Chapter 1: Departure (Day 2)

Verrian shrugs. "I'd say there's an excellent chance. This place is steeped in magic. Whatever caused that could easily be the reason these frogs became sentient. If that's true, then it's unlikely to have affected only frogs."

Steeped in magic?

Ember's eyes flash with excitement, but she holds back.

I think I've got your trading chip for the boats, then. I know there are water birds with huge beaks. If they weren't all killed out, then maybe.....maybe they've adapted to eat frogs this size......

Verrian raises an eyebrow, looking at Ember with fresh eyes. "Good work," she says, smiling. "That should be something we can help them with."

Verrian moves to where Yelnar is talking to Bronk. "Bronk, Ember says that you're having some trouble with large birds. Can you tell me more about them?"

With the talk becoming grim, Elora reluctantly agrees to bring up the matter at a better time and stows the letter. Upon hearing of the brutality of these birds she gasps with a hand over her mouth, pitying the frogs plight. "That is tragic. These birds sound just awful."

Three creatures. Less than an hour.

Yelnar, do we have time to go help with the knife birds? How close is your home?

Stupid question!", Viani mumbles to herself. It's not directed at anyone but someone standing close to her would be able to understand her. "Of course we have time to help them. Anything else can wait"
She looks over at the frogs and smiles at Greemp when she makes eye contact with him. They are so frightened by these birds. It would be cruel to just leave without helping them.

Yelnar is visibly upset by Viani’s words. He rounds on her, and says through gritted teeth "No, anything else can not wait!

Yelnar takes a deep breath, visibly trying to calm himself down. When he speaks again, it is much faster than normal, almost as if he’s trying to make sure he’s racing to finish what he says before he gets interrupted.

"We know very little about these birds and what kind of threat they might represent. I am not suggesting we ignore this altogether, but I will find out if my mother is OK first. In the meantime, we could teach these folk how to fight, and give them some of these spare weapons to use, and potentially make it easier for them to hunt to boot, not to mention having more capability for when we do go meet the birds, rather than just solve the problem for them and move on."

His shoulders slump. This is the most words you’ve ever heard Yelnar speak at one time, and the effort seems to exhaust him.

Ephwrath looks to Krav and Verrian, "Thank you. Yes, I’ll be alright. Let’s proceed."

After hearing Yelnar’s outburst, he replies. "Our orders from Athisa were clear. We are to proceed to Yelnar’s family estate, and determine their status. Then we are free to choose our next steps."

He sighs. "These creatures seem good natured. I would support helping them after that"

Verrian looks around at her companions. "Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting that we put off going to Yelnar's family estate. I wanted to hear more about these birds that are terrorizing our new friends so that we could form a plan to help that wouldn't keep us from completing our first mission. Athisa gave us just that one concrete directive, and it's reasonable to assume that there might be some time sensitivity involved. I don't support delaying it."

She smiles, both for the benefit of her companions and the frog people. "But we promised something in return for a ride across this lake, so I intend to make good on that. Perhaps the other adventuring party would be willing to take a look into this Nest of Knives. Or perhaps Krav would have some insight into increasing the number of fish our friends could take as tribute, which would buy some time for us to come back and help later."

Startled by the Big Guy’s outburst, Ember begins poking though the cart, looking for items the frogs could use. For once, can you please just act normal?

She mutters to herself. This ordeal may be stressing her out more than she wants to admit.

Viani looks around from person to person as they are all against helping the frogs first. She frowns and crosses her arms. When she hears Ember talk and assumes it's directed at her, she responds: "Maybe you should just act normal!"
Without another word, she walks away from the rest of the group and stands at the front of the ship, looking out over the water, pouting. She knows that Yelnar is worried about his mother because of his vision and that they were told to go to his family's estate first. She sighs. The others are probably right but that only annoys her further. She really wants to help these frog people. Greemp is just so cute! And they're in danger.

Krav thinks for a moment. "Their best spot for fishing would probably be over...there by that bramble.""If worst comes to worst though, I may be able to call a fish to me and speak with it to see where they are hiding. I'd rather not betray their trust if I don't have to though."

Ember’s face flashes red and she grimaces, which tugs on her burn uncomfortably. Of course. Someone noticed her talking to the voices. Great. She’s humiliated, and reacts in the only way she knows how.

Lashing out.

She storms toward Viani, not waiting to reach her to speak. What privileged little world do you live in that the cute survive and the people in immediate danger have to wait? We’re going to help the frogs! We just have priorities!

She hikes up on the balls of her feet to look Viani in the eyes. Light flashes in them. A small, SO SMALL part of Ember is in enough control not to deck the girl.

You’re letting the frogs get to you. You let the dead guys get to you. Well guess what! They scared me too! And I dealt with it!I’ve seen those dead things before.

She holds her palms in Viani’s face, showing her the thin white scars.

My blood was taken to make them. So guess what. You’ve got a new, hellish normal. And I’d pray to whatever deity you prefer that you adapt quick.

She stands down, breathing heavily.

Make that four monsters in an hour....

For just a moment, Viani looks at Ember in confusion. She did not expect the small girl to get this angry. As she always does when she's being criticized, Viani gets defensive.
"We don't even know if anyone's still alive there, let alone in danger. The only proof we have of that is Yelnar's vision and that could mean anything or nothing!" She's only addressing Ember buther voice is loud enough that the others can probably hear her as well. "We know that these frogs are in danger. And just because they are not related to any of us does not mean they deserve to be left to die!"

When Ember continues her speech, Viani gets confused again. She does not understand what the girl is trying to tell her about the cuts on her hands or her connection to the dead they encountered earlier, so she focuses on the one part she does understand. "I'm dealing with these things, too. I just can't look at people who are being terrorized and killed and just ignore them! If you can, then maybe the magic in your blood has done worse to you than burn your skin!"

Right after these words are out of her mouth, Viani abruptly stops speaking. If her professor could see her right now, he would not be happy. She's overreacting to a slight provocation, antagonizing her allies, exposing her own weaknesses. Not the kind of behavior that is encouraged in the Inquisitorial education.
She takes a deep breath and adds, with a meek voice: "I'm sorry, Ember. That went too far."

Verrian moves quickly to where Ember and Viani are conducting their verbal altercation, madly sharing, Stop this at once and Calm, be calm as forcefully as she can. Sometimes the unjoined can be influenced by very focused mental and emotional instructions. She doesn't yet know whether Viani and Ember will be receptive, but it's worth trying, especially since they are all in the middle of a lake with tremendously skittish frog people.

Once she arrives beside them, Viani has just apologized after delivering a particularly cutting insult. Before Ember can gather the steam to respond, Verrian says in a low voice, "This ends now. Both of you have gone too far. Go to opposite sides of the boat and don't talk to one another for the duration of this trip. If we're lucky, we haven't already ruined relations with these gentle people we just met."

Yelnar is shocked enough at Ember's revelation that he doesn't hear Viani. He files it away to talk to her about later.

He walks over to bronk and asks "When will you need to have the next catch for the birds by?"

Ember stands, staring, her mouth slightly open. It’s a long moment before she moves to the boat without making a sound. The voice lets her wallow, clearly satisfied that she has enough to torment herself. She can’t bring herself to look at anyone, not even the "Big Guy". She feels like a dagger is going through her when Verrian speaks. Maybe it’s the Naucan thing. Maybe it’s her own conscience finally doing its job.

She unfurls her cloak from her pack and warps it tightly around her shoulders, clutching it with one hand as the other subconsciously covers the scars on her neck.

Elora finds her face burrowed progressively closer to her journal throughout the argument, not daring to ask Viani if she still uses magic herself for fear of her reaction.