The giant groves along the northern river bank filter out the noonday sun as you walk between the giant roots. The river flows south-west towards lake Reykal a good hundred miles away. This part of the river is quite slow moving and the mud along the bank makes the water here opaque. Fifty miles to the east lie the Icerime Peaks range making up the eastern border of the forest. North and west of the river the forest slowly thins out and turns into farms, settlements and villages of the various houses of the Brevoy nobles, several of which claim dominion over parts of the forest. The north forest is the tamer side, made so by the encroachment of the nobles and their people and settlements. It is the south side that they have yet to properly explore and it is this side that is far wilder. It extends another eighty miles from the river in a wide 'V' shape where the Icerime Peaks end and the southern river flows from them west towards Lake Reykal, the south west corner of the forest.
As you walk along a glint of sunlight shines in your eyes from ripples in the water. A metre long eel slides through the mud roughly ten metres away. As soon as it notices you it quickly wriggles away into the deeper waters of the river. It is soon lost from sight in the murkiness. The sounds of the forest seem unusually quiet here and your panther indicates they have picked up a new scent up ahead. You pick up the pace leaving many footprints in the mud behind you which quickly fill up with water and collapse within two minutes to leave almost no trace of your passing.
Within five minutes you find what you feared. Another fox carcass, fur stripped by poachers and left to die in the mud. It is already dead. The third you have found in as many days. The valuable fur fetches quite the sum at the markets.
Kasimira approaches the fox carcass carefully and looks around the area for a trail. Three in three days... Whoever is doing this must be caught she thinks to herself then says to her companion, "Can you find their scent boy?" As Bagheera tries to find a scent she herself checks the area for other trail markers.
After just a few minutes of searching you find more tracks, these ones fresher. Bagheera also is able to find something indicating that whoever these poachers are are not too far away. You continue to follow the trail.
After about an hour you find another trap laid by the poachers, luckily seeing it before you were caught by it. Though only a small one it still has the possibility to hurt you.
Kasimira glances at Bagheera. "If it were you who got caught..." she trailed off. She exhaled steadily and slowly reached towards the trap to try to disable it.
You successfully disable the trap, avoiding harm to yourself and all future passersby to this trail.
Continuing on the trail several hours later you come across a small clearing about 100ft. across. In the centre a small 2 man tent has been set up, a small fire prepared for the night and a pot of soup is warming up over it. Two humans are crouching around it, talking to each other. These must be the poachers that you have been following. They have knives on their belts but other than a soup ladle and a couple spoons and bowls they don't seem dangerous.
Kasimira signals to Bagheera to get low and stay out of sight, and they prepare to observe the men over night.
As you watch unobserved for the next couple hours as the sun goes down the two men are revealed to be a man and a woman. You see them eat their soup and bread and check over their trapper equipment. "We've just about filled our quota. A couple more days before we head back to town." They are definitely the poachers and talk about their contact who they will sell their goods to. When it gets dark and the fire dies down they retire together to their tent, completely unaware of your presences.