The party progressed under the benevolent gaze of the forest, the trees along this path remembering Gründ and his courage. They were glad to see him unscathed, and opened the way for him and his friends without their noticing. The forest had taken a liking to the ground-dweller who so wanted to fly.

“So what’s the plan, Mister Adventurer? We get there and then what?” Baruf wasn’t happy. He didn’t want to come, originally, and he was mad at Gründ for being so careless and skipping so many hunts. But in the end, the prospect of finding food and perhaps a path to water had won him over.

“We’ll have to dig it out… When I found it, it was only the tip of a feather sticking out, so I tried to take it out of the ground but it’s too big, and I was running out of time. So it’s still half buried… Don’t look at me like that, I did my best!” Bared barely managed to hide a chuckle. Baruf’s face was priceless.

“Ugh, spending all pulse scrambling about in the forest and digging for a bit of stone that’s probably broken and weighing more than an entire krunskuver... Why did I agree to this?” This time Bared couldn’t hold his laughter, and neither could Gotha. They burst out, startling a couple of small creatures on the side of the path that were trying to have an argument on whether they would build their nest here of further deep in the forest. Considering the noise made by three Töskrs hilariously ridiculing a fourth, they suddenly came to an agreement and disappeared behind the bushes.

“You agreed because if you didn’t you’d have had to deal with Gründ and his constant nagging for the rest of the season, same as the rest of us!” said Gotha who had managed to catch her breath. Baruf’s disgruntled “hmf” almost made her lose it again.

With this mood, the party arrived quickly and without incidents in the clearing where Gründ had found the ruins and the flying machine. He had been worried all along that they might encounter that krunskuver again, but at that time she was already on her way to the mountains. The trees had made sure she would be in good shape for the trip, and in the end she was glad that she hadn’t eaten Gründ. But I digress.

As soon as they reached the clearing, Gründ rushed to the bit of stone feather sticking out of the ground. Gotha, with a last look at the elder, went to explore the buildings. She really, really didn’t want to dig, and she might find some more details on the machine. “Alright, I want this over with. This place is scary and we promised to be back before next pulse” said Bared, knowing how Haylir would react to any delay.

It took them much less time to dig the machine out than it had to come to the clearing, but still they were panting when they were done. “Whew… That was some work, but you were right, Grund.” The old Töskr admitted after a good long sip of water. “And now” said Gründ, “let’s find how it works.”