With the new party assembled, Violetta and Lady Hilda finished speaking with the Vice Quartermaster Fehn while she tried to introduce herself to the Kithe who understood her to be a scholar. With names like Cookie and Cake, the ominous black robed short Mahn was making her a bit nervous. Something about them stirred up that vengeful and murderous feelings like when she had first seen Violetta. Was it their connections to divine beings that made these feelings or was it just herself. It could not be just her imagination, but Sig and Locke did not provoke these feelings in her. Lady Hilde had earned the rage by probing her mind while she was unconscious. She had done something to interfere in her head, but the first peaceful sleep that she could remember in so many moons had a way of being an acceptable trade off.

  Fehn handed her a short sword that was manageable at least. Insisting that even a Gobbo needed a proper weapon out in the wilderness. She had thanked him, and they were departing, climbing up the hill when Lady Hilda took her leave. As a group of six, the journey itself began awkwardly as each one of them had their own pace. The Kithe were not used to traveling at a comparative run to the steady march of Sig and Lock, or Violetta for that matter. Her own footsteps as a Gobbo, particularly walking upright and not hunched over as still making her way through tunnels put her at the same pace as the Kithe.

  Focusing on their hard pace, Violetta offered breaks though it all worked out to being about the same as setting their pace to that of the Kithe and meandering about at a steady walk. Finding the appropriate pacing took until midday and by then they were complaining of hunger. Such fragile and weak creatures! She thought that they must be even more formidable than Mahn, seeing as the physically weaker the more impressive their equipment and wits were to compensate.

   Cookie scratched her cheek as she stared at the stream,

  Cake made her way over and looked in her direction,

  She did not know anything else, and having never left the warren before this, she had no explanation to give them other than a simple,

  Cake seemed to accept it with a simple agreement,

  Cookie pouted and shook her head,

  They stopped to enjoy a drink before moving on. As the sun started to dip in the east, they continued on with some small talk between them. Violetta had begun to explain what had happened on her first outing in the land.

  

   Cookie snickered,

  Cake smacked Cookie upside the head with a quick whip of her arm,

  Violetta paused for a moment to glance at her,

   Sig bit now,

   Cake clarified before Violetta had the chance,

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

   She countered.

   Violetta crossed her arms and glared at her,

   She did not understand.

  

  Locke gulped and asked,

   Cookie covered her mouth as she laughed,

   Cake licked her lips as she relished in the memory,

  It was too much. She felt faint just knowing that they had the same horrible thoughts as she had when first encountered Violetta. Though she knew that those words contained some innuendo, and what terrible implications that meant, not even Locke dared speak of it. Violetta went white at the casual brutality being described and the joyous tone in the Kithe’s words.

   Sig forced an uneasy laugh,

   Cake grinned at the ambiguity of her own answer,

  Sig rolled his eyes at that and let it be. He waited until everyone was ready before continuing on. As the sun began to dip in the west, the sky began to change from blue to orange with bands of red.

   Violetta said as she noticed it,

   Cookie pointed in the direction towards a dark green forested hill with wisps of smoke rising above the canopy. Several smaller trails went up throughout the forest,

  That was where the warren was hidden, her stomach started to sink as she knew that the central plume of smoke was too great, too black to be anything like the fires in the settlement. She rushed ahead and turned back to Violetta,

  The wind carried the smoke away, but somewhere in the midst of the forest and its clearing was the warren. She knew they were getting close to the entrance of the cavern, but she wanted to rush home now.

   Sig looked at her, but seeing her reaction caused him to realize that was precisely the problem,

   She turned to Violetta ready to run home,

   Violetta’s voice was stern,

  Sig said as he looked at the rising smoke,

  “Calm, my friend,” Violetta said to her in Gobbo, “Together. We go together.”

  “Violetta.” She nodded, “Together.”

   Cookie sighed,

   Violetta said and looked to her,

  She did not need to be told twice, as they rushed forward as a group up towards hill and into the forest where the warren lay.