Musical Theme: Mysterious Forest
And so the party moves onward and deeper into the forest, following the river's course to avoid getting lost in this unfamiliar terrain. And a wise decision it soon proves, for the forest with clustered tall pines and oak trees appears a place fairly easy to loose oneself in without a point of reference.
The terrain drops gently as they walk and eventually the cliffs that edge the river on both margins turn into margins. Here and there Andrin hears the sounds of small animals, but always distant. Whatever critters live here must be of the skittish sort.
It has been a little under than an hour of travel when something happens.
A deer, its eyes wide with fear, its flanks streaked with blood from a deep gash, bursts forth from the undergrowth barely 20 yards to the party's right. For just a brief moment it pauses, breathless and lathered with sweat. But then the raucous blear of a horn and the baying of hounds sound from the direction whence it came and the unfortunate beast stirs to flight one more and delves into the eastern undergrowth, almost in the direction the adventurers were traveling to, and vanishes.
The horn sounds again, nearer this time and the dog barks come higher and clearer.
