company. I guess there's no guarantee that ye'd be any safer wi' us."
-----The grin fades to a smile, then dies away completely as he cautions, "Ye both sure about this? It is yer choice...Well, if any trouble comes yer way, an' ye can't keep yer head above water so t'speak, then get back t'Proat. Ye wouldn't want anything following ye into the tangle."
-----The Dread Pirate grins at the humans preparing to crawl about on their hands and knees. He then draws his cutlass, ducks his head a bit and enters the briar patch.
-----Raven gets off his horse, "Yep, I can see the two children were here. I also see that the adult hobbit came through here too."
-----Raven looks over at Sarah and Seth and then says in the joking tone, "Would you be guarding the horses or would horses be guarding you? Come on you two, get in the tunnel." Raven tone turns serious, "I got a feelin' we'll need everyone with us on this one. Now is not the time to split the group up, right?"
-----With that, the others begin to follow Gimplefwick in. First goes Raven, then Sol, Rinda, Kazel and finally Seth and Sarah. Inside the ‘scrub tunnel’ it feels stuffy and the light seems surprisingly dim. With it being the warmest part of the day now, sweat gets into the occasional adventurer’s eyes and a few flying insects become bothersome.
-----As the party continues forward, they realize that the tunnel within the tangles resembles a winding labyrinth of sorts. Soon the tunnel crosses other paths torn through the surrounding shrubs by who knows what. At various points, the Dread Pirate has to wait for Raven to catch up so that the ranger can look for tracks that tell them they are still on the right route.
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