[Aqua-chan]

For the umpteenth time the black bear stopped in her tracks and bounced gently to keep the sleeping Amara from rolling right off her back. Lifelessly the druid hung on top of the beast's wide bones.

The bear, who's name was actually Shukha, 'humphed' lowly and continued to manipulate Amara's center of gravity before she landed face first in the dirt. Wouldn't that be a pleasant way to wake up?

Shukha, the inheritantly maternal summoning of Amara's totem, had clearly expressed her concerns with the druid wasting her energy like she was. The human could keep her animal friends on the Prime Material indefinately if necessary, but it was at the expense of her own power. For the most part having one summoned creature out was unharmful to Amara, but now she was supporting the existance of three. The impact of that much feeding off her energy had left Amara in a state of unconscienceness.

Without Sorrothos guiding the party Amara had to call her spirit wolf, Biacthic, to scout ahead for orcs and settlements. Every so often Biacthic would return to Shukha, who was struggling to make any progress with Amara falling left and right, and together the bear and wolf would argue about what path to follow. For an outside unfamiliar with totem animals it probably would have been most amusing to see a bear and wolf 'argue' through barks, growls and roars. For the bear and wolf, however, the situation was not amusing at all.

"I'm telling you, we're headed too far south!" came the telepathic complaining of Biacthic as he drifted in from the concealment of the woods. Shukha shook her massive head with annoyance.

"You're here as a scout, not a compass, wolf," she reminded him once more. Biacthic padded over to her staunchly, and even though he was much smaller than Shukha he still had an aura of strength that kept his ground.

"It doesn't matter. If we don't get her to that city soon the two of us are just going to be a funeral procession."

"This is ridiculous!" 'said' the she-bear testily, "We can't charge on blindly like this. At this rate she'll be dead before the two of us can figure out which way is up."

The wolf sat on his haunches and cocked his head, glancing at the limp human body of Shukha's back. What then? Should you return to your totem to conserve her energy? I can keep scouting, but I don't even smell humans anywhere around here."

"No, then she would be left unprotected, and if you encounter trouble the smarter orcs will know you're a summoning. We'll have to continue on like this, she stated resolutely, frustrated at the absurdness of it all. Sorrothos had always been the navigator for Amara, leaving the other four rusty with the practice. As the saying goes, you don't know what's you've got until it's gone. "Come on. Let's keep going before the foolish girl feeds us to her death."

"I'm not foolish," came the nearly incoherrent interjection from Shukha's back. Biacthic 'grinned' at Amara slighly.

"You're not foolish at all, tired one. Perhaps a more fitting word would be 'unwise'."

"Indeed," agreed Shukha as Amara straightened herself on the bear. Just what possessed you to send Sorrothos with that stranger friend of yours, anyway? You could very well lose your spirit hawk today because of your carelessness."

"Sytze is our ally and friend whom I am not going to let die in the woods by himself, and I'm sure Sorrothos would appreciate the vote of confidence in his combat skills," mummbled the druid aloud. She was using her common speech rather than telepathy to try and show that she was alright. "How long have we been travelling?"

"Very slowly for too long. The wolf couldn't sniff out a human in a treeless valley."

"Oh, and your keen sense of direction has kept us from wandering in circles for the past day and a half."

"Enough, children."

The two animals ended their bickering abruptly upon the command. Amara scrubbed her eyes with her dirty palms and inhaled heavily, still strattling Shukha. It was about noon with the telling of the sun and there was a lot of ground to be covered if it was possible. Amara found her cache of maps and began weeding through the protected parchments gingerly, searching for an appropriate regional map.

"Hold on," said Biacthic, standing suddenly and looking over to their left, "Something's coming this way."

"What is it?" Shukha demanded.

"It reeks of... of alcohal, I think. And apples. Oh, that smell! It's a horse; it must be a horse."

Just in case, Amara slid off Shukha and took cover in some brush while the wolf and bear, combat ready, waited tensely for signs of movement. Eventually the steady, distinct sound of an equine trampling twigs and dirt broke the uneasy silence that hung over the trio. Metal pings rang off the rocks, indicating that the newcomer was shoed and domesticated. Amara clutched her totem, completely devoid of the energy necessary to call her snake and lion but entirely willing to try it.

Eventually the thick veil of branches broke apart, revealing a large, dark horse. It was saddled but seemed to lack a rider. The horse started at the sight of two fanged predators that had seemed to come from nowhere and whinnied in a panic. Then the horse to an offensive fight-or-flee stance, illiciting a fearsome snarl from Biacthic.

Before any conflict could erupt, however, the tension was cut by a very happy druid running right between the three hostile animals.

"Cobalt!" Amara yelled gleefully, dashing up to the somewhat confused horse and threw her arms around his neck.

Biacthic and Shukha looked at eachother, confounded. It was funny to see their vicious expressions fade into ones of complete bafflement.

"It's alright, it's alright," the druid assured her companions before turning back to the horse, "Cobalt, what are you doing alone way out here?"

If horses could shrug indifferently then that's what Cobalt did. "We're not very far from Windhaven, Gorgeous: only a couple of miles to the Northeast, actually. A day's trip."

"Told you we were going to far south," Biacthic 'said' to Shukha, who preceeded to hit the indignant wolf with a large, unavoidable paw.

Cobalt continued, Some howdy-do's in Windhaven were going on about how orcish legions were forming in these forests so we decided to check it out."

"And where is the other you that makes your 'we'?" asked Amara with a widening grin on her face. Cobalt shook with mirth in his eyes.

"I bucked my human about a quarter mile back. I got sick of him ranting about some dream he had about attending witchcraft classes in a secret school. I thought he could stand to walk it off. He was driving me up the stable walls, I swear."

"Do you remember where you left him?" she asked anxiously.

"Vaguely. Call off your dogs and hop on, Gorgeous. It shouldn't be too hard to follow his smell back to 'em," the horse half-joked.