Waterfall basin of Niska and Balerno

Jun chuckled when Cheesecake jumped into the water. "Uh, Blackbean, do me a favor and have a look around yah?" The crow nodded and fluttered up into the air. He would circle around and look for anything interesting.

"Well, we should replenish our water and freshen up. Then I guess we can either find a good hiding spot and wait for some travelers or head down the river do some active searching. The warden's forces must get their water from here so..." Jun pulled out a canteen from thin air and reached towards the water with an open palm. A thin tendril of water extended out of the lake right in front of her and guided its way into the canteen.

"Ahhh I kinda wanna go for a swim though..."

Jun of the Celadine Jarkoopi, Kepesk Altiui Riley Fletcher and Cheesecake


Nothing would jump from the water. The surface of the small lake, near the water's edge, was calmer than where the waterfall crashed down - and offered a beautiful reflection of the dragon made man. He might spy a fish somewhere in the darkness further down away from the sky, but nothing more.

The scouting crow, however, would find something if he was looking down over the trees. There was a mild disturbance - other travelers? There was a rather large group compared to the three plus two tinies headed in their direction, though from the other side of the water. It wasn't in any rush or storm like an attack or in a march or formation, but something more casual.

Before being spotted, there would be the sound of heavy hoof beats on hearth and barking dogs. However, what would eventually appear was anything but ordinary. There were twenty men on horseback with a number of presumably hunting hounds running with them... though nothing seemed friendly. Or even alive. The dogs were vicious and monstrous-looking - fiery hounds from hell that were very, very large breeds... possibly too big for a dog. The steeds were ghostly with colorful trails from their ethereal beings, though the colors were leering and hard - neon reds and blues and greens on black canvases. The men in charge... walking dead. Any number of them had any amount of flesh or parts of their once living forms falling away from their bones to reveal their bare structure - and each was armed with a weapon or another. Saddles held a number of tools and traps, nets and snares. If it weren't for the fact they were armored like soldiers, one might think them hunters.

Upon seeing the three (if they were still out to be seen) the entire company would come to a halt - roughly 20 riders or more, with half as many dogs. The beasts would sniff and growl softly. The men would simply stare in silence.

Jun’s crow came back down towards the earth, with cries that didn’t mean well for the group. Armed riders ahead, that probably weren’t nice people. Jun began to usher all of them away from the water to hide somewhere among the shubbery. While the surprise initiative to hiding was appealing to the dragon, he’d rather end it swiftly, here and now. But he supposed he’d follow Jun’s advice. For now.
“We should just kill them, no point in hiding from more goons of the Warden, they’ll just find and attack us later.”
As he said this he had turned and began jogging behind Jun and Riley, the dragon uttered a spell that turned himself invisible. The only way anyone could know where he was is if they heard him or saw his footprints in the ground. (Which weren’t there, since Jun of the Celadine covered them up.) Once he caught up he had a critical question to ask while invisible.
“When do we attack?”

The group chose to hide and cover their tracks as the larger party arrived. The men took no notice to anything out of the ordinary, stopping near the water and dismounting - there was grumbling chatter and wicked laughter amongst them, like normal banter between comrades as they tended to tasks like they were when once alive. They watered the ghostly beasts they rode and filled their canteens with water and drank... despite how the refreshment merely passed through their bones.

The dogs generally kept to sitting or lying down nearby, blackening the earth they touched. A couple began to fight and wrestle. Two took to a new scent with their noses to the air and the ground. They found a heavy, fallen log to cross the wide river and continued around... to the point where the trio had been near the water. And the stinky plant.

The two growled softly as they sniffed at the foul-smelling plant. Several times. Just what was this thing? They'd never smelled any vegetation like this in the woods before.

One bit his teeth into the bulb and ripped it from the stalk. The other snapped at him. And thus began a game of keep-away.

"Hm....they don't seem to notice the dragon...I don't know if they can detect invisible creatures. Jun, do you happen to know Pass Without Trace along with Mass Invisibility? If we can follow them while invisible and not leaving a trail we could follow them back like you suggested."

“I can turn the rest of you invisible, but I can’t stretch myself much further, otherwise one of my spells might fail. I’m already maintaining myself as a human, and turning my own human form transparent.”
Following a bunch of random zombies for who know how long didn’t seem like the best idea to the dragon, but if his human companions thought they’d gain more out of that than just killing the undead creatures, he’d follow their lead. Jun of the Celadine seemed to have a plan in mind, and he always trusts Jun.
“So what will it be?”
Whipsered the mysterious dragon's voice from thin air.

Cheesecake's eyes grew even wider than they already were at the scroll being unraveled and the explanation given. She pointed to Jun and chirped excitedly to Riley.

"No...No, I don't think that's how it works, Cheese..." Riley said sheepishly. "Cheesecake wanted to know if you can make a dress out of those scrolls for her so she can always have a magic battery available to her, but I figure they use up all their power after a certain amount of time. Either way, as long as we can stalk the group undetected I trust your abilities, Jun. We're ready when you are."

Riley stood up and prepared to head out while Cheesecake leaped to her feet and rigidly gave Jun a salute before jumping back down to her belly on Riley's head.

There was no use in seeing anything invisible for the group of dead men, but they didn't seem to be making any effort to leave for the time being. In fact, it wouldn't be for another hour or so that they showed any signs of rallying to move - after the sun set and a sliver of the moon was visible in the dark sky. The dogs were whistled to and called to return to their owners as the undead began to mount back up.

The party of 30+ carefully made their way over the river via the wide trunk bridge across the water, a few at a time. When they were mostly in a full pack again, they began a hard ride - right back the direction Jun of the Celadine, Riley Fletcher and Cheesecake and Jarkoopi, Kepesk Altiui had come from just an hour or so earlier.

Xel'rath would go completely invisible though he was still present near the party. He would be watching the enemies carefully, waiting to get involved.