Part Three- Out of the Woods and into the Lands of Worms and Wyrms

The next morning, the smells of breakfast roused the party gently from their rest. Himeko opened her eyes to find that the hut with still quiet. The morning light had just begun to make its way down through the canopy. The sounds outside were the gentle voices of the elves who had already gotten up from their sleep. It seems that they did not intend to wake everyone with the noise of their preparations, but rather allow them to get up in their own good time. Himeko supposed that everyone would appreciate that.

She looked over to where Cerys laid, still asleep, and wondered whether she was still dreaming. She also wondered whether dreams had been as unusual as her own. Himeko had to dreamt that the party had ventured out of the forest and into the next realm. There, they had stayed with a particularly unsavory nobleman. At dinner, the apple that he had given her had been filled with worms. Tiny ones, but no less squirming and appalling to discover.

After that, they had ventured to the edge of a canyon, and looking down into it, had seen that it was filled dragon. They were the serpentine kind, the ones sometimes called wyrms, and they slid past one another like a pit of snakes. The only way across that canyon was a bridge that was guarded buy a troll. He looked more interested in pushing anyone is the canyon whom he did not like rather the letting anyone cross. Himeko had been about a smite the troll using one of her powers as a paladin when she woke up.

Her stomach, now very much aware of the smell of food, growled. She wondered whether she should wake up Cerys or let her sleep inn. She knew how much your friend like to sleep, and in the end decided to leave her be. On the other side of the room, Bayani and Peter were still deeply asleep. She had no intention whatsoever of rousing them. They looked sweet together, the way Peter’s head rested on his boyfriend’s chest. As young as they were, they seemed right for one another.

Himeko’s thoughts drifted to Nashtra. Did elves wake up earlier than humans normally did? Driven by curiosity as much as the growing demands of her stomach, she slipped out from under her blanket, changed her clothes into something appropriate to be seen in outside, and then tiptoed out of the hut.

There was a small number of villagers cooking breakfast over the open firepits. It did not seem that a feast was being laid out in this morning, not like dinner had been the night before. It was more like there was an understanding that people would be waking up at different times. Himeko could see vessels of food that were ready to be cooked, but far less of it had been cooked already. She supposed that they planned to cook it little by little, as their follow villagers roused, so that everyone was able to eat something freshly- cooked.