IC - Village of Limm

Damir asks for directions to the usual hunting spots. Dommic might also return to his family or the girl, so it might - once more - be wise to split up their efforts. The Guardian asks of a house big enough to host the women and children for the night, as well as Dommics family and Ciara. Then he asks his companions whether they wanted to wait out the rest of the night or battle the uninviting darkness out there. He doubts sleep is much of an option since the eerie sounds can still be heard now and then. On the other hand things can seem a lot less powerful when brought to the light...

Danill leaves the inn, bundled and packed. Long strides take him across the grassy field of the common--headed for Ciara's cottage. But he stops. I thinks for a moment, his foggy breath carried on the autumn breeze.

No... I don't need her approval. Or, at least not yet...

He turns and heads back toward the commotion caused by the village children in search of his fellow Guardians.

Quintus is saddened, but not surprised, to learn that Dommic has gone missing. His impulse is to search for the lad at once, and so forestall the accursed howling of the clawed spirit, but the dark of night gives him pause.

"It may be wise, sirs, to await the break of day," he says to Damir and Ognimir-- and to Danill, one supposes, insofar as he also appears to be standing about. "The youth already has the start of us. If we fumble for him in the dark we may miss him, and if we go with torches, we shall make ourselves targets for an archer such as our murderer must be."

Ognimir nods. "It has been an exhausting day of travel and trials. Let us head out first thing in the morning."

Quintus emerges from his allotted place of rest, shrugging into his colorful robes and scratching sleepily at his beard. The haze of sleep dissipates when it dawns on him that the apparition in the forest no longer wails. Puzzled, he seeks his fellow Guardians at the center of town.

"The spirit..." Quintus merely gestures pool-wards, for the observation he would make is clear enough. "Do you suppose, sirs, that it comes and goes with the setting or rising sun?"

Glancing at Podreg, he says gravely, "No man should be made to pursue his own kin. I assure you that we will make every effort to return your brother here, alive and unharmed, to face a just tribunal."