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RESPITE CLINIC - LOUMA'S OFFICE - LATE MORNING
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Nesseth sits in a chair behind Louma's desk, still clearly not completely comfortable being on that side of it just from how odd it feels. Currently, he's poring over some reports that came in later in the afternoon the previous day, as well as the wave of reports from the current morning, which includes a couple of separate reports of explosions coming from the northern road, as well as a confirmed visual sighting (courtesy of Dorri's observatory) of a giant fire near the edge of the woods, about a day by caravan away from town.
Nesseth 's brow furrows further and further as he reads through the seemingly related reports together, trying to piece together the likely chain of events, even if the overarching cause is blatantly obvious: another caravan got attacked. He puts the sheets down on top of the rest of the reports and just spends a few seconds with his face buried in his hands out of an effort to just keep himself mentally centered.
Nesseth rubs his face as he slowly lowers his hands again and sighs as he picks the reports up once more. The moment he'd seen the urgent stamp on Teis' transcribed report from Dorri's observatory, he'd read it before anything else. Not long after, he sent some of the remaining scouts in the garrison to the north to get a closer look.
Nesseth is about to resume reading to see if he can divine more details from the reports when there's an urgent knock at the door. He looks up and calls back. "Come in, the door's open."
Baldwin, the gazelle scout that helped with Nesseth's initial scouting to find Louma, quickly rushes in, looking strangely agitated as he snaps off an almost perfunctory salute. "Cap-- er... Lieutenant! We've found tracks."]
Nesseth stares uncomprehendingly at Baldwin for a moment before it clicks. He'd sent Baldwin out along with several other scouts to search to the west of town, out towards the desert, on Xochi's suggestions. Another moment passes as that detail and the new report clicks together in his head, and he stands up quickly. "What? Where?!"
Baldwin nods back towards the door, pointing a finger out behind him a bit as though he's gesturing towards the desert itself. "Out west, like you said. Before the desert turns to nothing but sand, there's a distinct amount of tracks that closely match the description of those raiders we'd found around the first caravan. Lots of them, and signs of injured folks, as well as the marks of a large sled or something." The gazelle shakes his head for a moment, "The tracks are old, so we can't tell what order they were moving in, but we can tell they were going deeper into the desert, further west."
Nesseth falls into thought as he listens to Baldwin, then snaps his eyes back to the gazelle's face. "You're sure they were heading west, then? Thoughts on how far?"
Baldwin shrugs. "Yeah, the rest of the scouts agreed that the tracks made the most sense going further west, and they didn't deviate very much outside of avoiding overly difficult terrain. As for how far... honestly, sir? A host like that, plus prisoners that didn't have supplies of their own... not very, if they wanted to keep the prisoners alive."]
Nesseth hums, nodding in agreement to Baldwin's assessment. "Mmh... no signs of any slain prisoners on the trail, then? Only other thing I can think of is a supply stop somewhere that would let them get further."
Baldwin shakes his head again. "Nothing that we could see, no, even with the scopes we've gotten recently. We can keep searching further out, maybe follow the trail or something, but..."]
Nesseth: "Supplies will be harder to come by, I know, and we won't be able to respond quickly enough if you and the others come under attack. Go as far as you think is safe and reasonable, don't overextend, and report back with any new findings." He sighs and bends over to grab a bit of paper and something to write with, and begins to jot down notes, "At least now, we can definitively pull the rest of the scouts back from the north and east."
Baldwin salutes and turns to leave. "Sir! We'll resupply and head back out as soon as we can." The gazelle takes a couple of steps towards the door and stops, only to look uncertainly back at Nesseth, clearly unaccustomed to the Lizard being the one behind the desk, "Er... by your leave, Lieutenant?"]
Nesseth nods and returns the salute before making a shoo'ing gesture as he goes back to writing. "Dismissed, Baldwin. Do what you have to."
Baldwin nods again and quickly heads back out of the office, galvanized by the discovery of more tangible leads.]
Nesseth finishes drafting up the order to have the scouts reorient to the west and sighs as he sets the pen down. He remains standing as he gazes blindly down at the top of the desk, bracing himself a bit with both hands. "...I don't know if any of you out there can hear me, but we'll bring you all home... just hang in there a bit longer."
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RESPITE FALLS - JUST INSIDE THE NORTH GATE - EARLY AFTERNOON
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Phoebe slowly begins to wake up, feeling a great deal of soreness that she vaguely knew to expect, but still takes her off guard as she begins to piece together the events of the past few days without her. Tilting her neck and hearing the joints crack, the wolf reaches up to run a hand down her forehead and muzzle, as if to make sure she's actually herself, then sighs. "Well, shit..."
Phoebe glances out the window of the private wagon, and after taking a moment to gather her wits, she grabs her satchel and swings the door open, setting foot in Respite for the first time as she starts to walk away from the wagons. It seems the town guard let them in without much fuss at the gate, and as she looks around for Gareth and his posse, can't help but wonder if they got dragged in by the authorities to explain what the hell happened, an experience she'd rather not deal with right now. Better to sneak off while she can.
Erika is walking her way across the street nearby. She waves cheerily at the tired and weary caravan drives, welcoming them (back) to Respite safely! Erika has not been able to do much anything for anything regarding the actual raids or farm attacks, but she has been pretty darn good at the whole 'cheer people up - here's a mango!' thing. When she had gotten through clearing the jungle that was left after Melia (poor elemental soul - or wait, do elementals have souls?), she had found a lot more fruit-bearing bushes and trees than she once had, bearing seeds Erika had not seen before.
Erika notices Phoebe and greets her with a smile: "Hey there! Welcome to Respite Falls, though I hear your trip was kinda awful. I promise it's not usually like that."
Phoebe blinks at the sudden deer-thing in her face as she tries to slink away from the wagons. "Err, yeah. Awful is one way to put it." She is idly doing a mental inventory of her things, having changed out of that dress before she left the wagon, now her street clothes. She sighs. Aelia dropped her knife, stupid careless deer. She notes that the newcomer is still smiling at her. "Uh... yes? Do you... want something?"
Erika blinks, then giggles, stepping back to give the other a bit of space. "Oh! No, no, just wanted to say 'welcome' to our town even if we're sorta in the middle of this crazy crisis and everyone's freaking out." She pauses: "But, uh, yeah. Hi! I'm Erika."
Phoebe raises an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah. Hey there. Great... jump right in the fire, eh? Super." She scowls as she starts to move past Erika, "Name's Phoebe. Anywhere lowkey to get some food around here? I'd prefer to... um..." She glances back towards the guards interviewing folks near the caravan. "You know, relax."
Erika steps aside, not put off in the least: "Oh, the Thirsty Minnow is great. It's pretty quiet most of the time, and now especially since Guards are kinda-sorta-very recommended to not drink before this all is solved, or so I heard?"
Phoebe hmphs. "Raw deal for them I guess, but sounds good to me. You got directions then?" She narrows her eyes at Erika, "Or that gonna cost me?"
Erika blinks, then rapidly shakes her head: "Oh no no no. I wouldn't dare!" She points up the street across the marketplace: "...besides, it's like right there. Be pretty rude of me to try and charge for that even if I could."
Phoebe still seems a bit suspicious, but she lets that go, nodding, as she turns to head in the indicated direction. "Sure..." She keeps on walking, slowly realizing Erika is still walking with her. "Err... hello? Yes? And? What else?"
Erika blinks, then stops walking: "Oh sorry! You want to be left alone, I get it." She pauses, then considers Phoebe for a second: "...right? I mean I can leave, but everyone needs company every now and then you've had... actually I have no idea, but I believe you used the word 'awful'. Or I did. but anyway!" She grins almost suspiciously innocently, but that's the way the okapi rolls.
Phoebe keeps walking for a moment, then stops and sighs. "I'd give anything to be truly alone..." She turns back towards Erika, crossing her arms to stare at the okapi, as if sizing her up. "Hmm. You know this town pretty well, I'm guessing?"
Erika shrugs with a grin: "Lived here all my life. I'd like to think I know it pretty well." She pauses, lifting a hand to her chin: "...don't ask about the sewers."
Phoebe nods thoughtfully. "Alright... I don't know why you want to hang out with some stranger you just met, but whatever. If you're gonna follow me, then at least tell me about this town. I need to know as much as I can as quickly as possible okay." She gives Erika a funny look. "...hopefully never need to know about the sewers, yeah."
Erika lets out a giggle and a wave of hand: "I hang out with anyone who wants me to." She winks: "But I can tell you want to be alone after the rough ride, so I will leave you be. See you around!" Before she actually leaves though, she has managed to slip Phoebe a rough map of the town, full of Erika's own notes about the importance of things. Such as ice cream.
Phoebe blinks again, watching Erika go. Confusion plays across her face as she looks down a the paper that Erika slipped her, glancing at the map. "...the hell was that?"