Back on the trail

     Rollobals tribe had helped them with finding where the trail picked up. Every five years they had observed the Goblonii tribes migration as it passed through the area. They were able to give precise directions where to resume their search. The hot springs had initiated a direction change when the Goblonii reached it, turning Van and Oolah SouthWard. Luckily for rollobals hidden village, that same change in direction caused the Goblonii to completely miss them. Unfortunately for Glam, it sent them to the cave system they wintered in, which placed Glams farm on the outskirts of their hunting range. 

     With the return of Maffy and Coffy they returned to their small ground camps, as they had great faith in their animal companions (who had grown near a foot over the winter, having been fed well with little exercise.) Spring was a different animal in this giant forest. It had grown warm and humid, but not unbearable. Talk was casual and not unpleasant, with encounters being handled with practiced efficiency. In only about a week they emerged from the rainforest Onto a great grassy flat. They were still in the savage wilds, still in unmapped territory. If they thought things were going to get easier, they were mistaken. Looking out over the spotty red grass of this land, they saw it was teeming with life. Many things dwarfing all beasts they had seen thus far. They hoped those behemoths were either the local herbivores, or would be just too large to consider them a meal.

     The trail continued South, but veered sharply West, more West the South, in fact. As it turned out, The giant critters were neither a threat or a benefit, as even the predators knew the giants would ignore them. Following close by them in no way discouraged predators from pouncing on the questers. In fact, staying close to them just served to partially block their view. For several days they barely had any sleep, dark rings forming under their youthful eyes. When Van noticed several birds landing and taking off from the back of a great wooly beast. At about 70 feet long by 30 wide, It was about half the scale of the largest monsters here. 

       Van asked Oolah to stay very still, to keep Maffy and Coffy in place, and let him know if she felt the slightest discomfort. When she complied he created a large solid disc underground. He left it there for about 30 seconds watching Oolah intently. When she showed no signs of being affected, he lifted them all to the back of the beast. As they stepped off the disc the birds there took off. Some were quite large here, and some flocks would occasionally attack them, but none of these were of that sort. Van followed them, levitating the disc away from their perch before dissipating it over one of the more troublesome predators, dumping a load of dirt on it. Finally, they laid out their blankets and slept. The mid sized giant monster seemed unaffected. 

     For the next several days they hopped from monster to monster in order to keep heading in the right direction. It was almost like a road, evidently being used by more then just the goblonii. It was perfectly possible it was a migration route for other things before them, in fact. It was actually easy enough for the two bipeds to climb up and down some of the beasts they chose to hitch rides on, but had to help Maffy and Coffy up. After the first day they'd made some harnesses out of monster hide for the task, as Van was not comfortable using the black energy so close to them.

     This land was not as desolate of plant life as they had at first thought, as the sparce red grasses was joined by a lush orange and yellow cover. The red plants turned out to be the heads of tubers, and many other such food plants made their home in the dark lush soil.

      They traveled in style until a direction change by their massive mounts prompted them to make their way on foot until another could be found. The great creatures moved as they ate, making their way from red tuber bush to tuber bush. Something about the tubers, some part or element survived the digestion process, allowing their presence to persist despite being a favorite of so many gargantuan beasts. To be honest Van was beginning to feel like he was cheating. Oolah reminded him it wouldn't last forever, and how often they were attacked when on foot. They tried helping out, as well, after having watched how the birds groomed the massive critters and kept pests down, they began doing the same. The birds did good work for the most part, and pests were few, but when they found one, made good snacks for Maffy and Coffy.

     One morning they were woken in a way they hadn't been since their repeated attempts at ground camps in these plains. Maffy and Coffy were growling an alert, notifying Oolah who nudged Van, that something was amiss. Van sat up, looking at Oolah and followed her gaze. It was scene from a rock album.

      A tall statuesque sort of elf looking woman stood, regarding them haughtily. She was darkly tan with crimson hair that ended in a low point above her eyes. She had those distinctly elven ears, but There was something vaguely cat like about her appearance. What at first seemed to be a hair styling choice, turned out to be a second pair of ears of a red fur that matched the rest of her mane. She had an obvious athletic build carrying most of her weight in the bottom half, and occasionally a tail could be seen twitching. The scant hides barely left anything to the imagination. Behind her, other members of her race were swarming a giant bipedal monster about the same dimensions as the one they currently rode, while fighting off other predators and large scavengers.

 She was stunning to almost anyone except Van. Having just woke up, without conscious thought he just said, "hah, Oolah has even you beat!" Incredulous, Oolah elbowed him sharply, smiling and feeling both appreciated and annoyed.