Cartography of Waking and Dreams

[Lesingnon]

It wasn't Joe that Rick found himself worried about, really. Especially not with Barkley and Marcus nearby. It was the prospect of launching another excursion deep into the Hedge when the last one he'd just returned from had taken so much of his Glamour that made him uneasy. He really found himself wishing that those waters still flowed with the fae fuel. But sometimes you just had to play the hand fate dealt you. He saw if he could catch a glimpse of fruits that would provide him with Glamour. Arch's illusion had left him a bit low, which was never a good thing when you were wandering deep into the Hedge. And he wasn't about to try and see if any motes of the stuff could still be gleaned from the polluted stream.

A part of him was also piecing together what he'd heard from Arch and Joe. That a Freehold almost 100 miles away had become of the local Hedge troubles here was a bit disconcerting. And they certainly hadn't wasted any time about it either, seeking to establish two individuals to beat it back and a third to delve deep and figure out what was going on. A part of him hoped that they were merely being good neighbors, or perhaps taking steps to insure that the problem would not spread to their doorstep.

But the part of him indelibly marked by Faerie wouldn't stop reminding him that nothing came without a cost.

"Do you know where the stream's headwaters are? Something like that has to come from a powerful source...one I'd guess would be deep within the Hedge, too."

[Sam Barkley]

Barkley laughs as the joke is turned on him and listens to the rest of Joe's recruitment pitch nodding to himself. "Yeh, that sounds about right," he answers Rick, nodding to the guys, "let's go find who's playin' BP with our Hedge, eh?" They were gonna do that anyway. "See ya, Arch," he says warmly, waving goodbye. The warmth in his stomach lifted his spirits and he started briskly toward the source of the muck. "So, Rick," Sam says, his staff tok-ing along the path of sewage that used to be the Singing Waters, "yeh've got thorns on. Whatsat all about?"

[CyledyrWyllt]

Rick turns his piercing gaze toward Sam. "Magi of the Gilded Thorn." He, himself, was about as far from the polluted waterway as he could get. It was pure, unspoiled, nature that was a part of him. Pollution was certainly not something he was at all fond of. "It's like Joe said; the two of you keep the Hedge at bay, I delve deep to find its secrets. And," he held his arm up in front of him, briefly watching the thorns slithering along it, "Entitlements leave their mark on you. These are the one I got."

Joe smiles at the willingness of his new companions to follow him into the unknown, however he knows that they are still too green. Hell, one of them actually ate a Jean Grey. After a covert look to Arch, the Farwalker glances at Rick before looking down at his new recruits.

"Uh-huh, very deep. We'll look into the Singin' Waters soon enough, but you two still have to prove you've really got what it takes to join the Wardens first. We'll be spendin' the next few nights in the Hedge... off the trod. You two prove that you can handle that... then we'll start on the serious stuff."

Arch moves forward and places a hand on Rick's shoulder.

"This can obviously wait. I really need to speak to Betony Rue... are you coming?"

Taking the long way around, Arch leads Rick back up the slope to the path across the bridge. Once there, the two Magi make their way back to the mundane world of Sacramento, leaving the Warden and his new Cadets to their own devices within the wilds of the Hedge.

End Scene