Disclaimer: The Forgotten Realms are not mine but much of what is in this fic is mine. Ask before using, please.

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The next day Teilla, Ricardt, Cris and Joss made their way back to the field with travel packs ready to go. They quickly found where the marauder had been by the broken foliage and crushed grass it left behind. They poked about the edge of the clearing for a little, looking for where the creature had come or went. "Aha!" Joss crowed suddenly, "A trail!"

Sure enough, the elder ranger stood at the edge of the pasture where a dormant blackberry patch had been crushed. More snapped off twigs and leaves, crushed grass and tracks led off into the wilds of the Stormhorns.

"So," Joss said, looking at the rough track into the wilderness, "You two took care of your horses, right?"

"Sold them both to the farrier," Teilla answered. "Said goodbye to civilization too."

"Let's get started then," Joss took lead followed by Teilla and Cris with Ricardt watching behind.

The trail was very odd. Every so often the older ranger would find a print deeper than the rest. All of the tracks they found had at least two toes showing clearly and the beast seemed to prefer traveling through open fields or under very tall, old growth trees. The little group spoke little as they hiked farther and farther from Eagle Peak, the better to listen and watch for danger.

After nearly a full day of tracking, Joss, Ricardt, Cris and Teilla made camp. Teilla, finding herself overly tense and unwilling to play a tune, took out one of her many copybooks and started carefully sketching a detailed elevation map of the region they had hiked through. They set up watches, but passed the night unmolested by anything larger than a fox.

Halfway through the second day of tracking, Teilla looked up at the surrounding mountains and noticed something out of the ordinary up on one of the slopes where the trees started to thin out. "What's that?" she asked and pointed.

Joss looked up from the slightly washed out print he had been examining and followed the line of the bard's arm. "It looks like a cave."

"Any chance our quarry lairs there?" Ricardt asked.

Joss shrugged, "Possible. We should probably check so if nothing else, we can rule it out. Cris, could you put a stake next to this print so if there's nothing in the cave we can fin this trail again?"

The young ranger nodded and went to cut a reasonable length of pole to use as a marker. After Cris tied a bright red kerchief to the top and planted the stake next to the print, they all hiked up the slope where Teilla saw the cave. On the way up, Cris looked down and called in a worried tone, "Uncle Joss..."

"What is it?" the elder ranger looked back at his nephew. Teilla turned and looked where the young man was looking. A very clear, sharp footprint lay in a patch of ground not covered in autumn leaves. The cave lay a little farther up slope, in view of the party.

"I think we're getting warmer," the bard called back. Ricardt looked at the print, then unslung his shield and loosened his sword in its scabbard.

Joss cautiously crept up to the cave entrance and peered inside. "All clear. You all should come up and take a look at this."

Curious but wary, Cris, Teilla and Ricardt hiked uphill towards the cave. When they got there, they found that it did not extend very far back into the mountainside. Overall, the cavern was a rough dome. Teilla murmured the words to a light spell and sent the resulting glowing puffballs to the top of the chamber, some twelve feet up. The pale light illuminated bones, picked clean and gnawed upon, scattered around the cave. Cris poked at an animal skull, "It looks like a sheep skull."

Joss took up a lookout position at the cave entrance and glanced back at his nephew, "That's because it is a sheep skull. Find anything else?"

"There's writing on the wall here," Ricardt answered. "It looks like Elven but it doesn't read like Elven. A good portion of it is worn away too."

Teilla stepped over the pile of leftovers to look at the writing carved in the stone wall. She peered at the worn inscription, then cast a spell of translation and carefully cast a spell of restoration. "'Claws that catch, teeth that bite,'" she read, "'Bound for a time, but not forever. Blade in hand goes snicker-snack. Must take the head to go triumphant back.' That's weird." The bard wrote the translation down in her copy book.

When she finished and stowed paper and charcoal crayon back in her travel pack she noted, "Well, that was vague and entirely cryptic. Anybody have anything better? Or should I try casting my lore spell now?"

"I might know someone who can help, but I'll need to get a message to them," Joss said slowly. "Even so, they still might not come. You said the script looked like Elven but didn't make any sense in Elven? It might be Sylvan."

"Do you know Sylvan?" Cris asked.

"No, that's why I'm suggesting contacting my friend," the elder ranger explained. "Truth be known, she's closer to the fey than she is to her own kind."

"How about this, Teilla casts the lore spell and you try to contact your friend," Ricardt suggested. "We record everything the lore spell says verbatim and if your knowledgeable friend shows up, she can help interpret."

"I can guard the entrance," Cris offered.

"Works for me," Joss said. He borrowed a scrap of paper from Teilla and went outside to send the note.

As Joss left and Cris took up a lookout spot just outside the entrance, Teilla looked around the shallow cavern and said, "You know, I wonder what a magic sensing would would tell us about this place."

The paladin shrugged, "Cast it and find out. Just warn me when you're going to do that lore spell."

Teilla waved her hands through the air, sang a quick couplet and watched pearly glows rise from her short sword, a bracelet on Cris, Ricardt's sword and shield and a pervasive glow from one side of the chamber. She looked closely at the wall, but could not find anything out of the ordinary about it. She sighed and pulled out the incense and ivory sticks essential to lore spells.

"I'm casting now," she called to the paladin. Ricardt stopped examining the scat on the floor, took up one of Teilla's copybooks and a stick of writing charcoal and then settled back to watch his partner cast. Teilla arranged the ivory into a circle and lit the incense between each ivory piece. She started to recite the long, complicated double sonnet that comprised most of the spell and tacked on what they wanted to know in an ending quatrain.

Within the space made by the ivory slats, the spectral image of a satyr carrying panpipes materialized and said something with the cadence, sound and rhythm of Elven, but not the words. Thoroughly irritated, Teilla glanced over at Ricardt, who furiously scribbled away. The bard grabbed her own scrap of parchment and charcoal and began phonetically writing down everything the spell revealed. The wispy satyr launched into a long, rhymed recitation of something incomprehensible to the paladin and bard. When the ghostly faun finished, he disappeared into sparking motes and faded into nothingness. Teilla looked over at Ricardt and asked, "Did you understand any of that?"

"Not a word," Ricardt shook his head. "Seemed similar to Elven though."

"By the way, the wall opposite the carving radiates magic," she nodded towards the wall in question. "Hey Cris, still there?"

"Yup," the young ranger called. "Didn't understand a word of that either."

Ricardt walked over the the younger man's lookout post at the entrance to the cave, looked around and asked, "Where's Joss?"

"Uncle Joss said he needed a quiet spot to try the sending spell to his friend," Cris looked up at the paladin.

"Ever met this friend?"Teilla asked curiously as she joined the two at the cave mouth. The young ranger shook his head and the bard continued, "Anyway, I figured out what might be causing that cave wall to radiate magic. It could be an illusion or another portal."

"Uncle Joss says that the mountains are peppered with portals," Cris said, then peered down the slope. "Speaking of him, there he is now!"

The paladin and bard looked down towards the valley and could make out the stocky figure of the elder ranger hiking up the hillside towards them. "Good news!" Joss shouted up at them, "That friend of mine..."

"BOO!" a female voice suddenly called from behind Cris, Teilla and Ricardt. Teilla jumped. Cris jumped, then fumbled for his axes whereas Ricardt spun around to face their ambusher with his shield raised and had his sword halfway out of its scabbard before he saw who it was.

As delighted laughter greeted their ears from above them, Joss called up to them, "I was saying, that friend of mine has a sense of humor and is right behind you."

Ricardt lowered his shield, looked at his ambusher sitting above the cave entrance and started chuckling. "You know, most people consider the Stormhorns to be a wide swath of land easy to lose someone in," he told her.

Teilla looked up and grinned, "Let me guess: lots of space, few people and everyone knows each other."

"Exactly," the ambusher shook her cloud grey-white braid out of her hooded coat. "I am going to guess that you two made it to Suzail in one piece."

"Well, since you all clearly have met, I only need to make one introduction," Joss huffed as he approached. He clapped a dumbfounded Cris around the shoulders and said, "Mir, this is my nephew Cris Arogla. Cris, meet Mirandaline Sparrowhawk of Whizban."

"Always happy to meet a new ranger," the elf said as she swung down from the top of the cave opening.

Cris recovered from his surprise to gush enthusiastically, "You're a drow ranger? Like Drizzit?"

Teilla heard a slapping sound behind her and saw that Joss had smacked his forehead in embarrassed frustration. Mirandaline's good humor trickled off her dark face as she glared hard at the younger ranger before turning to Ricardt and Teilla and asking, "So what do you need me for this time?"

Joss swatted a starry eyed Cris upside the head and said, "Talk to the bard and paladin. They found something written in Sylvan and were casting lore spells while I was messaging you. I'm going to examine the scat. I'll also be taking the moony one here and showing him how to identify teeth marks."

Cris looked back and forth between Joss and Mirandaline and asked, "Can't I...?"

"No!" both rangers answered in unison. Joss dragged his nephew into the cave, leaving the paladin and two elf-kin outside to keep a lookout and decipher the results of the lore spell.

"What was that about?" Teilla asked curiously.

"I have heard the rumors and hearsay regarding that one," the elf shrugged, "Some of the same tales that have Cris there so hero worshipful, but please remember that I also talk to Underdark sources. My personal conclusion is that if rumor is true, then that particular renegade is a dolt and I would rather not be compared to such unless I do something stupid."

"Sounds reasonable," Teilla commented. "It is what bards' tales are for at any rate. So, where did you go after you left us with a ride?"

"Talked with Brisslee for a little, went back to the festival," Mirandaline shrugged again. "Got chased around by a couple of mercenary scouts, led them through every patch of poison oak I could find until they gave up, then went and visited with a hermit that lives way up in the peaks. Got Joss's message and came here by way of spells. Nothing much."

"I hope the chasing doesn't happen very often," Ricardt commented.

"Only once or twice a year, if that," the elf gave a very faint smile, "And usually only when I want to get chased."

"I hate to spoil your reunion," Joss called from inside the cave, "But Mir, I would like a second opinion on these leftovers."

Teilla sighed heavily, "All work and no play."

"I don't know about you, but my work is play," Mirandaline said innocently as she walked into the cavern.

"Oh ha, ha," the bard rolled her eyes. "I'm going to examine that wall with the magic glow."

"Sounds like it's my turn to keep a lookout then," Ricardt settled himself by the cave mouth while Teilla went inside.

The bard saw the rangers examining a femur as she turned her attention to the cave wall opposite the inscription. Cracks in the stone made a very rough arch, but when the bard touched it, she encountered nothing more than cool, rough rock. Unperturbed, Teilla started looking around for hidden catches in case the wall turned out to be a secret door. Mirandaline coming up behind her interrupted her inspection, "Teilla, could you tell me what you got from your lore spell?"

Sighing in frustration, the bard turned her attention from the wall to hand over writing materials to the shorter elf and open her copybook to the phonetic rendering of what the spectral satyr had recited. Mirandaline started writing a translation as Teilla read it off as best she could. When the bard finished, the elven ranger looked down at what she had written and frowned, "This does not make any sense whatsoever."

Joss and Criss looked over in the elf-kins' direction as Teilla looked over Mirandaline's page. "What's a jubjub bird?" the bard asked.

"It's a sylvan slang term for a diatryma. Big nasty carnivorous birds," the elf shook her head that is not what I am referring to. Some of these are not any sylvan terms that I know. Unless you happen to know what 'maxnome,' 'uffish' and 'outgrabe' mean or what a 'bandersnatch' is. The ditty also seems to talk about something that gibbers, burbles and whuffles as it walks and has eyes of flame."

The two human rangers and the half human bard all looked at each other. "We might have heard it the evening before last," Cris ventured timidly.

"Wonderful," Mirandaline did not sound cheered. "What's going on with the wall?"

"My guess? Secret door with something magic behind it," Teilla said. "I can't find the catch. What's with the teeth marks?"

"Something that gnaws and has teeth like a rodent made them," Joss looked over at Ricardt, who jogged towards the group. "What are you doing here?"

"What's got wings, something that looks like antlers on its head, very long forepaws, barbels like a carp and front teeth like a rabbit's?" the paladin asked hurriedly.

All three rangers made sure that axes, crossbows and longbow were close at hand. "Let me guess," Teilla grumbled as she loosened her short sword in its scabbard, "It's headed this way."

Ricardt nodded as he joined the party in the middle of the underground chamber. When he did, a soft click resounded through the cave and the wall cracks that Teilla had been inspecting opened to reveal a large glimmering portal.

"Go through or stay here?" Cris asked nervously. Downslope, the creature gave one of its strange, jabbering cries, ending with a whistle.

"Go through," Joss answered his nephew.

Mirandaline nodded her agreement and Ricardt added, "There's no real cover here for an ambush." The group hastened through the oversized portal and collectively hoped for better terrain on the other side.

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Author's note: I thank all of you who are reading this. I truly appreciate it and I heart you all . Those who want action: trust me, it's coming.