Roadtrip to hell - and hopefully back again (Sairque)

[Rista]

14th of Summer, 511 AV

"Hmm, let's see now, I've got the rope and the knife, food and.. Hey, watch it!" Rista looked up from her backpack and snapped at the girl that had bumped into her shoulder and almost knocked her over. The offender belonged to a group of kids that darted back and forth around her, not caring the slightest about the one who sat on her heels and tried to check to see that she had brought everything she needed. When no one stopped to look back or apologize Rista made a wry grimace and rubbed her sore shoulder, wishing that they would actually turn around so she could return the favour. Her black eyes looked over the gathered yasi with a grim expression, noticed how the boys and girls tried to both impress and outdo one another; she shook her head and returned to finish her inventory. One would think that they could take it a bit more serious to leave Wind Reach, even if it were in a group and with an Endal as a guide. One might think that a bunch of kids around the ages of twelve to fourteen could look a bit more mature.

As it were, Rista wasn't sure whether she should feel old and tired or just dry and boring. She was taking it seriously, and had packed her bag with the assigned things along with several others that she found could become necessary, and had both doublechecked everything and barely slept at all during the night from the excitement. They would leave Wind Reach for a couple of days, for an extended trip that by the look of the gear would deal quite a lot with climbing. She was excited, but to be perfectly honest Rista would have been far happier if the group had been smaller. They were six now, two boys and three girls aside from herself, all red and orange hair that mingled among each other, laughing and joking, teasing and having a good time. She was certain that they would, at least. She wasn't really included herself, and Rista had a feeling she had to blame it on herself. A hot temper and a tendency not to think before she acted had made her something of an outcast among those her own age, and the fact that she looked so different from the others didn't make it an ounce better. They found her copper skin and solid black eyes foreign, and she couldn't do anything but agree. If she could Rista would do something about it, but so far she hadn't found any way of changing her own appearance in a lasting way. In any case, she had long since convinced herself that she was happy with how things were, and thus she made no attempts to join in with the others; instead the short girl went through the last few things in the bag before she closed the lid and threw it up on her shoulders; a backpack equipped for a safe, controlled fieldtrip, along with dangerous, unfocused so called comrades... It was bound to ge wrong somehow.

At least the weather was nice. Rista turned her back to Sanikas Gate and looked out over the sky, quietly admiring the view of the mountains below and the winding scar that was the Sanikas Road. It was was a clear day with few clouds, the breeze felt mild as it swept over the gathered youngsters. The sun was about to set; the glowing orb colored the rocks in hues of orange and gold, and Rista found herself smiling faintly as she closed her eyes and felt the warming rays touch her cheeks. Good moring, Syna she silently prayed to herself, I'll be in your care today. Please let everyone stay alert and see clearly, so that there won't be any unnecessary accidents. Not that the kids around were neither more nor less competent than she was. Rista just didn't trust them. She let out her breath in a sigh and looked over her shoulder towards the Gate where they had gathered, hoping to see the Endal arrive. As always she held the feeling of awefilled respect whenever she thought of the skilled hunters, but more than anything today she just wanted to get moving. It was dawn, and it was time to go.


oocFeel free to mention a better date if this one isn't working. ^^

[Sairque]

It was time to go. And the Endal assigned to the group had yet to make an appearance. In fact, she had no plans to appear to the sorry bunch of bad apples milling about the courtyard. Within the gate itself, a gem of a value known only to a select few lied in wait. And the flightleader had every intention of enjoying her time with it. Val sat opposite her, reciting a tale of a far away land as they waited for their tea to brew in the exterior alcove where he normally waited for travelers. “You know, one of those Yasi out there has a father from there. Name’s Rista,” Val informed her, drawing a foot up to perch on his knee so he could push up the hem of his bright blue bryda and tug off his simple leather shoe. With gnarled old hands he rubbed at his gnarled old foot. Sai eyed the splotchy, dead-skin-encrusted foot with blatant disgust. Hadn’t he heard of trimming his toe nails or…bathing? “You don’t say,” the woman mumbled, wondering not about the child but the peculiar green shade of his old, cracked nails. “She’s Inarta through and through though,” he continued, comfortable with his feet and unconcerned with his guest’s dislike of them. His clear blue eyes, witness to thousands of things no other Inarta could even imagine, darted to her with deceptive nonchalance. “I keep trying to get her to stop by so she can learn about her father’s culture but I’ve never met but one other person so determined to be one of us.” “Sira,” Sai blurted without thinking, nodding to herself a bit. Val agreed with a bob of his white head. Having torn her gaze from the offending body part, the wiry redhead plucked at the dark material of her bryda. They were dark, created to match the ebony of her Eagle’s feathers, and gathered at the ankles. Normally, she also had a matching long sleeve shirt for hunting but today only a simple midnight blue vinati cut a dark streak against the cream of her torso. In the spirit of hunting, no glass or feathers adorned the singular thick braid of blood red head that snaked down her back. “That’s about all I know of her, though, until I can get her pinned down,” he lamented with a sigh. They sat in comfortable silence for a few chimes, each lost in unfathomable and undirected thought. “Val…Just how Inarta do you think this girl is?” Sai slowly asked, a narrowing of her unfocused eyes betraying the calculating plans forming and reforming all with the express intention of providing herself a well spent training excursion. Val frowned. He wasn’t sure he liked this tone she had. Or that look on her face. “I think she’d give you a run for your money,” he finally acceded, standing with only the one shoe on and moving to open the door for her. Normally he wasn’t so abrupt, but the conversation had not ended with the result he’d been looking for, at least he didn’t think it had, and was leery of prompting the woman toward any drastic actions. Unconcerned that they’d not yet had their tea, the Endal pushed to her feet and obligingly swept out the door. “See you in a day or two, Val. Don’t die while I’m gone.” It was probably the closest she would get to telling him he was cared for. Rubbing her palms together in anticipation, the short Endal took a deep breath of fresh summer air, enjoying the morning bite of it, before snagging up her gear and striding toward the milling group of bad apples. The woman wore authority as comfortably as a favorite pair of old bryda Mountain tops ablaze with the first caresses of Syna, Zulrav gracing them with a light breeze, Sai took in the majestic country they lived in. She’d dropped her gear at her feet, just ten paces from the roughhousing Yasi, and expected them to gather up while she checked out the weather. When she’d decided that there weren’t enough clouds to indicate an approaching front and the kids still weren’t gaggled up, save for one girl with black marble for eyes—Bingo—the piqued Endal slapped the back of one scarred hand within the palm of the other. The resounding crack preceded a disgusted glare at all the slack-jawed youths. “Get over here,” she snapped. “I’m not here to keep you alive, and if you can’t manage to know what’s going on around you…you won’t be. When we walk back through these gates, I’ll be carrying your sorry carcasses to feed to the Dek. I. Don’t. Care.” She stressed to the six youths, fierce yellow eyes meeting each kid’s. Whether they’d seen her and decided not to prepare for departure or hadn’t seen her at all, both were bad signs. No situation awareness or no decision making skills. Neither flaw lent to survival. “You’re lucky that Rista does, because you’ve all just become subordinate to her.” Various expressions of surprise and distaste adorned the youngster’s faces. “Why her?” one girl, tall for her age and lanky, asked with a glance of derision at the impromptu team captain. “She’s not even from around here.” The calculating inner part of Sai chortled and rubbed its hands together in anticipation. The exterior leader part of her, however, cooly regarded the girl. “Are you questioning my decision to put her in charge of you or her ability to lead you?” the woman asked with dangerous nonchalance, thumbs tucking up into the green scarf slung low along her hips like a sash. “I-no-her ability to lead, I guess,” she finally answered after a pregnant pause. “That sounds like something you’ve got to take up with your leader then,” the Endal responded, gleefully rubbing her inner hands together again but in actuality regarding the mixed blood expectantly. Rista would not turn out like Kovac. All eyes turned to Rista.

[Rista]

Drop after drop passed and slowly the sun rose even higher. The black-eyed girl frowned slightly as the day grew brighter without the appearance of the Endal, and she began to wonder if something was wrong. They had been told to be here and ready to leave at dawn, and now dawn had passed and it was more like early morning. Doubts began to stick their ugly heads up, and while Rista did what she could to ignore them, they still took up a part of her mind. What if they had been told wrong? Maybe this wasn't the place, and the Endal was waiting furiously at some other place? Or perhaps something had happened that would cancel the trip? She really hoped not. This was important to her, Rista absolutely wanted to learn whatever it was the Endal wished to teach them. And the prospect of spending time in the mountains, outdoors, for days was almost as wonderful as eating sugared candy on market day. Better, even. Then again, the Endal could just have overslept... But that thought was quickly pushed aside with an impatient throw of her head. Impossible. Endals didn't sleep in, they weren't lazy and they kept their words. The thing was.. she never believed that an Endal would be late either.

The sound of steps could barely be heard over the chatter of the others, but it was enough to warn the young girl. She quickly pushed whatever doubts she'd been having to the back of her mind and turned around, her eyes taking in the woman that stepped out from the shadows of the Gate. She was pretty, but more than her blue eyes and braided red hair, it was the look of authority on her face that made an admiring smile creep up on Rista's lips. The Endal looked like she had been in command from the time she was born, and something about her made it impossible to even think of disobeying. The girl sighed. Well, that was one major drawback to her dreams of becoming Endal. No one ever listened to what she had to say. It was the reason why she so often took to the firsts, from pure frustration.
While the red-haired woman seemed to study the weather, Rista took a few steps closer and straightened up the bag that hung over her shoulders. She had made sure that it was well balanced and felt a faint trickle of satisfaction when she noticed that she barely felt the weight of it. A brief glance was spared to the other kids - didn't they notice that the woman was standing there? - and suddenly a sharp snap of hands made everyone jump. Rista quickly spun back and felt her cheeks burn; she shouldn't have looked away.

With a deep breath, the dark-eyed yasi forced herself to focus and listened as the Endal began to speak. She wasn't sure whether she should be terrified or excited about what the red-head said, but either way her eyes clung to the other... Until the pause came, and the announcement afterwards. Rista felt like someone had dumped a bucket of water over her head in the middle of winter. Her face was just as shocked as all the others, and she too almost voiced her objections. Almost. Concern washed through her mind and made her eyebrows lower in a frown as she slowly looked between the expectant eyes of the Endal and the discontent children. Had they always looked this scary? What if they wouldn't listen to her? What if she couldn't do what she had been assigned to do? Refusing the order never actually crossed her mind, but despite that she couldn't help but doubt the decision of the eagle rider. Hadn't she noticed her position among the others? No, the way she handled the complaints of the others showed that she probably knew but didn't care - or knew, and had decided to use it for something.

The girl felt like shrinking away from the eyes that were directed towards her. Only her pride made her stand and face them instead of turning tails and running, but it was also that fierce sense of pride that gave her the strength to straighted her back. Rista took a deep breath to calm herself down, threw a quick glance in the direction of the Endal - was she laughing? - and then turned her attention towards the girl that had voiced her doubts. Gods knew that Rista had them too...
"You don't like me" she started with the brutal honesty that was her trademark. Her eyes were focused on the girl but her voice addressed everyone; Rista was relieved to see that they at least pretended to listen. "You don't like me and I am not very fond of any of you, but that isn't really important. What matters is that we need to stick together. We need to cooperate, act as one and think as one. This time, I'm the one that leads. Don't sulk about it; it could just as well have been one of you, so bite it down and do the best of it. If you have any complaints, voice them and I will deal with it." She couldn't really hear her own voice and didn't know how it sounded. Was it dry and boring to listen to, like some of the teachers that taught them about geography and history? Was it weak, could they hear her properly? At least she didn't think it was trembling, not like her hands were. Rista lifted them and placed them on her hips to keep anyone from noticing, and unknowingly took on a challenging pose, with the legs kept apart, the back straight and her chin lifted. The blackness of her eyes rendered her a wild look and the yasi found themselves reluctantly listening. It was a far cry from the natural authority that the Endal wore, but it seemed to serve it's purpose. Rista wasn't really aware of it. She just wished she was taller and more imposing, and wondered with a sinking feeling in her stomach if any of the people gathered here would come back alive.

[Sairque]

Not bad… Though moderately pleased with the way the girl addressed the issue, not a bit of approval crossed her face. Instead the flight leader simply studied the reactions of her charges. They needed a little more aggression, the reasonable tone she’d used hadn’t quite shamed them as it should have. Rista had made great points, hit it right on the dot, the group had bigger concerns than who lead in name. Like not dying. And the only way to do that was to stick together at their skill levels. At their ages Rista shouldn’t be the only one aware of this. Bad apples. So her earlier statement wasn’t quite true, Sai just had a smidgeon of affection grow for the little black-eyed mongrel. Which worked out well considering the chain of command; Sai just had to keep her second in command alive, the second had to keep the rest alive and Sai couldn’t care less about cutting the fat off their population. The group seemed properly subdued, however, probably due to the way the girl swelled and adopted the body language to fit her moderate claim. Sai felt just a little bit of pride for the struggling mongrel, and patted herself on the back for the good choice. Further slamming home the lesson by reiterating Rista’s points was unnecessary; just a few more good decisions or speeches and the girl could say she’d tamed them all by herself. “Swell, now that we’ve got that out of the way,” the Endal seguewayed dryly, clearly expecting no more such squabbles to take up her time when she was trying to do something with the group. “I don’t want to hear a petching word out of any of you; for all intents and purposes, Rista is your leader and Rista will be the only one dealing with me.” The blank looks on their faces really helped their cases. “I tell Rista how to do things, she tells you. You have a problem, you go to Rista, Rista comes to me. You have a problem with Rista, you go to Rista. If you can’t handle your discontent like proper Inarta, I’ll make sure you’re not around to create further pathetic annoyances for me,” Sai spelled out for them, almost sighing as she finally got a few nods from the muley kids. “We’re going to practice this right now.” “Rista, come with me. Bring your gear.” The resigned woman waited for the youth to cross the circle and led the way far enough off to make it hard for the other kids to eavesdrop. “You did well,” Sairque encouraged matter-of-factly, knowing that while she had high expectations for the girl, the girl didn’t need that kind of pressure. It was almost a sure bet that that the mongrel would pressure herself more than enough. She dropped her simple bag at her feet, keeping the unstrung longbow in hand and draping the quiver of assorted arrows over one shoulder. Brilliant yellow eyes rested on black, the flight leader trying to look approachable, a rather foreign concept for the woman who dealt with adults more often than children. She couldn’t stress the importance of the girl coming to her with any and all questions, but didn’t quite know how to say it in a way that would encourage such behavior instead of just making it another demanding task. Resigned to her own shortcoming, she stuck with what she knew. “The purpose of this trip is to provide additional outdoors exposure. We have three tasks to accomplish-“ Sai paused. “Do you have something to write with and on?” If not, the wiry woman tugged a folded parchment from a pocket of her pack and a stubby char stick, handing them over. “You’re gonna wanna write all sorts of stuff down, keep those. Okay. We have to provide all of our own food, each kid has to kill and clean their own dinner while we’re out here, as well as find edible plants. Second, we have to navigate to several points and back again. Last, we have to find viable water sources. Pretty simple stuff.” The Eagle rider paused to gauge Rista’s comfort with the tasks and ability to keep up. “We’ll be gone for ten days. Five days out and five days back. How far we get is up to your ability to keep your crew efficient and moving.” Watching the mixed blood speculatively, Sai realized she was completely comfortable with the shift in responsibility onto the girl’s shoulders. “Do you know how to use a map and compass?” the Endal asked as she bent to pull both items from the bag. Carefully, she laid the bow at her side, letting the quiver strap slide down her arm to join it. With the navigation items in hand, yellow eyes flicked over the Yasi sullenly plopped down in the circle they’d left them in and casting wary glances their way.

[Rista]

Somehow Rista managed to keep her knees from collapsing and turned her back to the others in the group as the Endal reclaimed the group. She quickly moved her hands away from the hips and over to the straps that kept the backpack on her shoulders; they trembled quite visibly by know, the girl felt like a piece if fatty meat that had been boiled too long. Speaking out in front of the others was bad enough, but doing it under the gaze of the Endal was terrifying, and the girl couldn't help but wonder if she had done anything wrong. Maybe if she had spoken differently she could have gained a better result, or... I seriously need to grow a real spine she thought dryly to herself, and listened with growing terror at the riders instructions. She had always believed herself to have confidence, at least when it came to looking after her own skin and pride.

Right now though, Rista felt more like a rabbit under an archers aim, and even more so when Sairque called her forth to receive instructions. The copper-skinned girl nodded quickly and followed the woman away from the rest of the group. It was hard not to smirk as she noticed some of the faces as she passed; they looked as stricken as she felt, completely unprepared as they had been for someone other than the Endal to take command. To actually have to swallow taking orders from someone they were used to trampling or simply overlooking... It had to be as hard as it was trying to lead them.

Very much aware that Sairque had been watching her little speech, the young girl brightened from the praise she received. She straightened her back a bit and tried not to look so much like a dog that had gotten a pat on the head and was happy about it; it wasn't a very flattering image, even if it for the most part was true. It sure was enough to almost get to her head, and it was with difficulty she kept from grinning like a fool. Restraining herself, she met the steady yellow eyes of the older woman and tried not to shrink away - she had never felt so small before, and so eager to prove herself worthy of.. what? - as she listened to what she said. Without saying anything she received the paper and coal - her own was in the backpack and it would take too long to bring it out - before starting to write down the instructions; she made only short notes, instead confining most to her memory.

Ten days. If they were going to cover any ground at all during that time they would need to set out tasks for people to perform, from a lions share of hunting and gathering to carrying bags... It would be easier to assign to a few people to hunt instead of everyone running all over the place, and when it came to that everyone would want to do the more exciting tasks. They would have to make a rolling schedule, and... Rista swallowed as she realized that she already tried to plan everything out and held back a desire to shake her head. She didn't even know where they were going more exactly; was it up on the peaks or in the valleys? Probably both.

The Endal then held out a map, and the small amount of confidence that had managed to regather with the girl disappeared again. She was reluctant to admit it, but she had no idea how to work with a map. The shake of her head was short and sharp and made a braid loosen from the thick knot at the back of her neck; Rista pushed it back behind the ear without thinking. "No Endal, I do not" she answered and tried to sound calm; she couldn't quite hide the quick glance she gave the woman though, wondering if that was a very bad thing.

The whole thing might have been a bit easier if Rista hadn't wavered between dumb admiration and wide-eyed horror when it came to the Endal. She felt as if a breath at the wrong place would unleash some horrible consequence, and she constantly battered herself on the inside for being such a coward. Just because the woman was scary there was no need to feel this faint-hearted; after all, she was there to teach and make sure that everyone got back safely, despite what she said. At least Rista hoped so...she had sounded clear enough, and she didn't want to risk ending up in a bad situation because she counted on someone that wasn't there.

[Sairque]

Spreading the time bleached map across the gritty stone at their feet, the crouched Endal glanced at the anxious Yasi as though the moments she was trying to recall were playing across that almost-familiar face. Nope, she’d walked up and lectured them. Introduction not included. No wonder the kids were all muley, they didn’t even have a name to go with the woman who regarded her task of their survival with apathy. Though oblivious of it, reaching up to clasp Rista on the shoulder breached several layers of distaste at touching those of an age group strongly considered useless by the flight leader. “Call me Sairque,” the Endal invited, a spark of warmth flaring and waning as her fingers released the mongrel. “Catabasis didn’t teach me how to use a compass until a few years ago, so don’t worry about it.” Sharing that little tidbit with a slip of the tongue, however, did surprise her. It brought a touch of humanity, erased some of the mystery at where or how she learned what she knew. A bit of the blinding image of ‘Endal’ faded to let a little more of the mundane woman through to the Yasi. That never faltered. There was one aspect of her they needed to see and it included no personal tidbits. Hands dangling between knees, the flight leader shook off a wry smile and returned those piercing yellow eyes to the map. Rista would not turn out like Kovac. Perhaps it was the blatant differences between the half-bloods that engendered such wanton camaraderie. Like the way the cogs had turned almost immediately once the goals for this trip had been explained, those black eyes had gone all fuzzy as the girl tried to figure out how to go about completing them. Kovac…Kovac would have stared and asked why the vaunted Endal needed the mediocre help of a lowly Avora in doing her job. Clasped within the scarred grip of her right hand, the compass was offered up to the girl. “The basics are pretty easy,” she assured the girl, getting back on task and trying to address that wide eyed look of imminent doom that Rista had regarded the navigation device with. Seeing the parchment and char stick shift to accommodate the additional item, Sairque, novice teacher that she was, almost reached out to reclaim the compass and insist the Yasi simply watch and take notes this first time around. Fingers twitching in readiness, a quiet moment of indecision passed before the lesson continued. Rista would just have to manipulate all three items on her own. The compass was a hefty palm sized chunk of metal with a scratched casing that once opened revealed the delicate device actually used for navigation. A simple needle tapered at one end rotated around in its watery bed as the body moved, granted Rista held it flat so the pointer could indeed move. “That needle points north, and the housing encircling it, that thing with the N and E and S and W, rotates so you can travel in a direction other than north but still use the needle to keep on track,” Sai outlined as she bent close to the map and scoured it for the point they would work toward. Wrinkles and creases from many a fold provided nice topography as the Endal drug her finger from the dot labeled Mt. Skyinarta to a valley denoted only by a carefully penned ‘Big Hungry Bear.’ “This is where we’re going, so in order to get a bearing toward it—” A glance up with a wave toward the mountains in the distance, any one of which could be hiding their destination “—from the map, we have to line the two up.” Studying Rista for a second, she tried to figure out if that expression was from concentration or confusion. Teaching was not easy. Figuring out how to convey all of this was not easy. Ugh, next time she was assigning Fois to this duty. “Open the casing completely and lay the corner of the end with the compass at our location so that the corner of the lid is as close to our destination as possible.” Because the device was not long enough to stretch from one point to the other. As Rista laid it out, Sai paused, staring at it for a second before reaching out to spin it around 180 degrees. “No, that’s backwards. Keep the lid closest to our current position.” A second more of study, narrowed hues peering at the map, before she continued. “The compass is pointing at our destination on the map, but not in actuality. Fixing that is easy. All we have to do is rotate the map around so that the cardinal directions on the map are actually pointing toward the north, east, so on.” Sai gently took the edge of the map in hand and slowly spun in around in place so that the ‘top’ of the map, the north edge, faced north. Sliding over to be directly behind the compass, Sai glanced from the navigation device to the mountains it now pointed at. “Hungry Bear is somewhere that way. Now, we can’t just fold the map up and waltz off, we’d never be able to keep the needle pointed in the exact right spot. That’s why we rotate the housing around, that little circle around the glass,” the Endal motioned Rista to do as she described. “So that the needle points at the N. But we’re not travelling north, are we? No, we’re heading southeast. See how the length of the compass points toward our destination?” Sai pointed at the mountains and then picked up the compass to rotate it around. The needle swung back and forth as Sai pointed it from left to right and back again. “We could follow the compass body anywhere, but we know we’re going in the right direction when the needle points at the N.” Having little to compare it to, the explanation felt satisfactory, and the Endal eyed the mongrel, trying to gauge her understanding of the matter.

[Rista]

The eyes of the Endal felt heavy each time they stopped to rest on her. Rista had never thought of the difference between peoples eyes apart from the fact that they were not like her own, but now she was quickly beginning to reach a conclusion that yellow eyes were rather unsettling. It was like being stared at by a hawk or an eagle, as if the mind behind tried to reach a decision on whether she was too big to have for lunch or not... The yasi felt like swallowing every time. The pat on the shoulder, thus, came as a huge surprise, and the dark-haired mongrel could only stare at the woman when she introduced herself; Sairque, that was definitely a name worth remembering. The girl had a vague feeling that she had heard it somewhere before; not an impossibility. Since she was an Endal, there was a high chance that she had heard something being mentioned about the person before, probably in awed whispers among her classmates.

When the hand disappeared from her shoulder, Rista had to shake her head a little to gather her thoughts again. She was a confusing woman, pending between superiority and warm kindness, and it was hard to find a mood that was suitable as response. Since Sairque already knew her name she couldn't introduce herself, there wasn't really anything to comment about and she didn't want to be taken for a scatterbrain by suddenly asking unrelated questions.. The girl sighed soundlessly and did her best to just focus on the instructions; she could save her musings for later, when she didn't need to have her mind focused quite as much. It was probably going to be difficult anyway, without the distractions.

Her focus went to the compass as the Endal handed it over to her; Rista received it with careful hands, juggling the device precariously until she found a way to handle three objects at once; she finally ended up with a knee against the ground, the compass in her left hand, the paper on the thigh and the pen in the right. So far so good. The weight of the device felt foreign in her hand, and as she followed the instructions of the woman and noted down everything she said, she handled the compass carefully as if it would break from a rough grip. It probably wouldn't, but the thought of dropping it was just..
No, back to the instructions. Rista watched carefully as the points were showed to her, black eyes following every movement the woman made to take out the heading; a faint blush passed over her cheeks as she moved the compass into a better position, but didn't say anything.

It was a lot to take in, and when Sai finally grew quiet and looked up, the yasi had lowered her eyebrows in a frown, eyes darting between the compass and the scribbles on the note. She thought she grasped it; math had never been her strongest point, but this didn't look too difficult. Not so far, at least. She did her best to sort out the facts and only note the very basics, and then nodded before she looked up at Sairque.

"So basically" she said to try and see if she had understood correctly, "once I have the heading, I follow along in the direction the compass and the lid shows? And I'll be on the right track as long as the needle points to the north.. Correct?" Questions seemed to bubble up immediately within her mind; how did you do if you didn't know your exact location, what if you didn't have a map, wouldn't it be impossible to go in a straight line like the compass showed? She considered asking them, but instead she pushed them away; if she didn't know her location she'd have to find it out somehow, in case she didn't have a map she would have to navigate in a different way.. and as for the way of moving, she could only guess that the compass would serve as a general road sign when in doubt; go this way to go southeast, not that way.

Now, considering the fact that she was right. It made the girl both excited and nervous; nice because she understood and could say honestly that she did, nervous because, well..
"Is it really smart to go to a valley with a hungry bear?" It wasn't really meant to be said out loud, and she was quick to shut her mouth again; Sairque Endal was given a quick glance to see if she had picked up on her doubts, with glittering black eyes that couldn't quite decide whether they wanted to be apologizing or slightly amused. The name of the valley hinted towards an interesting story, and the mongrel couldn't help but wonder if it was something Sairque had lived through herself or not...

[Sairque]

Satisfied with the mongrel’s understanding of the basic concept, the Endal nodded and snagged up the map case to shake a thin leather thong out of the bottom of it. What turned out to be a wrist strap she attached to the compass before handing the device over to their impromptu leader with a heavy glance that quickly widened and lightened in levity. That elusive warmth returned, a quirk of the lips earning Rista a lopsided smile. “Smart, no. But I doubt we’ll make it far enough to give the beast another chance at Sairque for dinner,” the Endal assured with a mischievous glimmer in those predatory eyes. Rista ingrained herself a little bit more into the wiry woman’s affections. With high hopes, Sai got back to business. “What you should be worrying about is our first few stops after leaving here,” she directed, smile fading to a bit of a smirk. Pointing Rista’s attention back to the map, a slender finger dragged along the heavily annotated distance between ‘Big Hungry Bear’ and Mt. Skyinarta. “We need to stay near water, but water isn’t always going to be readily available if we were to make a straight shot at our destination. We’ll have to veer off to get to springs and make camp, not to mention finding a path around mountains or rivers or cliffs.” Since the map had little more than the basic shapes denoting such articles, though there were the random notes indicating routes that some intrepid traveler had found, picking a course looked like it was going to be an ongoing process stemming from the environment and not the map. Thankfully blue symbols and lines represented water, so that would be relatively simple. Rista would just have to scour the thing as they went. “These little swirls in blue represent springs, and the ones with wavy lines over the top of them are hot springs. Go ahead and get another bearing toward a water source that’s roughly a day’s walk away,” she instructed, rising from the crouch and retrieving the gear she’d strewn about the vicinity. Surreptitious glances at the other five kids revealed that they remained in their little clique, but sat in moody silence with only two of the girls whispering between furtive glances at Rista. Oh Gods, how she hoped one or two of them made trouble for the mongrel. Strapped up with all her equipment, Sai returned to Rista’s side and evaluated her progress, checking the bearing for her. “Good. Store the map and close the compass to keep it from getting jostled. What you’re going to do once we start off is scan the horizon for a prominent landmark that your compass points to. Sometimes you’ll be able to get something in the distance; most of the time you’ll have to find something close up. In a stand of trees we might have to go tree to tree to stay on the right path,” the Endal related, scrunching her nose a bit, navigating off the back of an Eagle was far preferable. “Anyway, what are you going to tell the kids before we head out?” Sai asked, dropping her voice even though the kids were out of ear shot.

[Rista]

A slight smile began tugging at the girl mouth as she received the device and pulled the wrap over the wrist, much against her will charmed by the fickle signs of personality that shone through the cracks in Sairque's imposing armor. So it actually had been her that named the valley. She had to remember that, and try to ask for details sometime, if an opportunity arose. Rista had a weakness for good stories...

The little gleam of humor quickly evaporated again though as the Endal returned to business. The black-eyed mongrel brought her gaze back to the map and listened attentively to the instructions, carefully noticing the blue dots on the map as they were pointed out. Everything the woman said made perfect sense, which was something of a relief; with instructions this clear, she wouldn't have to worry about anything but the people in the group, and to make them do as she said. That in itself was a big enough problem. The short little yasi had never been a leader in any way, since she stood at the bottom of the pecking order, according to everyone else. She had always refused to obey that kind of twisted logic that didn't suit a place where actual skills was what counted. Her way of refusing though, with violence directed at any who dared to tease her even a bit, hadn't left her with many friends and even less actual respect. By the time she had become mature enough to understand that, it was already too late, and she was still working on trying to regain some trust. If she ever had any to begin with...

Unconsciously beginning to chew on her lower lip, Rista nodded and returned her attention to the map; at least she didn't have to fear that it would bitch at her if she consulted it, like she suspected that her comrades would. She looked at the lines and tried to convert what she actually knew of the landscape to what the map said; using the Sanikas Road as a measure for distance, she tried to guess how long it would take to walk for a day, and then find the nearest source of water. They would be moving away from the River, downwards for a while until they came to..

Ah, there. A middle-sized stream seemed to snake its way through the mountains, and just where she needed a place to stop, Rista noticed that it seemed to be surrounded by trees. A glen perhaps, or a valley. It might make for good hunting grounds as well, so after looking once more to make sure she was on the right track with her counting, she used the compass as the Endal had showed. Place the device between the current location and the goal, lid closest to home, then twist the map until the bearings were correct, twist the housing until the needle pointed north. All done. The mongrel smiled a bit, pleased with herself for remembering and even more so once Sairque confirmed it with a short word.

Continuing to follow orders with a faint flutter of growing excitement, Rista gathered up her things with the compass dangling from her wrist, placed the map inside the waistline of her bryda, a place that would be easy to reach and not in the way for movements, and swung the backpack up on her shoulders again. She had just given the other members of the group a quick glance when the older woman, almost casually, returned her student to reality. For a moment it seemed like the confidence that had started to grow within would shatter once more; the girl gaped like a fish on dry land, the face growing a bit pale as her thoughts scrambled for a hold.. what would she say indeed? All the information given flashed through her mind, all the confusing details and the possibly dangerous goal they were heading towards.. Rista had been given it all in relative calm and from someone who absolutely knew what she was doing, and she still felt the weight of the trip they would make. How would the others react if they knew..?

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down. When she spoke, it was more like she was thinking out loud than actually giving a firm respond; not shaped as a question, there was still a slight plea for approval of her idea, or at the very least an offering of a chance to say sharply no to anything that went beyond stupidity.

"Well.. I can't keep from telling them anything, because then they'll never trust that I know what I'm doing. So I'll say how long we're supposed to be gone, and if there's something fun or good waiting at the goal it'd be good to know.. Besides that, I think I'll chop it all up to one day at a time, and wait with talking about tomorrow until we're in camp and have food. I'll assign some of them to keep an eye out for edible plants and small game along the way, and others to look for water or obvious dangers, so that they have something to think about besides complaining about who's in charge. I'll do the navigation..."

"How often are we going to need to stop for a break?" Rista looked up at the gold-eyed woman, concentration making it apparent that she still went through the day in her mind. "On the map it didn't look too hard to walk the distance, but on the other hand the Road doesn't look too steep either, when you stand up here... We're carrying a lot too, so I figure we'll need to stop and rest." She hoped she was planning this in a good way. If her thoughts were correct, they might catch some rodents and rabbits along the way, and during break they would be able to take them out and salt the meat to prevent it from spoiling in what looked to be a warm day. That might let them walk longer, or at least rest more when they reached the first camping place... Providing she was right, of course. She still had a feeling that it wouldn't exactly be a smooth trip. Not if the hard glares at her back was any indication.

[Sairque]

Unstrung longbow slung over a shoulder, the shaft bouncing slightly over the wiry muscle at the base of the Endal’s neck, Sai regarded the inexperienced Yasi under furrowed brows. Rista had done well being thrown to the wolves in the first place, Sai would just have to do that again the next time. Asking her what she was going to do seemed to bring out the insecurity she felt but refused to show the other youths. At least it was better than obnoxious overconfidence. In fact, the girl seemed to be aware of the responsibility being placed on her shoulders. That wasn’t such a bad touch either. “Taking it a day at a time is a good idea, we have no idea where we’ll stop for the night no matter what we plan. Telling them the general area we’re moving toward should be enough. How often we stop for breaks will depend entirely on the group and your assessment of them. What you assign who to, I don’t care. But everyone must hunt for themselves, learn how to navigate the terrain, whether with a compass or not, I don’t care, and understand what water should be drank and what shouldn’t. Everyone must participate in those three things,” Sai reiterated but only to remind the girl that the goal was not the valley but the learning along the way. What kind of reward or fun thing would be in a valley with a big hungry bear? Maulings? “After you’ve finished talking to them, feel free to get them all moving out. You’ll do fine,” the flight leader assured the girl, yellow eyes gaining a hair of sincerity amongst all that impersonal calculation. “I’ll be watching and making sure nothing happens to you as we walk. You, in turn, make sure nothing happens to them.” Though, from the dry disinterested tone taken during that last sentence, she didn’t really care about them all that much. “You can confer with me at any time, but don’t forget to rely on your peers as well.” She felt obligated to say that because it was a skill Rista would need. Deciding the mongrel was ready after a moment more of studying to gauge her confidence, Sai spun about on a heel and strode toward the waiting party. This time they straightened up and readied their gear, much to their credit with the scowling Endal. Bunch of bad apples, but maybe they could be polished up if rubbed hard enough. Standing toward the back, clearly not taking the floor, with her feet shoulder width apart and the shaft of her bow bouncing against the palm of one hand, she felt a bit like that big dude that made sure no shenanigans took place on market day. And those two fiercely whispering girls were definitely up to something. Catching her gaze, they separated a bit and turned attention to Rista.