Wonderful 65.

The Principality Of Maladimbáh...

Helbe the elven thief looks away to the east, and far in the distance between the mountains, the young elven noble spots a griffon. It's the second griffon he's spotted this morning, there was another that he saw earlier in the distance to the north.
And like that one, this one away to the east, is slowly circling at a fairly low altitude, as if the rider upon it, is searching for something on the ground.
"Shit" mutters Helbe the elven thief, as there seems to be a road through the valley's in that direction. He confirms this when he takes out one of his maps of Maladimbáh, one that he stole. Which indeed shows a road to the east of where he is.
The elven magic user who is blurred and shielded as he stands halfway up the side of a mountain, looks down below where he spots the others making their way roughly southwards along a trail that goes across this mountain, over the saddle of one next to it, then down into a nearby valley. From there it's a short distance to another road, which heads directly south, the way they want to go, as the lands of lord Haldéilv is located further south.
The elven masterthief, who also happens to be a prince, drops his blur spell, and shifts down to where the others are, he has to shift twice to reach them, as the mountain he's halfway up is well in excess of ten thousand feet tall.
"We've got to hurry up" says Helbenthril Raendril after he appears at the front of the group, the young elven noble from the principality of Laerel in the Southlands continues with "We're definitely being hunted".
"I wonder why?" dryly says Riley Hait the mercenary ranger as he looks back to where sir Percavelle Lé Dic is leading his horse. The heavily armoured knight is near the rear of the group, where Shur Kee the monk is leading the pack horses. The acolyte in the order of Bru Li is a little disappointed that the nobleman from the kingdom of Druvic is back with him instead of his usual spot out infront of the group. For he has to listen to the knight in the order of Saint Mar-che, which at times is even trying to the normally patient monk from the far eastern kingdom of Wah Lee.
Dalinvardél Tanith the elven spy who is in the front, picks up the pace as they lead their mounts. The trail is a bit too narrow to ride, and the footing isn't the best, so the group are leading their horses, with the elf from the principality of Alínlae in the Southlands the one out infront.
As the group starts to climb up the trail towards the saddle between this peak and the next, the elven princeling who is the nominal leader of the group from south of the equator, disappears as he shifts away, the elven master assassin makes his way up to the saddle and blurs himself. As he does, and he looks first south, and sees that the trail widens out as it goes through more forested terrain on it's way down into the nearby valley. Then he looks to the east, then finally to the north, the direction they've come from, Narladene the ground pixie appears next to the elven magic user and says "That griffon to the north has landed for the moment".
"Who is it?" asks the young elven noble "Some noble" replies the naturally magical creature as she settles upon the right shoulder of the elven master archer, who sourly smiles then dryly says "I know that".
The tiny winged creature grins then says "It's a cousin of the lord whose guards the idiot knight beat up the other evening" Narladene continues with "He's the local lord of the lands we're going through at the moment" the ground pixie who is 'attached' to the elven prince from Laerel then adds "Their family rule a fair bit of the lands in this part of the principality".
"Let me guess" says Helbenthril Raendril who looks away to the east, and gestures that way where in the distance they see a griffon, a griffon whose rider is far too faraway from the elven magic user to cast a spell against.
"There's another relative to the east there?" asks the grandson of Prince Raendril of Laerel "Yep another cousin" answers the tiny winged creature, who continues with "She's the lady who rules the lands about twenty five miles away in that direction".
"Fucking great" mutters the elven masterthief in the royal language of his race which Narladene doesn't understand, then switching back to the normal elven language, he says "Hopefully they don't catch up to us" as he looks down the trail and watches the others in the group making their way quickly up to the saddle between the two mountains where he is at the moment.
The rest of the group reach the saddle and go over it by mid morning, after walking downhill for a while, the track widens out and they're able to mount, and ride down into the trees which are fairly wide apart at the moment, before they start to thicken up the further you go down the mountain, until you reach the valley, which isn't heavily forested, and has plenty of open meadows, used for grazing by the local farmers herds.
Helbe the elven thief who is floating in the air above the trees, spots the griffon to the east, it's about a dozen miles away, and though it's heading westwards, he's sees it's also heading slightly north.
Probably going to meet up with that other one, the blurred and shielded elven magic user thinks to himself, then the elven princeling floats down amongst the trees, and once he's upon the ground, he shifts to the south, scouting out infront of the others, on what is a fairly warm day here in this part of the mountainous principality of Maladimbáh for the end half of summer.
As they ride down through the trees, faster than a walk, but slower than a trott, Riley Hait the mercenary ranger looks to his right, and says in the elven language "You see or hear anything?". "Nothing much" says Dalinvardél Tanith the elven spy as the two of them ride in the lead "Just those houses dotted next to the meadows we saw from up above" adds the elf from the principality of Alínlae in the Southlands.
They avoid most of the local population as they make their way down into the valley, and they stop briefly at midday near a steam, to have something to eat. They're rejoined by Helbe the elven thief then, who says "It'll be far more quicker once you're on the road below" the young elven noble then adds "However, you'll be easier to spot from the air by those two griffons and their riders that aren't that faraway to the north and east".
"Will they continue south out of their lands?" asks Riley aka Zubutai the barbarian hordesman who continues with "Hopefully there's a bit of strife between them and whoever's lands we're riding into". "We can only hope" says the elven masterthief, who after finishing his meal, disappears as he shifts away.
Soon the others are finished, and are mounted and riding south through the valley to a road, which they discover was probably originally dwarven in origin. As the track they've been following, joins up with a road that's made from paving stone.
They get onto the road that heads directly south, hardly ever deviating from a straight line as it goes across flat land, with mountains in the distance to the east, while to the west, it's more hill country than mountainous. Though the hills are heavily forested, much more so than most of the mountains they've seen lately.
On one of the mountains to the east, stands prince Helbenthril Raendril, who looks westward and spots the group on the road a couple of miles away, they're heading towards a fairly large village, infact you would call it a town, as it sits beside a small lake.
The elven magic user after looking at one of his maps of Maladimbáh, sees that they're still north of lord Haldéilv's lands, and that they'll get to the north of them sometime tomorrow at the pace they're going.
Looks north, and in the distance in the afternoon sky, he spots one of the griffons less than ten miles away.
"Can you distract that griffon?" asks the young elven noble from the principality of Laerel, as he knows that Narladene can probably get to it, faster than he could. "I can" says the naturally magical creature, who drops off the right shoulder of the elven master assassin, and dives into the ground, and starts flying through it as she heads north.
As she does, the elven princeling keeps an eye out for the other griffon, while always keeping an eye on the rest of the group from the Southlands, who will stop at the large village they're approaching as they ride on the road that was originally built by dwarves many, many years ago.
Hopefully they don't get into any trouble there, Helbe the elven thief thinks to himself as he looks at the large village that's on the shore of a small lake, the elven master archer then dryly adds in a murmur "And in them, i mean that idiot Percy" as he knows it's the knight in the order of Saint Mar-che who is most likely to cause trouble wherever they go.
The nobleman from the kingdom of Druvic's capacity to get into trouble is only surpassed by Dorc da Orc when the large ork is with the group.
Though the young elven noble knows that sir Percavelle Lé Dic is nowhere near the levels of idiotic behaviour and stupidity that the ork warleader gets into that causes trouble, not just for himself, but often the entire group.
As the grandson of Prince Raendril of Laerel keeps an eye on the the skies to the north, as well as the mounted group to his west, on the road to the lake shore village.
Narladene is flying quickly through the ground, the tiny winged creature who can fly faster through her natural element, than she can through the air.
She is quickly more than eight miles north of where the elven princeling she's attached to, is on the side of a mountain.
The naturally magical creature comes up through the surface of the earth, and finds she's in the valley the others rode through earlier. The ground pixie heads up into the sky, to where a griffon is slowly circling a thousand feet or so above the ground.
Narladene knows the elf on the griffon, an elf who is of noble birth. Can probably see the group from the Southlands on the road away to the south, though from this distance, probably not clearly enough to identify them.
It also helps that there's others on the road, both mounted and on foot, as well as on carts and wagons. So they might not get too much attention, unless the griffon and it's rider continues south before the group from south of the equator reaches the large village located next to the small lake.
The ground pixie who hopes to delay the griffon and it's rider, infact she hopes to send it in another direction, makes her way up to the large winged creature. The naturally magical creature is soon winging her way around the head of the wyvern, which like all animals, can see her.
Narladene gets infront of one of the large eyes of the griffon, and starts talking to it, the ground pixie who can talk to basically all animals. Tells the griffon to go back north, it shakes it's head, and starts squawking, much to the surprise of the elven noble in the saddle, who doesn't know what to make of the sudden change in behaviour of the griffon.
As she confuses the griffon, the tiny winged creature sourly smiles as she spots another griffon fly over the saddle to the north that the group rode over earlier this morning.
"Damn there's two now" mutters Narladene, who looks quickly southwards, and sees that group from south of the equator are almost at the large village on the edge of the small lake.
She then looks to the southeast, and spots the blurred and shielded Helbenthril Raendril shift from the mountainside he's on, and head to the large village that the others are riding to.
The ground pixie nods her tiny head, and continues to distract the griffon she's infront of. She plans to do the same to other griffon that's to the north and heading this way, hoping to delay them as the afternoon continues on . . . . . .