At Kon and Fray's departure, the rest moved toward the exit as well. The idea of food was too tempting and the smell of it too alluring to ignore.
"Finn is impressed with you." Puck told Lacy as they walked toward the fire where Gisele was cooking.
"Hey, I thought you were with the Red Branch now." Lacy called out to her to be heard over the rain and the monstrous roar of the waterfall to their backs.
Gisele looked up, waved and laughed. "If I just abandoned my cooking, half of these idiots would starve and I couldn't have that on my conscience."
Lacy admired the temporary shelters that the forward team had erected. Simply rooves held aloft by corner posts and cross beams made of saplings. Covered with tarps and pine boughs. Waterproof and deep enough to keep the rain off of a significant group of people. Dozens of them and many more tents and shelters of all description were spread out across the opening in the forest.
Beyond that, in the treeline, hammocks were strung between stout trees with tarp roofs stretched over them. The clan would not lack dry beds that night.
Puck dropped the small pack that he habitually wore over his shoulder and pulled two dark, carved wooden bowls and a pair of spoons from its depths, passing one of each to Lacy.
Gisele motioned them over and filled their vessels to brimming with the rich, oily stew.
Lacy tasted it and looked up, a question on her face. She caught Gisele's eye and pointed at her bowl with her spoon.
"Bear." The Aussie told her. "Fray had a male black bear charge her while she was hunting a couple of turkeys. Bad choice. But good for us."
Lacy took another bite. "I've never had bear before. It's very good."
Puck nodded. "We don't hunt them, but when something like that happens, we don't turn it away. Perhaps it is the Goddess' contribution to the pot."
Less than a half an hour later Kon and Fray had joined them and they moved out to the edge of the shelter to make room for the others still streaming in for food.
"Our scouts and trackers are out making the place into a playground for us and all we need to do now is eat, rest and prepare." Fray told them.
"And revel in the idea that we are warm, dry and have food in our bellies, while the faction is dealing with that." Kon added, pointing at the swollen river where it poured over the cliff with his spoon.
"Is that Glyn?" Lacy asked, causing Kon to turn and look the way he had just pointed to see the tall specter of the Druid's form standing in the mist at the top of the waterfall, staring down into the canyon.
"None other." He replied. "Probably talking with the ghost of every poor bastard that ever died in that river. Rallying them to our cause."
Lacy swallowed hard. "He can do that?"
Kon shrugged, but the look on his face was not as casual as the movement suggested. "I have not asked him, but it would not even come close to surprising me. His power seems to grow with ours. The more time we spend building the clan, the more we care for the land, the more we come to interact with the Goddess and the Horned One, the more Glyn seems to be rooted and strong."
Fray nodded. "He hasn't even begun to show us all that he knows or that he can do I think."
"That seems both thrilling and terrifying." Lacy answered, still watching the druid.
"That is a fair assessment." Puck agreed.
They finished their meals but their attention was on Glyn. Once they had finished, Kon rose and walked out into the rain toward the top of the falls, Fray trotted out and caught up with him.
When they reached the edge of the falls they waited respectfully a few yards from where Glyn stood, his eyes peering downstream from beneath the shadow of his rain sodden hood.
"Something else is out there." Glyn said suddenly. His voice threatened to get lost in the roar of the water but they both heard him clearly.
"What manner of thing?" Kon asked, instantly concerned.
"Something huge, something more natural, more green than even I am and something that is not an enemy, but I have no name to put to it."
They both peered down through the sheets of rain at the nearly black forest below the falls, but of course they saw nothing.
"Something in our actions has summoned something old. It is manifesting up through the roots. The flood waters are calling it. It will be fully within our world before we rise in the morning."
"Well…" Kon said. "That's not horrifying or anything. I am glad it isn't an enemy."
Glyn's hood nodded up and down slowly. "You should be glad indeed. My power pales before it and it hasn't even shown itself yet. We should rest."
With that, the tall figure turned and walked slowly back toward the temporary village of tents and shelters.
"Vague." Muttered Kon.
Fray chuckled nervously. "Very. Why did you make us come out here?"
Kon laughed. "Because Glyn always knows the right thing to say to make me wee in my kilt."
Fray shook her head. "Why did I ask…"
2022 Lance Cheuvront
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