I am Dungeon Master!

 

Night Watch

As the Party has grown more confident in each others abilities and trustworthiness, they all sleep a little sounder. The night-time sleep/guard roster isn't perfect and costs them a few hours each day but it seems to be the best they can do with just the four of them. 

The elven Arowe and Rifkin take the longest shifts because they need the least sleep and have, by far, the best night vision. This does mean though, that both elves stand guard alone for six of the ten hours.

First two hour watch: Fortu and Rifkin. (9pm-11pm)

Second two hour watch: Rifkin alone. (11pm-1am)

Third two hour watch: Arowe alone. (1am-3am)

Forth two hour watch: Arowe alone. (3am-5am)

Fifth two hour watch: Arowe and Liga Bur/Mir Hundur. (5am-7am)

In addition to the guards on duty, the three Horses, the Dork and the little Fox all contribute in their own way.

Tree of Knowledge

After finishing his two hour shift and leaving Rifkin to continue the night watch without him, Fortu sheds his heavy armour and snuggles down under his thick blanket. In the moments before sleep fully takes him, Fortu wonders about the mysterious Dryad pool and what secrets it really holds? 

In their eagerness to get away from the twisted carnivorous tree, they'd completely neglected to squeeze it for information. It had implied that it 'knew things' but aside from it telling them that the pool held more than one secret, they hadn't actually asked it anything.  

Not about the guardians and defences of the pool or how far away it was? Not about any nearby wildlife dangers. Not even about the three-scratch-mark symbol deeply carved into it's stone-like bark and other, seemingly random, trees for miles around!

Fortu's last thought, as his mind fades into darkness, is whether it'd be worth heading back but then he remembers the wolfpack closing the gap between them...

Survivor's Guilt

After padding along behind his new group of two-legged friends for a while now, he's suffered through a whole gamut of emotions.

They've shown him nothing but kindness; the little one especially. Back in the hidden valley he'd eaten nothing other than fruit and vegetables but the little two-legs had given him hot meat!

He'd been nervous at first, despite the encouragement of the big dog and little fox. He'd always been told that eating other animals was wrong but those skinned and flamed rabbits had smelled so good and when he licked at them... The hot, sweet, greasy taste! His stomach growled in the memory and his muzzle instantly dripped with saliva.

Although already greying around his feathered eyebrows and jowls, he'd never travelled far beyond the secret valley path. Maybe a half-days trek with his master. Now though, he's weeks away from that security. He'd seen and smelt wonderous, terrifying things. The monstrous wolf-boar guardian, whom he'd only seen before from a safe distance and exciting/terrifying new creatures such as the giggling fish-women and whispering, life-sucking tree!

Still, he was alive and fitter than ever...

If only he knew what happened to his slightly-smaller-than-a-man master and his friends the tiny red bug-man and the owl-horse? Once, when given the chance, he'd asked the little-two legs about it but he'd just replied that he knew nothing about it.

Perhaps they'd just got lost and couldn't find their way home? 

Without fully understanding why, the Dork cranes his feathery neck skywards and screeches a melancholy cry to the heavens.