The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

With the Monkey King at least temporarily wrapped up – indeed it seems pretty much impossible to keep its prehensile tail tied up – and Sullen Hoof having at least gotten the pig god’s cooperation for the time being, the whole operation got underway.

Water Strider wove the water of a nearby stream into an impressive yacht, while the pig god raised quite a lot of hell as it ate about a third of the monastery and basically kidnapped the extremely old-looking monk pony. It turned out that the seemingly immortal monk was revered as a local living saint, although when the pig god returned with the monk the circle quickly agreed that there wasn’t much left in the poor soul.

The five hundred year old pony was so wrinkly and pruny that it defied all logic. Of course, no mortal pony was meant to live for so long either – the few unicorns that got to die of old age rarely getting more than three hundred years old. The other monks in the monastery had kept the old soul fed, but through the centuries of waiting the old pony’s sanity and wits had slowly faded, for he had not enjoyed the same longevity of mind that exaltation afforded. The bald old monk could seemingly do nothing but sit and mutter, Cash Charmer concluding via his linguistic charms that the monk was reciting some kind of prayer: “It’s the only thing keeping him alive, his curse… all he can say now”

“Poor soul, to have been sacrificed for some petty political plot among gods” Speaker noted, trying his best to cure what few physical ailments the pony had, for of the few things that were beyond Speaker to undo was the results of aging.

Aboard the river god’s yacht wrought of water, which was quite roomy but had no visible sails, the circle finally managed to introduce themselves to the pig god and the monkey spirit. The pig god in return said that the circle could call him ‘Hunger’

“Very well – good to meet you Hunger. Let’s hope this trip is brief” Sunrise noted.

As everyone braced themselves, upon Water Strider’s request, the river god applied its powers and made the magical yacht of water move at a mindblowing pace. It certainly made Nah seem slow… which reminded Cash that they had ‘parked’ Nah at a caravansary near the iron mines: “Uhm… how are we going to get back to that?”

“Oh don’t worry about that – I can return you after this is done” Water Strider promised, amid water sprays and what looked like swimming up into the boat itself.

It turned out that one of Water Striders powers was influencing the speed of boats – thus his own conjuration was imbued with an impossible speed that would break any wooden hull against the force of oncoming waves or shallows. By nightfall the yacht had reached the misty isles that were at the merging of the Rock river and the Meander river, forming the yellow river… and that meant trouble.

“Everyone, under deck now!” Water Strider commanded as they approached the misty waters.

Speaker couldn’ see the problem, but obeyed none the less as Shimmer rolled the screeching Monkey King in its ball cocoon down into the yacht’s quite damp and moist hold. The only two who remained above deck were Water Strider and Hunger… and when the hatch closed Speaker saw that it sealed itself completely, so that neither air nor sound could reach them from the outside…

“Shimmer, what’s going on?” the Lookshyan veteran inquired. He wasn’t familiar with the misty isles, but neither was Shimmer. Cash on the other hoof did know:

“There is a changeling colony on the isles. The hide themselves in the mist and lure in sailors with magic song, so hiding us down here makes sense really” Cash explained, adding that he’d traveled on a few merchant ships going past the isles. Usually they’d have a deaf sailor pony helm the ship during that part of the passage.

Accepting the explanation, Speaker wondered how Hunger and Water Strider would hold out against the changelings. Red said that this was part of why Hunger had been brought along, to fight any changelings and whatnot that tried something like this.

“Do you see anything?” Sunrise asked Sullen Hoof, seeing that the night caste solar appeared to be gazing out through the watery ship.

At first only shaking his head ever so slightly, Sullen Hoof eventually turned to Sunrise: “No, I can’t see anything through the ship – there’s too much muck clouding the water”

A short while later Hunger opened the hatch to the hold and let the ponies out. The pig god seemed a good deal worse for wear, with many cuts and gashes over his thick brown skin – but he seemed in a good mood none the less. The half eaten remains of four changelings up on deck seemed to explain why.

“Looks like you had fun” Cash quipped. The pig god nodded in a most pleased fashion.

Looking for Water Strider, the circle made a more grim discovery: “Speaker, over here!” Sunrise called, having found the river god lying behind the wheel, bleeding luminous but clear fluids from multiple head wounds.

Speaker tried his best, stabilizing the injured god – but it was clear that the water god was too injured to helm the ship.
“Cash Charmer, please take the helm” the wounded god pleaded, the eclipse caste pony stepping up without any objections, although it did take a bit of experimentation to figure out how to control the yacht.

As the daystar sailed into the western wyld a short while later, disappearing from creation and ushering in the night, another issue presented itself to the circle and three gods: Food.

Hunger was – oddly enough – quite hungry, but he could sate himself by consuming dredged up river plants. The pony passangers on the other hoof found the slimy river plants that the pig god gorged itself on fairly unappetizing, but thankfully Water Strider had a solution: He caused the fish that had swum up into the boat to be ejected up onto the deck. Sullen Hoof made short work of them, having apparently stored a good amount of rice elsewhere – thus the circle dined on sushi that evening.

The next morning Water Strider had recovered ever so slightly, but it seemed that last night’s trick with the fish had drained the god. Speaker infused the god with essence, which helped, but ultimately what the god needed was to be returned to his river so that he could govern it – for by doing ones divine duty a god recovered and revitalized itself in the same way a pony did when sleeping… and Water Strider had not been within his domain for over five hundred years.

“Damn, and I thought I’d gotten sleep deprived back when Sunrise was acting up” Red commented, suddenly feeling that her own experience wasn’t nearly as traumatic.

Water Strider, resting in a bed of the same solid water material that the yacht was made of, choked out of a small laugh: “Noh, that’s not how gods work. Remember, we don’t need sleep – and I would only tire myself by using my powers. Making the boat and granting you a small bounty of the waters have been the first uses of my powers in centuries… it’s just been so long since I’ve done my job”

“This does make the Great Forks cults a bit more sensible, since their worship has the same effect on their respective divine patrons – even if I do not condone how they attract members” Sunrise noted, never before having seen a god in such a weakened state.

Around noon Cash charmer slowed the yacht down, the passing river banks no longer appearing as horizontal flickers of light. Of course, this was a bit too early stop, but Cash gave the circle and the two gods two good reasons: “First of all we need some proper provisions, and secondly we have a unicorn who needs to be shipped back to the Denzik – and if we’re going all the way to the Lap, then that should put us fairly close to the Denzik”

“The Denzik… oh I’ve seen it pass my waters by so many times… such a grand gathering of ships – I would love to have them on my river” Water Strider groaned.

Hunger wasn’t much for the unscheduled stop, since he wanted to finish the journey as quickly as possible – so that Sullen Hoof would cook for him – but Sullen Hoof simply pointed out that he needed to get some local ingredients from one of the Great Forks bazaars.

The water elemental that was the Great Forks harbormaster was at first quite angry Cash anchored the yacht at a spot that had apparently been booked in advance by some other ship – but when the water elemental recognized Cash her tone changed… and she invited Cash into her office. Speaker only shook his head, but remembered that this hadn’t been the first time that Cash had slept his way out of paying a docking fee with that very same water elemental.

The rest of the circle rounded up supplies and provisions fairly quickly – so by the time a rather soaked Cash Charmer returned then the extra passenger and about a weeks worth of dried foodstuff had been brought on board.

Ever-Ember had been quite surprised when he saw how the circle planned to return him to the Denzik, but was also quite thankful – since he really had dreaded the prospect of flying on a yeddim once more. As for his business with the god of libraries at the Great Forks house of learning, then Ever-Ember had managed to sell most of his manuscripts and scrolls, apparently earning him quite a nice amount of money that he brought along in a decent sized oaken chest with bronze fittings and a fancy lock.

Now, while the unicorn was surprised about the strange magical made-of-water boat, he was even more surprised to see who he was traveling with: “Holy dragons… are you traveling with gods?”

“That and a kind of cursed immortal pony who’s not in a very good condition – but when we complete this journey he will be freed” Sunrise added.

The unicorn shook his head in a mix of awe and disbelief, all the while scribbling down a lot of notes in a blank book he’d acquired. Seeing Ever-Ember with his journal reminded Speaker of an old idea he hadn’t touched upon since before he came to Chung Do – and thus he retrieved a by now somewhat worn looking collection of scrolls from elsewhere and began writing in earnest in them as well, his scroll of exalted power, detailing the nature and powers of the Solars… it wasn’t as if he had anything else to do.

By evening Cash made another stop, this time at Water Strider’s request. They had reached the rough mid-point between Nexus and Lookshy, the middle of the Yanaze river. The god sank through the boat into the watery depths after telling the circle and his other passangers that he would return in the morning.

By dawns light Speaker awoke as the yacht suddenly tilted heavely, its front rising up so that Speaker and everyone else slid to the back of the ship – Red even fell in the water. Shimmer barely managed to get Red back on board when the boat accelerated wildly, forcing everyone, even the pig god, to hold on tight lest they fly off the ship!

At the helm stood a fuming Water Strider, his watery body boiling with rage, ripping in the wheel as the yacht weaved through the dense Yanaze river traffic at breakneck speeds.

“What’s going on?!” Speaker shouted, his perfect balance charm barely allowing him to stagger up to the river god.
His eyes roiling like raging rapids, the river god roared: “Those lazy fools! My river is flowing at nearly half the speed it should be because my elemental minions haven’t lifted a fin to do their job while I’ve been gone – this is a disgrace! I’ve told them all that if my river isn’t up to snuff when I get back I’ll have every one of them churning mud for a year!”

“Well… about that, did you know the the slow waters of the Yanaze makes a lot of the annual river flooding a lot worse than it has to be?” Speaker tentatively asked, not sure how much he could push the circle’s agenda, especially with Water Strider being that angry.

The river god didn’t seem surprised, saying of course slow waters would back up: “…but that should be a thing of the past when I return! That much I promise you!”

What followed was a slightly more mathetical discussion as Speaker asked whether the Yanaze could even move so much more water – but Water Strider was adamant that his river, the mightiest river in Creation, could shift any volume of water, all the their talking also seemed to help calm the god down so the rest of the yacht’s passangers found themselves on a more level boat: “The oceanic water gods love it – most of them prefer my fresh water to their own salty brine any day, and if they do have too much they can just shove it into the wyld”

As the yacht reached the mouth of the Yanaze river the yacht slowed down. Water Strider explained that his powers were over waters in rivers and close to shore – so they couldn’t more too far into open waters: “This won’t lengthen our journey by much - but by nightfall we will be passing by Thorns, and tomorrow morning we’ll cross into the Bayou of Endless Regret… Hunger, I need you on guard by then!”

“The what of endless regret?” the geographically challenged Sullen Hoof inquired.

Shuffling about in her deck chair, Shimmer look to the east. They were just passing outside of Lookshy’s heavily fortified harbor. Speaker had been so excited to see his home once more, but the yacht was going much too fast for it to be possible to see anything specific as more than a motion blur, so it was with a sigh that Shimmer told Sullen Hoof that the Bayou was a very large shadowland south-west of thorns: “It’s a huge expanse of watery swamp land. It’s right between the elemental poles of earth, wood and fire, so its hot, good soil conditions, and fairly geomantically stable… but if what my elders said is right, then it’s also where a primordial fell, so what could be enough land to grow rice and veggies for all of Nexus is instead an eternally rotting swamp – and don’t even get started on the kind of things that flow out of the place at night into the inland sea”

Having already tangled with a shadowland once before, Sullen Hoof was not so enthusiastic about going through another one – but at least he didn’t have to trot on the ground of it. Ever-Ember was less pleased still, but at least they would be passing through the shadowland during the daytime: “…the dead only really come out during the nighttime, right?”

“That depends on what disturbs them…” Sunrise noted. The unicorn retreated below deck.

Water Strider’s yacht made very good speed down the eastern coast of the inland sea – though it was only going a third of the speed it had moved at back when on the rivers. They passed the colorful tent city of Cellery, where the nomadic Mareukan lords held their moots, and several hours later came in sight of what had once been a grand and reasonably powerful realm satrapi: Thorns.

At first Speaker found himself quite confused, for according the maps he remembered then there shouldn’t be any mountains in and around Thorns. As they got closer they found the gigantic shape loomed over Thorns was not a mountain, but a giant… something… with a palace built on top of it.

“What in the sweet greasy nipples of Celestia is that” Red exclaimed, earning a disapproving but ignored glare from Sunrise.

Speaker had on clue – this was all new to him. Shimmer hadn’t been this close to Thorns in over half a century, and none of the gods present seemed to know either. It was when Sullen Hoof and his sight enhancing charms told Speaker that the colossal figure had what looked like stumpy limbs jutting out of it, along with a very strange looking twisted head that Speaker began to recognize the impossibly huge figure: “No way…”

“Speaker, just tell me what I’m looking at please” Sullen Hoof implored. The bizarre and horrible nature of what he was looking at very much making the night caste solar wish that he could pry his eyes away… but his curiosity bid him otherwise.

It was a primordial being from before the first age, a thing spawned by The Black Boar That Cracked The Skies to be an unstoppable force: “I think it’s Juggernaut, but the way you describe it makes it sound injured, or sick. It should have several smaller limbs in front of it, with giant shovel claws to dig through mountains, not stumps with bone sticking out... and it was bright orange, not pale yellow, plus those ashen waterfalls you describe sound like its bleeding. In the first age whenever we killed it, it would just reappear a century later to wreak more havoc – it couldn’t be killed by any known means”

“So this is the power of Typhon’s master” Sunrise pointed out, looking steely-eyed towards the looming figure on the coastline.

The grim reminder that it was from Thorns that Typhon had come – and of his powers – gave a slightly more understandable perspective to the scene before the circle, but at the same time it wasn’t exactly a pleasant connection to make. Cash Charmer was quick to do a little math based on what he knew as a merchant: “Thorns had a population of well over eighty thousand ponies – and that was just in the city, not counting the surrounding farmlands and villages. If Typhon’s master… what was his name, The Mask of Winters? If he can do that to an unkillable primordial titan… I don’t want to know what he’s doing to the ponies he lords over”

“Let’s hope that Lookshy is aware of how bad it is in Thorns, I’m sure they would be able to oust this deathlord” Speaker confidently spoke, looking towards the coast with a heavy heart – there was no doubt a lot of ponies in Thorns he could help.

Sunrise trotted up to Speaker: “If not Lookshy, then other solars will surely attempt to liberate Thorns, or perhaps a realm legion”

The circle debated whether it would be a good thing or not if it was the realm which took back Thorns. They all agreed that it was probably a better alternative to being ruled over by some necromancer-sounding pony who went with a title of Deathlord – but then again, with the realm out of Thorns the realm’s influence in the hundred kingdoms had been weakened greatly, and pushed all the way back south to Harborhead. The only real realm satrap (Satelite nation ruled by a realm-controled puppet leader) was in Grey Falls, and they were already quite isolated by virtue of being located all the way up one of the forks in the Rock river, so anyone going there would have to travel past Lookshy, Nexus, Great Forks and a slew of lesser countries, none of which particularly liked the realm.

“I think ultimately the big problem would be if a circle of solars or lunars liberated Thorns, what the ponies there would do. They’d probably hate their new masters just as much” Shimmer noted, aware that Thorns having been a realm satrap meant that all the ponies there were indoctrinated into the immaculate faith and nothing else… because in the realm any other kind of worship is heresy and punishable by death.

“I’m sure I could talk some sense into them” Cash quipped, assuring Shimmer that if he could, then other solars could as well.

Ever-Ember noted that he honestly preferred to see Thorns returned to the realm, explained that as is right now, or if taken by other non-realm forces, it would remain off-limits to the Denzik, which closed on of the two only ports they were allowed to stop at that was in any way tied into the hundred kingdom trade routes: “Right now they can only stop at Port Calin, and that’s already outside of a lot of the regular merchant routes in the hundred kingdoms”

The day turn to night with idle chatter on the topic of politics and trade, Ever-Ember finding himself talking in increasingly accepting terms about both Solars and Lunars – and yet remaining aware enough of this change that he would need to hold his tongue about such topics once back in realm-controlled territories.

As the daystar disappeared into the western wyld Water Strider’s yacht crossed into a stretch of coastline that seemed to very much be a particularly fetid swamp… the river god grew uneasy, calling for Hunger to rouse himself and prepare for battle: “We just crossed into the Bayou of Endless Regret, this is a shadowland – and we have to get through it before dawn”

“You saying something here will stop us?” Hunger rumbled, looking quite hungry and discontent.

As the two gods talked, Speaker found himself reminiscing of the creation of the shadowland they had crossed into. It had been a terrible battle, during the primordial war, culminating in a primordial slain and its corpse falling through creation… not a pretty sight, especially since the area had been fairly densely populated at the time, with a lot of river fisheries and reed farms for paper making situated at the river deltas there which formed the now deadened swampland.
The howling of undead broke his line of thought…

Water Strider called for Cash to helm the ship, while the river god assumed a meditative sitting posture and said that he would be focusing on guiding the waters around the ship, so they wouldn’t slow down: “The rest of you, take out anything that my ship scoops up!”

Red, Speaker and Shimmer girded themselves for possible combat when Sunrise bid them to stand down: “I will handle this”

Carrefully sitting herself down in a meditative pose similar to Water Walkers at the very front of the ship, Sunrise flared her anima to the point that anything with eyes would have been able to spot the ship and its strange golden light-source from several miles away – especially in the darkness of the shadowland.

Under a baleful red moon, with waters that were changing from brackish swamp-waters to blood from the underworld, Shimmer’s light at first revealed a multitude of bloated corpses hiding under the surface of the water – but attracted by her brightness they rose from the water… and burst into holy flame, as Sunrise sat in an almost trance-like state, praying continuously for safe passage, her piety smiting anything unliving that her light shined upon.

Thanks to Sunrise’s actions Water Walker was able to make incredibly good speed through the shadowland swamp, Cash helping by using his sailing charms to navigate expertly around any terrain obstacles – be they giant pale skeletal remains jutting out of the bloody waters, or jagged cliffs of black rock. Before midnight they all saw the moon return to its normal silvery white color, indicating that they were free of the shadowland.

The only one not happy from all of this was Hunger, for he felt that he had been denied a good fight… and the option to eat the things he slew – but Cash managed to talk him out of jumping ship to gorge himself: “Do you really want to eat rotten things, when you know that at the end of this trip you stand to get a heavenly feast – why settle for moldy old crumbs when the baker stands at the end of the road?”

By dawn the yacht had crossed into coastal territory that was noticeably different from the jungles of the east – for during the night they had passed the summer mountains – the yacht was now in the south.

“Speaker, forgive me for asking, but why do the ponies on the coast look so weird?” Sullen Hoof inquired, having spent a good half hour looking quite intently towards land with his sight enhancing charms.

Thinking for a moment, Speaker chuckled as he realized Sullen Hoof’s confusion: “Tell me Sully, before you Exalted, did you ever travel outside of Nexus?”

The night caste solar shook his head. Speaker smiled: “What you’re looking at is the Kingdom of Harborhead if I’m not wrong – and what you’re seeing are zebra ponies, that’s what the locals look like here. Once we pass Harborhead and get to the… Shimmer, do you know if Chiaroscuro or the Varang city states come next?”
“Varang City states” Shimmer chimed in.

Nodding, Speaker was about to say something when Monkey King burst up from below deck, having evidently shed his bonds: “Varang? Oh please don’t tell me we’re going there… it’s so boring!”

“You been there?” Sullen Hoof asked.

Speaker sighed, recalling from the first age how the monkey spirit’s rants could last for hours… and indeed, the thing raved on about how Varang ponies had no sense of humor, and always just chased him away – continuing until the shining multi-colored glass towers of Chiaroscuro came into sight, distracting the monkey spirit with how the merciless southern sunlight was reflected about, making the whole city a daytime kaleidoscope.

The sight of Chiaroscuro, despite its tongue-twister of a name, excited Speaker to no end. Almost all Lookshyan cooking made use of southern spices, and Chiaroscuro was the biggest port of call for the southern spice trade. What had gotten Speaker so excited was that with Ever-Ember having to get off so he could wait for the Denzik to come along a few months later, meant getting into port… and Speaker had always dreamt of visiting Chiaroscuro.

Unfortunately for Speaker, Water Strider didn’t want to stick around for too long. Ever-Ember and his money was off-loaded very quickly – goodbyes were said, along with Speaker again promising to come visit the Denzik in a year or so – the yacht pulling out as if heaved by magic the moment Ever-Ember turned to walk down the pier towards the city. Speaker looked on with a big pout and longing eyes as the glass towers of the city shrank into the horizon.

“Come on Speaker – we can visit your little glass house city on the way back” Cash said, trying to cheer his circlemate up.

It took the yacht another day of eventless travel along the fertile southern coast, past countless olive and date orchards. The only notable points of discussion was on why the southern coast wasn’t just all desert… to which Speaker noted that at the first fifty or hundred miles of coastal territory inland would be moist enough to allow for farming – but beyond that it would all be dry sand: “Only the few rivers that run inland extend this – and pretty much all southern pony cities and settlements cluster around the wet areas – or fight over it”

The other topic was that of the city of Paragon, for as they passed close by its harbor they saw a pony clutching its right hoof throwing itself off the harbor lighthouse, down into the rocks piled up around the harbor to break the waves. None in the circle were familiar enough with the city state of Paragon to explain why it had happened, although Sullen Hoof noted that it wasn’t entirely uncommon for ponies in Nexus who got hurt bad enough that they couldn’t work anymore to kill themselves, so they wouldn’t become a burden to their family.

It was afternoon when the mountainous shape of the Penitent appeared in the horizon: An entire mountain carved to look like a giant pony monk of some sort, setting in a meditative position. In its lap, as the yacht got nearer, it was clear that a city had been built – Speaker knew quite well what the place was: The Lap, aptly named, and well known for its exceedingly fertile surrounding farmlands: “…this realm satrap feeds two thirds of the south”

A bit beyond the lap, at a sandy beach, Water Strider drove his yacht up onto the sands. Hunger carried the monk down to the beach, where the circle watched as the monk recited his prayer one last time… a spirit appearing before him, bowing, then fading away. The monk took one final pained breath, then crumbled into dust.

“Water Strider, do you know the name of the god or sidereal who sent you, Hunger and Monkey King on this mission?” Speaker inquired.

The god shook his head. It had been so long, he couldn’t remember. Sunrise pointed out that they had copies of the assignment back in Nexus: “The perpetrator of this travesty will undoubtedly be named in those papers”

Breathing in the hot southern air, the mix of the strange scent of salty sea-water and dry desert air feeling quite strange to Speaker, the twilight caste solar bowed his head to the patch of dust that had been the old monk: “I will find whoever visited this abuse to you and I will punish them, this I swear by Celestia”

“We’ll have plenty of time for that later – right now we have to deal with that thing you said there is in the grey river” Cash reminded Speaker, looking around the empty beach for any sign of a path or something similar that might lead to a spot where a yeddim could be purchased.

Water Strider, looking pleased as punch that he could return home, gestured for the circle to assemble, all the while Hunger and Monkey King seemed to have disappeared, as gods and spirits had a tendency of doing: “Ponies, I am in a great dept to you – and my offer to return you home still stands, since you seem to be out of flying beasts of burden”

The circle gladly accepted the river god’s offer, but this time when the god made his water-ship move… well, there was motion, doubt about that, but it was much faster than when they had first traveled by boat. In the blink of an eye they found themselves on a river with banks replete with vegetation on either side, the air suddenly pleasantly humid and the sun no longer as hot upon their bodies – they were in the east.

“We’re between Lookshy and Nexus, near my home – I hope you can make your way from here noble ponies” Water said, guiding the yacht to shore.

As the yacht flowed up onto the nearest river bank, Red briefly explained to the river god what they were doing to begin with. Water Strider understood their plight, and agreed: “When I get my lazy elementals up to speed the flooding in the Nexus basin should be much less – if you can ease the flow of water from the Grey river that should help even more so, although how much it will help I can’t tell”

“I was more hoping if you knew where the thing Speaker mentioned is” Red noted, looking hopeful.

The river good shook his head, his water-lily mane flowing about on his head: “Sorry, that’s beyond my domain, but what I can do is tell you the name of the god of the grey river…”

The entire circle looked at Water Strider with great attention.

“Her name is ‘Mud of the Lotus’, and she likes to pick fights – gets a lot worship from river pirates, since she likes to battle done on her waters” Water Strider explained.

Shimmer gave the river god a quizzical look: “A river god that likes to play war-god? Really?”

“The east is full of rivers, and many battles are fought on them. Lotus works with Sunipa as the arbiter of eastern naval warfare, a powerful position… but that also means that she doesn’t have that much time to manage her own river’s waters, hence its muddy and grey appearance” The aqueous god noting.

The circle thanked Water strider for the information and the ride as they disembarked. The ship and river god sank into the river almost instantly as soon as the last goodbye had been said.

“Ok, so… get a ride back to Nexus, then head down the Grey river?” Sullen Hoof thought out loud.

“I want to pick up Nah, but that’ll require a ride to the rock river… we should have asked to be let off there” Cash said, looking displeased with his limited options.

Shimmer shrugged but with a smile on her face: “Yeddim are cheap – well, with the kind of money we have they are, and Speaker can always make another high-speed howdah. Right now I can smell a pig-pen over that ridge there, which means a farm, which means civilization, which means directions towards Nexus”

The circle agreed that with no other means of expediting swift travel they might as well go visit whatever farm was over yonder…