Lanaey could see the little village up ahead. It had more people in it than she would have thought, but even so, the village had desperately few people walking its streets. The populus seemed to be in a kind of stupor going through their days, but they held on waiting for liberation which was supposed to come from the group Laurel was leading to them.
Lanaey looked around at the rest of the group. Several were looking around eagerly, trying to see everything, while some, like the most stout of the Rohan riders, were just staring straight ahead not taking in the pleasures of the sight before them. Shrugging Lanaey turned and looked at the dark Elves. The eldest was looking ahead searching for nothing in particular, though the younger ones, especially Galain were sneaking peeks around at this strange new sight for them. Lanaey got a slight smile on her lips from watching them being fascinated by the village they were entering upon and trying to hide that fascination.
The group was heading through the edge of the village and finally entering in it. Lanaey could hear the siblings Jess and Cartil talking behind her, tuning them out she focused soley on the village around her. She could hear people walking, running errands, or talking to one another. She could also hear some animals, mostly staying away from the humans, though some like cats strayed among them. Though it seemed mostly peaceful in this land, Lanaey could feel a tremor running under the surface. It generated from the people mostly and was seeping into everything. Many of the animals had become skittish and nervous, showering their feelings back upon the land that spawned the feelings in them in the first place. The strain had to be affecting the people a lot as well. Of course there was then the war and bloodlust coming in from the far away raiders, though their influence wasn't putting too much of a damper on the land itself yet.
Lanaey had strayed off to the side from the group a bit in listening and trying to interpret the sounds and life around her. She turned Drass sharply to get back to the group as quickly as possible and Drass suddenly reared up and swung to the side landing heavily to the right. Drass had barely missing a young child that had just been playing with a cat and hadn't been paying attention to what was going on around her. Lanaey realized that she hadn't been paying attention either and the fault was hers. As was happening more often of late Lanaey mentally kicked herself. She was going to do a very long meditation cycle tonight. She had almost killed an innocent child and that carelessness would only get herself or a member of the group killed in the upcoming days. Patting Drass for being more observant than she, Lanaey swung off and knelt down to the child.
"Are you harmed child?" The little girl seemed stunned and couldn't speak, but with a quick checking over Lanaey saw that she hadn't been hurt, only startled. Looking down Lanaey saw a little doll. Picking it up and handing it to the little human she said, "Here, I bet she got awefully scared when the horse jumped."
The girl seemed to come back to herself and said . . .
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