Kal'Ar looks to his companions, grins, and stands.
"Well, you heard the man." He growls, stretching his massive blue limbs. "Seems we got all the information we are going to get. Suppose it's high time we get going. Sooner we go, sooner we get back, sooner I can start spending my hard-earned cash."

He barks a rough laugh, and folds his arms, waiting for the Thief and the Mage, eyes staying on them so as to ignore the many folks starring at him. Though it seemed unneeded to wait for them to stand before heading to the door, Kal'Ar felt he had to always watch over the two. As though it were his duty to keep them from any kind of harm, even in these, the safest of places. Honestly, it just made him feel useful, giving him a purpose that he had so long lacked after his defeat in the great arena. It was a subject he never cared to speak of, even though he knew that everyone knew. That was the worst part. Everyone knew. Most had seen it. He had been bested in combat by that little feline woman in front of thousands of people. And there were a number of those people that had lost a great deal of money in that fight, and would love a chance to get ahold of Kal'ar and put his head on a pike..... But they would not find it easy to do so......

Standing up after Kal'Ar, Nia stretched and yawned. "Well if this is all we got to go on, might as well get going!"
Slipping past the large Ronso, and not waiting for the Nu Mou that was still sitting and went straight for the door. As she opened it she called back to the others "Well hurry up, before someone does the job for us!" and promptly stepped outside letting the door fall shut behind her.

Standing outside, a small grin crossed Nia's face. Turning back to the Inn, she looked for any handholds and started climbing to the roof, taking care not to cover any windows. Once on top of the roof, Nia sat down and pulled some pebbles out of one of her bags. Humming to herself, she waited for the others to walk outside.

Nefrelle considered Alru's response. That was indeed strange... if magic had nothing to do with it, nor the other arcane arts, then something else had to be going on. It couldn't just be happenstance; she thought of the sheep in the rolling pastures back at home, in the countrysides where she came from, and her mind wandered slightly as she finished her mug of milk. Sometimes, something would come in and spook the sheep, but usually it was just that- some rabble-rousing beastmaster or animal which needed to be chased away.

"...Sooner we go, sooner we get back, sooner I can start spending my hard-earned cash." The ronso brawler had stood up from his seat, followed momentarily by Nia, who slipped out past Kal'Ar and disappeared outside. Nefrelle chuckled at the girl's energy. It was so wonderful to be young; in a sense, she was a rather young nu mou herself, having only 68 years under her belt so far. Setting down the empty mug, Nefrelle gently slid off her seat, gathered up her quarterstaff and backpack, and smiled up at Kal'Ar, the latter dwarfing her easily. With everything now in check, the others raring to go, and no questions she could think of to ask, she followed Nia out the door, ready to meet whatever lay ahead.

Sitting on the roof, Nia waited for her friends to exit the inn. She crouches down as she hears the door opens and peaks over the lip of the building to make sure it's her friends and not an innocent person.

Grinning as the Ronso and Nu Mou come into view, Nia picks out two smooth pebbles from her collection and takes aim.

"TAG!" With a laugh, Nia tosses both of the pebbles to her friends and turns to climb down the other side of the building and start running.

"Games always wake people up~" she thought to herself as she ran towards the town gate hoping that the others would follow.

*TAG!*

This was all Kal'Ar heard before a pebbles bounced off his head, drawing a deep rumbling growl from his lungs. His eyes followed the little thief's progress until she slipped from the roof, instantly dropping into a almost crouched position to pursue, his beastly speed impressive to most of his fans. Dust rose from his feet as one after the other, they pound down the street after Nia, so lost in the game he does not even consider if their poor,left behind friend could catch up.......

((In the interest of getting things underway I am going to go ahead and fast-forward a bit and if you fine folk want to back post in this wonderful game of tag then please feel free to do so.))

After a rousing little game of "catch-the-thief" to get the blood pumping the unlikely trio finally heads out the north gate and into the wilderness beyond their home. Much of the surrounding landscape, despite many attempts to cultivate and convert the land into stable farmland, is still swampy. With this fact in mind the group moves at a slow but steady pace, being careful where they step so as not to sink into any particularly muddy areas or disturb any of the native, harmless wildlife that resides in these swampy fields. As they press on further from the developed areas around the city twisted and gnarled trees become more commonplace in the swampy terrain and it does not take very long at all to realize that it is far too quiet, something is not right here; no native birdcalls can be heard, no rustling in the trees or bushes, it is almost as if the native species are gone, or hiding from something...

((The swampy terrain may provide some interesting moments of little Nefrelle getting stuck in the mud and having to be lifted out by Kal'Ar and other such interesting group interactions as you deem fit, so keep that in mind.))

One of the nice things about a game of tag was how energetic one felt. Nia was a flighty little thing, fast and agile, and, at her age, Nefrelle had had a lot of fun running about the grass and feeling the pristine air billowing through her robes. She felt the same things now that she did as a child, running and playing with the neighbour's chokobos and rolling around in the more pastoral fields around Lufenia in her youth. Times like those needed to be treasured.

Now, trudging through the swamps and the muddy terrain, she was feeling the opposite. There were few things Nefrelle directly disliked, and one of them was mud. Mud in general was a massive slowdown for her; this mud was a particular irritation. When they'd arrived upon the swamps, she'd tied her ears back behind her head and tucked up her robes as well as she could. Her staff and backpack had been given to Kal'Ar to carry. Unfortunately, her diminutive size rendered the painstaking robe-tucking efforts virtually useless. Thick, sticky silt was caked upon her clothing, shoes, fur, and tail, and she was growing heavy under it all. Occasionally she would get stuck, and Kal'Ar would need to pull her out and carry her a little over the more impassible bits. However, she insisted upon walking so as not to be too much of a burden. It was, to sum up the occasion, embarrassing.

Mentally, however, she was keeping her awareness and thinking mind sharp. There seemed to be nothing here: no birds, no animals, no signs of life, little light, and little warmth. Even the usual susurrus of insects and creature calls was absent. This was not natural, and she preferred to speak little; if they did make any conversation, she would hush the others into whispers or low murmurs. All she truly knew was that there was definitely something wrong with this place.

(OOC: Shieldwolf, what area on the map are these swamps located in? I'd like to do a bit more research.)

Kal'Ar had enjoyed attempting to run down the little thief, and it had been a great way to keep spirits high, and pass the time. Anything to take his mind away from past events, and present issues. And it wasn't until they had reached the edge of this swamp that the Ronso's spirits dropped.
"This was not mentioned..." He had growled, more to himself than anyone else, and led the way into the sticky wet mudlands. Soon in, he agreed to carry Nefrelle's pack and Staff, and even offered to simply carry her as well, but the little companion insisted that she walk.

Not much farther on, however, Kal'Ar had to pull the poor thing from the ground, as she had sunk to her waist in the sticky muck. So bad was it that it even threatened to capture the blue beast's feet as well.

Unaware of any oddities in this meek place, the fighter spent most of his time cursing, grunting, growling, falling, and all in all, dragging himself, and the other two when necessary, through this cursed armpit of the land, making no attempt at conversation, nor replying to anyone else's.

The happiness raised through her game of tag was quickly dampened as Nia realized the swamps were between them and their destination. "This will be soooo much fun."
Nia spent much of the trip either stepping in Kal'Ars' pawprints, or balancing on any fallen logs, large plants, or rocks she could find. Getting her hands dirty was never a problem, but falling face first in mud, that was a MAJOR problem. It wasn't just the mud in the swamps that bothered Nia either, it was the eerie quiet that pervaded the area. No birds, no animals, no bugs... Nothing. Her usual boisterous personality had been replaced with a more quiet, cautious one, as they tread through the swampland. She kept one hand on her blade at all times, just to be safe.