"We're fine," Mirrin says, settling on Tesia's back. "You can go ahead and go."
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Sienna smiles. "I promise that won't be the last time you spend a night in that mansion, Cutie."
With a final chirp and bobbing of her head, Tesia takes a running start before launching herself into the air. Flapping her massive wings, she beats the air in a large lazy spiral upward until she reaches an altitude of about three hundred feet above the landscape, so that she has a good view of everything. Leveling herself out, she turns and starts heading Northeast and towards the unknown.
Tesia flies over the mountains as she heads northeast. The craggy tops provide no place to land and the druid believes she sees movement in the caves and shadowy alcoves of the mountains. However, nothing interrupts her flight. Four hours later, she crosses the mountain range, catching sight of the Tower of Order to her right.
Once past the mountains, Tesia sees the land turn a bright grey before her. There are no settlements that she can see and the area seems to be devoid of any life.
"This is the Grey Plains," Nolletta says as they fly over the strange land. "It's not as empty as it seems."
"What sort of things live there?" Magestreia asks.
"Undead for the most part," Mirrin says.
Knowing they would eventually have to deal with whatever lies in the Grey plains, Tesia continues beating her massive wings as they head further north. They would rescue the Nymphs first, then figure out how to get what they needed from the Grey Plains.
"Alright, I think we're free and clear for now, so let's head for that temple," Sienna says.
"Better to fight our way of there than in." Rhadaya muses as Tes flies over the area.
"If we do find her there, expect a hard fight. I doubt she'll be alone." Sadhana says as they begin their trek.
"Nolletta didn't say we'd find Tichran at the temple," Sienna says. "But it's probably where we're going have to stop for the night."
Following Nolletta's map, Cyna, Sadhana, Sienna and Celia cross the remains of what used to be Lysse's farmland. As you proceed, you pass by derelict buildings and ruined fences. You get the feeling that you are being watched, but you never see anything. After a few hours, you see green rolling plains before you. Off in the distance, about a mile off, you see something that looks like a person with an arm raised.
"I don't know how or if we'll find a stone tablet among all that grey stuff," Mirrin says as they cross over the cursed land.
After a couple more hours of flying, Tesia clears the Grey Plains. Ahead, she sees a small village built around a lake.
"Looks like there's something up ahead," Sienna says to the others.
Having been flying for almost 7 hours, and still needing time to study, Tesia looks for a place to land. They would have to rest here tonight.
Looking at the figure in the distance, Celia tries to discern anything that might indicate their reason for being there.
Tesia sees some even ground near the town that would suffice for a landing.
Celia can tell that the figure has not moved at all, but she is hard-pressed to find a reason why someone would be out this far from civilization.
Seeing the land, she starts her descent as she begins to slow down.
Reaching the ground, she fans out her wings to help her land softly. Lowering herself to the ground, she waits for everyone to get off of her before changing back into her original form.
"We should find a place to rest, and I need to do my studying before I can go to sleep." She says, as they take in their surroundings.
"I can't think of any reason for anyone to be out here now. Also, they haven't moved....at all." Celia says after studying the figure for a while.
"Then we approach cautiously." Sadhana says, leading the way toward the strange lone figure.
Flying down from off her wife's back, Rhadaya nods, looking around.
Rhadaya doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but she also doesn't see anything resembling an inn in this village.
Mirrin studies their environs for a moment.
The area surrounding the village is quite open and the group could set up camp outside. All the buildings appear to be personal dwellings with maybe a couple that would serve as a blacksmith and a restaurant. Mirrin sees a couple of people milling about the village, carrying baskets of fish.
"I don't think we'll find shelter within the village," Mirrin says, explaining what she sees. "We might get a bite to eat though."
"I can live with that," Magestreia says, her stomach protesting loudly.
Having used a great deal of energy getting them all there, Tesia's stomach growls loudly as well. Blushing slightly she says, "Alright, food it is, and then we'll make camp outside this village...wherever we are."
As Sadhana and the rest approach the figure, they realize it is a statue. The statue stands in a bed of blooming roses which is ringed by a low iron fence. The fence appears to have seen better days though the flowers look like they have been tended to regularly.
Nolletta quietly chants a spell, adopting her elven guise. "I don't think I should go around au natural, as the Valanians say. I'm not familiar with this area. We do not travel this far."
Sienna takes a look around. "No one around and a garden that's blooming in winter...I think we should just pass this by."
"Neither have we, so we need to try not to attract too much attention. We're just passing through. That's all they need to know." She says, trying to figure out when she was going to have time to do the reading she needed to do.
Other than the strange garden, Sienna doesn't see anything else. The gate into the garden is held shut by a solid, but rusty padlock.
Nolletta gestures to the town. "Lead on. You can do the talking."
Taking a deep breath and letting it out she nods, "Okay, I'm no Arista, but I'll try." With Rhadaya by her side, Tesia heads towards the small town.
"I'm mildly diplomatic, so that's the best I can do," Mirrin says, slipping deep in thought.
All Mirrin can figure out about this place is that it may be one of the few areas that managed to survive whatever Zahvroma could throw at it, given the age of some of the buildings.
"I think it'll be okay. We're not negotiating anything other than a meal. How hard could it be to get a meal and get out of town?" She asks, shrugging her shoulders slightly.
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"Depends on how 'set in their ways' these villagers are," Mirrin answers.
"If worse comes to worse, we have rations. Let's hope they're at least willing to share a meal with strangers. We're not asking them to allow us to stay in their homes, we just need something to eat." She says, trying to talk herself into being able to talk to these people.
"It probably isn't going anywhere anyway and we've got more pressing matters to attend to." Cyna agrees.
"You can handle it love, and I'm right beside you." Rhadaya says supportively. "Though I'm a lot better at caring people into compliance than being friendly."
"True. I am a bit curious how it;'s unaffected by the weather though. Might be useful information." Sādhanā says whispering an incantation as they go by, her eyes glowing a shimmering blue.
Sadhana sees the statue glows brightly under her scrutiny. However, nothing else registers as magic.
Magestreia remains silent, following the rest of the group.