"That doesn't nake sense I would expect him to take his horse if he ws so much in a hurry. Unless he got off and then the Drow jumped him." Brianna tries to puzzle it out for a bit then gives it upo being more of a doer than a thinker.

Brianna quickly goes into waryness mode especially after the Drow altercation and the fact that more might be around these parts. The difficulty was there were bads ones and apparently good ones so it made it doubly difficult.

They really do need someone who can read tracks, Xour decides. "Show me these tracks!" he says.

Brianna looks at Lorae "You saw them so take Xuor to see them and see if he can make sense of them. FOrests are not territory I am familar with. Thank you Xuor, I hate mysteries."

Ok Dragon Mistress/Brianna are you guys reading the Q/A thread. It seems not as the only ones who have posted in it are myself and Greenleaf. If we are not going to use I can delete it.
But here is a Q/A post. I think I will drop my wanting the Bracers of Armor +8 in favor of letting Greenleaf have them as he wears no armor. It just seems more sensable that he have them. As such I would like to add the Boots of Striding and Springing and the Star Ruby instead Thanks.

Also as I am busy packing up my Apt to move out of it at the end of March My posting until April will be sorta spotty. Please bear with me thanks.

Lorae take Xuor to the tracks she found. They reveal someone sneaking up to the battle area from the road where the horses were left, then stopping. From there the tracks turned and it is obvious that is roscoe made them he headed off at top speed back towards, where Xuor feels , Shadowdale lies. Roscoe was running hard, but there were no other tracks as if someone were chasing him. NOt on the grown anyway.

Xour looks at the tracks and says “Looks like he headed that way at top speed. Nothing to show why he did so. You know him better than I. Should we follow?”

"Never saw him before he rode up and joined us. As far as the horse I have a feeling that it was not his. As I was riding behind him I noticed he was having a great deal of trouble handling the horse. Also the saddle was not fit to him, he was having to stretch for the stirrups. I believe the reason he did not go back for the horse was that returning to Shadowdale with a stolen horse was not a good idea."

"But that is just my observation of the matter."

Lorae leaps to Moon Dancers back and legs him forward. "Shall we go back to Xuor and Brianna on point and the rest of us bringing up the rear?"

"That sounds good to me." offers Brianna. "The day is wasting and we do have to go thought all those things we acquired as soon as we have a secure place to do so.

Highnar could honestly without a doubt say he was at the moment one unhappy dwarf, having with Brianna’s help finally gotten seated upon the horse with no one before him and he on his own. As to why they thought he could ride this mangy horse alone he still had no clue as he could feel that the horse below him did not like him much also.
Then Brianna called to all to move out and hopefully secure in the saddle the dwarf kicked the horses flank to get it moving.

(OOC: Ok seeing as Highnar has no Horse riding ability if this was 2e the DM would roll to see if he falls off. As this is 3.5 I have no idea if such a roll is warranted. Hopefully not as Highnar is sure to fall off )

Logan seeing that Hignar is having a bit of difficulty, walks over with his horse to where Highnar is and offers some help. "Highnar, grab the reigns like so", Logan begins as he shows him how to hold onto them. Logan continues as he ties up his horse to a tree and begins to adjust the sturips for Highnars short legs. "now this should also help you better control this animal while riding as you need both your legs and arms to control him. Now if you want you to make him turn in a certain direction, you have to pull the reigns in a manner to make his head turn in the direction you wish to turn." Logan continues as he mounts his horse so he can show him how to control his new found ride while we move. Now mounted, Logan begins to show him examples of what he is talking about. "Now you give it a try and make your horse turn complete 360s in both left and right direction."

Logan waits and watches as Highnar does this. Logan then goes on to explain how to get the horse to move. "Now that you have that down somewhat, you'll get better with time, we have to get you to get that horse moving. What you what to do is to take your feet and kick him in the ribs. Bear in mind that the harder you kick, the harder he is going to take off. So if you do a light kick as such", Logan shows him, "he'll start off in a walk. The harder you kick, the faster he takes off, so you act as though your digging your heels into something like thus." Again Logan shows highnar an example of what he is talking about. "Your horase will take off like all hell has broken loose. Now obviously once you got him moving, you'll want to have him stop. In order to do that, you want to pull back on the riegns like this." Again, Logan gets his horse to take off and this time shows him how to make him stop. "We'll all help you more when we get to a location where it is a bit safer for us and you to practice and get better acustomed to riding and controling a horse. Til then I believe I will ride along side you so we can go over how to do things with you horse and to make sure you dont loose total control, ok?"

PS. After each example given, if needed Logan goes over again and also watches Highnar while he does them and makes suggestion and pointers to help him better control his new horse.

Seeing and hearing Logan take on the role of Highnar's riding instructor, Lorae drops back to the drag position. There she has a perfect view of Logan working with Highnar. At times she must contain her mirth as Highnar really tries to follow Logan's instructions. Along with it all she gets a better sense of both these new members, and she liked what she saw.

As she watches Highnar a pang of sadness hits her. There was another Dwarf, strangely enough his name had been Logan, Logan Thunderfist, uncrowned King of Duranhelm. Logan, who, when dying in her arms after the battle with the Dark Lord, had professed a love for her, in his own way.

"Lass, if you were a dwarf, I'd marry you."

Lorae sighs lightly and lets the memory fade. As they move deeping into the forest she lets Dancer keep the the track, while she lets her acute senses flow into the forest about them. The forest was old, even in terms of Elven time. And for now it was at peace.

Xour scours the area for material usefull in repleshing his supply of arrows but still manages to notice the dwarf’s discomfort. To the drwaf he says “Fear not friend. You will not be left behind.” To the others he says “We must assume that the one who left was a spy and that our foes will know our plans. Shall we proceed?”

"Roscoe was not in the Inn last night and only joined us on the road. I doubt he knew little of our journey, other than we were headed to Asbenford."

"But the warning is acknowledged and we must be alert."

The rest of the days produces nothing more that than the usual denizen of a forest. Draug returns with a nice fat rabbit and a bloody muzzle, letting Xuor know that he had already fed himself. Flame lets Brianna know about a handful of BIG fat birds. As Brianna goes to investigate she find a flock of turkeys feeding. Two bow shots, bring down 2 birds. Xuor on one of his scout outs, notices a rabbit warren and with Draug's help is able to snag two more coneys for the dinner pot.

Logan spends his time instruction the Dwarf on the finer points of riding. Highnar has slipped a couple of time to ons side of the saddle, but Logan's quick reflexes keep him from hitting the ground.

Late afternoon finds the group and the bend in the river that surrounds a small copse of trees and then a open meadow. It would give tree cover for the group, water for the horse and themselves, and the river would be a barrier to anyone trying to get to them from the other side of the river. There was open ground before anyone could get to the trees, so all in all a great place for a defensible camp.

Brianna and Xuor both concur as to its suitabliity. Going into the copse they find a fairly well established firepit and camping area. The camp seems well set up.

Brianna dismounts easily from her stallion and quickly stips him of tack and equipment. THen she strips her mare setting the horse blankets on top of their saddle to aire out. She turns the mare towards the rive and tells her to drink and graze but promises her a thorough brushing later.

"Any one of you a decent cook. Or shall we just roat the meat on sticks." Then Brianna helps to set up camp. With a small scoop/shovel she cleans out the already made firepit and looks it over before gathering tinder twigs and then any fallen branches. She is quick thorugh and efficent. knowing exactly what she is doing. "Xuor, perhaps you can take wone of your circuits around this place and check out tracks in and out of it. I would like to know what lives in the area and what to prepare for." WHile Brinna works her swords are still on her back.

When she finishes with the camp work she set out her saddles and lays down her bedrool dover with canvas and unrolls that blanket over some raked up needles and leaves.

Then she goes gets the horses brushes, soap and a towel and set off for the river first to groom her horses as promised and then to take a bath herself. SHe moves off with a quick stride her long legs covering the ground easily even though they had been riding most of the day.