Neverwinter Forest follow the beat of another conundrum

For @Osprey! Always wanted a thread with you, too! Glad you're back! :D

Even with moonlight unobscured in the night sky, very little light actually penetrated the depths of the overgrown wood. Still, Mordecai moved through the winding paths out of muscle memory. Partially curious as to whether or not he would encounter the seaside siren he had met once before, and partially to lurk in the shadows. The air could have been accurately described as frosty and a creature with more vivid imagination than the Ostrega would have thought the fog was curling around him to ensnare him and hold him still.

But such wasn't the case, at least not tonight. Mordecai found the easiest route back towards the Spine through the dense wood was to take the paths that they had taken when they had left the mountain. Somewhere overheard, in the distance, its peak would have glittered with fresh snow at its tip. Below on varied terra firma, the snow didn't grace them yet. It had frosted a few times, of that he was certain, but the temperatures fluctuated between extremes depending on the time of day. Quick to heat, quick to cool. This wasn't his first seasonal roll in a climate different from Sedona, but it was more extreme there, he thought.

His pace slowed as he worked his way through a mess of tangled and rotting wood, but something gave him pause. Ears stood sharp and instinctively he curled his tail skyward. The territory wasn't his, no, but the urge to defend a land that formerly been an extension of their claim came naturally. In the end, it turned out to be nothing at all, just something in the shadows that had either gone to rest or moved on. But he watched the dense wood all the same, as though the shadows would morph. Perhaps the loa Lecter had spoken of existed strongly in that wood, but Mordecai had no real concept of them now.

sage francis — over under