Sometime later they came across a dirt road that crossed through the center of the woods through which they had been travelling, Silk brought Kal to a halt as he waited for Arch, Velvet and Talon to join him at the front of the group.

"I think we should make camp." He murmured once the other three had joined him "We can use the remaining daylight to gather wood for fires and scout out the area."

"I agree, if there's a village someone close by then a few of us can go in and see if we can purchase some basic supplies for the rest of the journey." Arch spoke up "I don't think that Kirlia will be able to ride for very much longer and I'm going to need some more bandages to tend to Tarl" he spoke of the wounded guard with a healer's annoyance in his tone. "He keeps saying that he's fine but his wound is deep and I'm worried that if I don't get something to clean it out then it will become infected."

Silk nodded "Then we make camp, I think I spotted a group of trees a short distance back that will provide some shelter, it's far enough from the road at a small fire shouldn't attract any attention at night and no one will immediately notice us."

As the other's nodded he urged Kal to turn around face the rest of the group "We're heading back into the forest a bit so we can use the rest of daylight to establish a camp and find a nearby village."

He loosened the reins as he let Kal walk back into the woods, the horse didn't try to sneak a bite of the foliage but rather kept his head up as he sensed his rider's nervousness.

Silk didn't like the fact that they were stuck in unknown territory with a severely diminished, in both numbers and optimism, group of people. Even their way out if the king of Araleun refused help was gone, he forced away the pang of sadness at the thought of the cheerful captain of the ship. The former smuggler had been nothing but helpful and it had cost him his life.

During the ride Flynndan had filled him in on what had happened after he had passed out, the dark haired guard had helped Velvet get survivors together after they had got into the woods. A task made more difficult by the groups of traitors from the ship that had rammed theirs wandering around the woods trying to find them.

They had found him, still mounted on Kal, a few meters into the woods before finding the remaining members of the group. They had traveled only a short ways before finding the sheltered area that they had chosen to make camp in and settling down.

He reined Kal in as they drew even with the ground of trees that he had noted would make a good shelter earlier, "Here" he called over his shoulder to the rest of the group.

The three remaining guards; Asyr, Tarl and Choike followed Flynndan into the grove first; it was their task to check for threats before the rest of the group followed him.

Silk dismounted and waited for Flynndan to reappear and give the okay before he led the group into the trees, he glanced around the area and allowed a small smile to cross his face. He had chosen well, the area inside the trees wasn't large but there was plenty of space for the group and the short grass was dry.

The group started to get settled with leafs and branched being cleared away from the center of the space to the edges and cloaks being spread across the ground. Silk was about to try and figure out who they should send out as scouts when Kirlia cleared her throat from behind him and he turned to face the short diplomat.

"Yes?" he said, it was clear that she wanted something from him and from the annoyed expression on her face he guessed she was going to say that he ahd done something wrong.

"Why have we stopped?" she demanded, her tone hushed as if she didn't want the others to hear her "There are several hours of daylight left and we could make quite some headway towards the capital if we continued on and made camp further on."

He raised an eyebrow and gestured for her to join him on his cloak "There are several reasons that I've chosen to stop here for the day. Tarl's injury needs to be seen to and he shouldn't be forced to walk all day on it although he's far too prideful to say anything about it he's in quite a lot of pain."

"We've come across the first road since we made land and I want to send people out to scout around and see what's in the immediate area before we continue on. The rebels have access to ship faster than the one we took to get here and the one that pursued us so it's possible that they sent messages here and informed the king to be on the lookout for groups of people from the isles. As little as I like acknowledging the rebels as such we are currently on the run from a government with a significant amount of resources at their disposal which means that we need to be careful."

Kirlia's facial expression changed to one of surprised understanding and he nodded "There's a reason that you where sent here along with a few advisors, you have a lot to learn about working with a group. Something it appeared that you're training did little to inform you on."

"My training was rather interrupted when we started to get reports about the rebels in the castle, suddenly all the head diplomats had better things to do with their time than train apprentices. We were mostly used as scribes until they started sending groups out to ask for help." She said and he nodded.

"Of course, of course." He said, pausing a second before continuing "How good is your basic?" he asked, ignoring her confused look as she answered.

"Very good, languages are the first thing that diplomat training covers." She said and he nodded.

"In that case I'll get you to go scouting down the road with Arch, we need most of our fighters here in case we were followed and my basic is rusty." He explained, gesturing for her to head over and join the taller man on the other side of the field.