Dragging Tail

So, it turns out that filling up mana reserves as... extended as mine were was more than a one day task. Getting found by a rear guard left behind to look for "anything odd"? Not such a hard task.

And no, that was not because [Beast Sense] detected the mounts. As I haven't mentioned earlier, Folk, including the Awakened, only show up when acting purely on instinct. For example, most hunting cats won't show up reliably unless about to pounce. And prey animals like rabbits have that weird thing where you can sense a thirty foot area, and they'll be inside it, somewhere.

Anyway, my first warning that I'd been found was three birds overhead, flying in formation against the wind. I'd been swimming downstream for the speed granted by [Titanic Swimming], but upon seeing the birds act in ways birds normally don't, I made for the left bank and climbed to the lip to see what had them out of sorts.