Chapter 2.1b: Search Party (Hochoch)

Rosemary begins to dismember the body. At first she uses her hatchet, but then she uses the battleaxe as it has more heft for cleaving. Jonel, without any kind of cutting implement, begins to gather the rocks to make a cairn to pile over the remains (although he could ask to use a handaxe to assist with the gory work). Arya sniffs in revulsion and hurries to follow Manthis, who has already strode off into the Dim toward their original campground that they'd fled last night.

Rosemary is skilled, and makes short work of this task. Ten minutes is enough to butcher the body, and working together, she and Jonel manage to cover it with stones in another twenty. They're confident that the cairn will keep out anything smaller than a bear from exhuming the body parts. At the end of this, Rosemary and Jonel are tired and filthy with blood and dirt.

Soon, approaching the campground in the morning light, Manthis slows with a bit of caution, looking for any of the animated dead that they'd left here. This allows Arya to catch up to him. Seeing no movement, they proceed cautiously into the little hollow by the cliff. Their fire has burned down to ashes and is cold. Their abandoned gear appears undisturbed (except for their packs - squirrels scramble away as they approach and chitter angrily at them from the safety of nearby trees), and the remains of five dead adventurers lay scattered around the site.

Returning to the original camp site, Rosemary finds her paddle, apparently untouched from where she dropped it. But critters have weaseled open her pack and remains of her pastries are scattered among the dead bodies and pieces of equipment the dead adventurers were carrying.