[Mineal Shade]

Mineal had heard that the mist was some sort of shield, a barrier keeping the elves out of their home. The mosat had no idea, it did not look much like a barrier. As he stepped under the first eaves of the trees and looked around he could not help but be lulled into the sensible thought that fog was fog and nothing more. But he also remembered Acumin and seeing someone outside the city that looked like he had been frozen into a living statue. It was not until later that the rodenti had found out that the man's odd stature was caused by an invisible barrier and Mineal had been totally unaffected by it because he was a ranger and the fates liked rangers apparently. If the fates liked Mineal they had an odd way of showing it. Maybe there was some higher purpose behind being covered in giant spider innards, fighting off bandits and giant monsters, or spelunking. Maybe the fates were just really bored, Mineal did not know, he was not much of a philosopher.

He looked up at the mass of ice chandeliers that covered the limbs of the trees. As an afterthought he pulled out his water bag and shook it. It was about half empty. Mineal spent some time as he walked plucking icicles and dropping them into his water bag. It would take a little while but under his clothing his body heat would eventually melt the icicles and the rodenti could resupply is water.

Mineal was getting used to forests and he had learned they were anything but quiet. Any brightening was a mix of animals running through the brush, birds chirping their silly heads off and a cacophony of bugs making assorted noise as they went about their usual brightening. This forest, winter might it be, was deadly quiet. It was a little eerie hearing Mineal's own footsteps magnified by the silence to the point it felt like hsi ears must surely be larger than they already were.

Something bright flickered in the corner of his eye and the mosat flicked his gaze in the direction. But as soon as he tried to focus on the object it melted away into the surrounding mist. It was one of the moments Mineal wished he knew more wilderness lore. Surely the rangers had a way to deal with that specific problem unbeknownst to Mineal it was as simple as not looking directly at the ball of light.

He continued walking. Shortly he stopped dead in his tracks. Cocking his head to the side he looked at the fallen log. Mineal cursed under his breath, he had been using what few landmarks there were to keep his path straight and to avoid the simplistic mistake of walking in a circle. It had failed, probably from trying to inspect the ball of light. Shuffling over to the log he hopped up on it and had a seat. Crossing his arms the ranger bowed his head slightly in thought. Mineal had once had similar problems trekking the deserts of Arakmat and the wilderness beyond the borders of the empire. Then he has just made a sun sight to tell him which direction was which. He squinted up at the sky with his black eyes, it was too overcast and foggy for a sun sight. Soon he abandoned all trying to go in the correct way seeing that he could not orient himself in the forest. But he sure as feth could walk straight.

Mineal reached to his waistpack and unattached the slim wire that he used to keep track of his cage in the desert. He hopped up and looked down at the log. Noting his original direction Mineal hooked the end loop of the wire onto one of the log's dry limbs. Then he walked to another tree and hooked the remaining end of the wire on a branch. The ranger pulled out his dagger and made a notch in the tree denoting directon. He would have rather used something else but sadly the ranger did not have any chalk. Mineal returned to the log and made another directional mark before picking up the end of the wire and returning to the tree.

So Mineal went to the next tree, and the next. He repeated the process and despite it being slow and tedious it kept Mineal from wasting any more time walking in circles and perhaps dying in the frozen forest.

The mosat might not have any big ideas about fate and the gods but perhaps he was ingenious enough to walk through foggy woods in a straight line. When he tired Mineal thought he might try to catch the little ball of light. It was probably a fae and maybe if he baited his cage trap with something shiny he could capture it and interrogate the thing about Sylrosia. As usual he had almost no information about what was really going on. But that was why he was usually opted for these missions. The mosat was well traveled in the unknown, had fog experience, an intrepid explorer, self reliant and most importantly he came back with results. Still, it would have been nice if they had sent him a partner. At least working as a team would have made the wire walking faster.

OOC: 'what appeared to be what looked like' = awkward. I'm just bustin' your chops, thanks for picking up my thread Dig.