The soft mud in the center of the clearing makes for an easy dig, as a mound is formed over walkers corpse the group take a moment of silent reflection to grieve the guard. 

Once that is done and everyone is satisfied enough to move on, Neferox leads the way back. After around ten minutes of walking the group find a large fallen tree, the base of which makes a good wind breaker and the small crater left by the upheaval of its roots make for a good rest spot. 

Vin settles down with his back against the fallen tree.  He's both emotionally and physically drained.  He isn't sure he can sleep so he's hopeful that after a short rest they can focus on continuing.  The often chipper young man seems very overwhelmed as Nef comes over to lay her head in his lap.  Vin forces a smile and pets her.  He still seems very disturbed and unusually quiet.  Likely reflecting on Walker and other recent events.

Elthana climbs up the large tree and finds a comfortable branch to perch upon.  Keeping an eye on things with her darkvision, she takes her short rest as well.  

     Sam sits silently for a long time, relishing the rest and quiet.  He’s a man most at peace when he doesn’t have to think…  Sometimes that’s combat, just throwing down and not thinking about anything.  Other times it’s just turning the brain off, like now.

     Eventually though the gears do lumber on.  “Good job,” he says to nobody in particular.  He doesn’t bother making eye contact with any of them but he can feel the disagreement if some.

     “Damn good job,” he says a bit louder.  “Listen, any fight you win is a good fight.  More so when it’s a real fight to the death.  Like that was…  We survived.  Our opponent didn’t.  That’s the outcome we wanted.”

     “No, it didn’t go great.  It could have been a lot cleaner and smoother and whatever…  Screw that.  Fights are messy.  Ugly.  Chaotic.  In the end though it’s win or lose.  We are breathing.  We won.  That, my friends, is a good job,” Sam insists.  “Period.”

     “We fought some faery beast with piers and magics we don’t understand and it’s dead now.  Yay us.  Unless you’d prefer it breathing and is not then there’s no reason to be hanging your heads or kicking rocks,  they chose us to be heroes…  Well I’m not the one to be deciding if that is true or not but we’re survivors.  And so long as we keep doing that then the rest of it can damn well straighten itself out…”

     After that is said, Sam does indeed look around at the others.  Catches each one’s eyes and gives a brief nod before moving on.  Except Neferox.  If Sam catches their eyes he just stares for a long moment before eventually standing and claps his hands a time or two as if wiping off the dirt or the whole affair.  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be stepping out for a few to feed the trees.  If you catch my meaning…” 

     Sam steps away from their little camp and moves a few trees away for some privacy.  He’s gone long enough to drop his worries before returning…

Gewyn, now mostly playing a slow contemplative tune as he thinks on recent events, puts down the pipes to listen to Sam's speech. When Sam walks off, Gewyn rises. He lllooks over at Vin as if he wants to say something, but then his eyes meet with Nef and he thinks better of it for now. He paces over to Elthana's tree, knocking politely on its trunk a few times. "Hey," he calls out softly. "Got a moment to talk?"

He starts trying to climb the tree, then thinks better of it and stays at the bottom.

Elthana smiles down at the knocks on the tree she is situated in.  "Of course."

She watches as he attempts to climb the tree, then lays on her stomach, as she is in a relatively low branch, and reaches down to help him up.  As he struggles to find purchase against the trunks bark, she sighs and sits back up.  She then jumps down to join him.  Once they find a place to sit on their own, she looks at him, waiting for him to start.

Muir watches Vin fall asleep and the others do their thing and decides he would move off into the woods

Gewyn rubs his ribs where Vin's magic had struck him, wondering if any of his ribs broke, and says "Sam's right. We won that fight, and as long as we win the next one, and the one after that, and so on, we can figure out the rest from there. But that's my problem. I am used to performing under pressure, and my 'stage courage' normally gets me through to the end of the fight. But I lack that edge, that instinct, that I think lets the rest of you look at another living thing and decide you are going to do it bodily and potentially fatal harm. It's like there's a wall inside me that I have to push past every time. But I can't just sit on the sidelines and play pretty music. Like Sam said, and like we saw today, fights get messy."

Gewyn runs his hand through his flop of hair. "So I guess what I'm saying is... will you fight me? Not right now of course! But later when I've healed up a bit. You're a scary lady, and I know you could kick my ass, just like you did my face, but maybe doing some light sparring with you could make it easier for me to get past that wall and get into a fighting headspace." He smiles, though the blood in his teeth diminishes the charm a little.

Nef watches Gewyn as he approaches for a short time.  Her body tensing and on alert like she's ready to spring.  It's clear she has no trust for him.  When he moves away she seems to relax.  The sudden tenseness seems to get Vin's attention and he looks to Gewyn.  He seems to be able to work up a smile for the bard and seemed ready to chat with him but the bard turned away once looking at Neferox and her glare of mistrust.  Vin's smile vanishes as Gewyn turns away and the boy suddenly seems extremely depressed.  Nef seems to pick up on this and licks his cheek in concern.  Vin scratches her ear in response and seems to take solace with his dog.  He ends up leaning on her for comfort.  Soon, he's asleep taking a short nap.  The black hound keeping watch with keen eyes so she can wake him in a moment's notice if needed.

Perception check from Nef: 21

As Gewyn talks about the fight they just went through she starts nodding in agreeance with the fact that they won and need to continue in that path.  But as it shifts to his vulnerability on his lack of edge, she looks at him directly head still, listening intently.  She thinks back to the magic he has produced during the other fights and finds it odd he thinks he sits on the sidelines.  She knows it is difficult as it is against his nature, but she feels he isn't backing off.

As he asks her to fight him, she looks a bit startled for a moment then understands where he is coming from.  When he says she is a scary lady, her eyes fill with mirth and then is reminded how she broke his nose and she winces.  

"You don't give yourself enough credit.  I think you need to work on that more than anything.  Of course I will spar with you, whenever you'd like - fresh meat is always fun."  she says with a rare real smile.  "On my old team, they weren't all like me.  Yes, there were a few, but there were others that had different talents and could do things that I cannot.  I would much rather have a well rounded team than one full of Sams."  she pauses and looks at him,  "In all seriousness.  If it will help you be prepared for whatever foe we come across next, I will happily help you in whatever facet I can."  And with that, she pulls out her waterskin and takes a long pull.  She then offers it to Gewyn.  

"Thanks, Elthana. I'm glad we had this talk." Gewyn accepts the flask, sniffs the contents, then swirls its contents while humming a little tune. He then takes a swig and hands the waterskin back, now smelling of spiced wine. He stops leaning against the tree and says, "Well, I think I should try to get some rest before we set off again. Standing makes breathing hurt right now."

He smiles at her and walks off, finding a remote tree to sit against. He leans his head back and closes his eyes for a second, but then seems to change his mind and pulls out his hand mirror, inspecting the damage to his face.

Elthana sniffs her flask again, a bit confused, then takes a swig.  She enjoys the flavor and the warmth it gives her as she watches Gewyn walk off.  She then notices Muir disappear in the forest.  She gets back up in the trees and keeps close enough to him so that she can keep an eye on the elephant.

     As Sam is returning to their little cleaning of a camp he's just in time to notice Muir leaving.  Sam pauses and considers this, but then shrugs.  Could be that the Loxodon, too, needed to heed the call of nature.  Or being one with nature, perhaps they have a different sort of call.  Who is Sam to judge?  But even if they too are abandoning the group they have the right to do so.  More right, perhaps, not having been tasked with this like the original group members...  Whatever the case, Sam wants some rest so he finds a tree and puts his back to it and stretches out his legs.

     It's rest, not sleep, Sam is after so his eyes stay open and alert...  Though his mind wanders to the fate of Órga and what he saw, or imagined, when they fell.  Sam absently pulls another warm ball of fuzz from the bag and ponders it for a while, tossing it hand to hand and considering before finally tossing it about five feet away.  

     "Welcome back, my friend," Sam says with a warm smile as Órga the Lion appears one more and rushes over to snuffle into Sam with a greeting.

The lion is instantly recognisable as the same lion who turned to dust a few hours previous, Órga unfurls from a fluffy ball on the floor growing in size until a fully grow lion rolls over and begins prancing back and forth excitedly, before snuggling into Sam's side and licking at his hand. As Órga looks around it locks eyes with Neferox and scowls, the hound rolls it's eyes in return and ignores the fresh beast, choosing instead to keep an eye over Vin who sleeps soundly.

Toward the end of the short rest Muir and Elthana return to the group.

Iver who had bedded down for a  while in the very corner of the fallen tree crater, slowly rises, he rubs his feet and stretches a little "I fear we've been away for too long, my feet are wet, I'm cold as all hell and resting up ain't doing nothing for me, we should move. The sooner we are back, the sooner we get warm and dry and can help those folk get somewhere safe." It is at this point that the group starts feeling just how cold it is, the cusp of winters beginning cuts into the flesh, stinging faces and numbing extremities, highlighting just how wet the ground and peoples clothes are below the knee.

It is now pitch dark, those without darkvision are having a difficult time, seeing only by the pale touch of the blue moon. For those with darkvision the forest takes on a wholly different look, washed out if it's greens and browns the greyscale trees blir somewhat together standing menacingly like a repetitive concrete wall as the group set off back into the thick and toward the survivors once more. 

     "Yes, yes, time matters," Sam responds to Over.  "But so does being able to walk straight.  Compromises need be made... But you're right, we should get going."

     Contrary to what he just said, Sam first spends a minute to warm him hands in Órga's mane while simultaneously giving the beast a good scratch.  He them takes another moment to light a torch to provide same clarity to their movements.  "It'll make us a bit of a target, but also let us see what to hit if we are targeted."  Then Sam and Órga will take the lead, just asking someone with a better head for directions to point the way.

Muir motions with his hands and mutters to himself in druidic while the others get ready to leave. He listens to Sam and casts produce flame for heat and light. "Sam always wise with his words....We should hurry back to camp before it gets later and colder. I will provide light towards the back of our group"

Elthana walks with the group, off to the side a bit as she continues to watch for any threats.  She does notice an oddity among the trees and seeks Muir out.  "Come here, come look at this... does this look familiar to you?  I mean, I am not real knowledgeable when it comes to the forest.  What do you think?"  And she points to the couple of trees that are randomly placed.  "I saw a couple back there as well."  As Muir looks, she is pointing to trees that seem dead in the centers, a whiteness like a dry algae seems to have spread from their core.

Muir lifts his trunk and takes a whiff of the trees that have the blight on them. It smells of death and decay. He reaches for a branch to inspect the disease. As he touches the branch it crumbles in his hand entirely void of life. He has studied various lichens and diseases in nature but has never come across this. The tree is dying from the inside out. "This is highly unusual and unnatural. The blight on these trees are killing them but I've never seen anything quite like this. Roots of trees create an ecosystem of sorts which allows them to share and grow together. Mushrooms do this quite well....Whatever is killing them is using that system....We should look for a clump of dead trees together that would be the center where the trees are being killed. These here are on the outskirts of whatever is causing the death. We would want to look for a grove a small patch of dead trees together....I do not know what is causing this or why but if what we have come across is any indication be ready for another foul fey creature....Perhaps they can be reasoned with if they are not working with the other evil fey creatures. It is possible others have escaped to this plane and are neither evil or good....If we can reason with it to help us defeat the redcaps....." Muir trails off looking through the woods as far as his eyes can see with the fire still in his hand 

    Sam trudges forward, eyes focus ahead and not behind him.  The Half-Orc doesn’t notice when part of the party splinters off, worried more about those entangling vines and such…