Once Mazdall was on the wind, the worries did not plague her as deeply as they had before. The wind sweeping the underbrush of her feathers as she floated in the sky was excellent at taking her full attention. Her and Udakai floated along the autumn winds, admiring the bright red colours of the trees and the yellow tinge to the grass. 

 Through the wind, Udakai called to her, “Amazing, right?”

 “Breathtaking.” She responded. 

 Although she had seen Olzen from way up high many times before, no matter what, it never got old. The sprawling fields provided an excellent view, and the colours of autumn could be likened to a painting, swirling together in intricate layers. The cold wind whistled through her feathers, lifting her up in a loving embrace- dancing in the sky.

 Still though, her worry persisted. Udakai could see it on her face.

 “What’s wrong?” He called.

 “I just… I can’t stop thinking about those things in the forest. I feel like we’re missing something.”

 Udakai drifted closer to her, and nudged her wing with the tip of his, “You worry too much, Maz.”

 With a deep breath, Mazdall relinquished her paranoia as best she could. “Maybe…” She said quietly. After a moment, her tune changed, “... ‘Maz’, huh?.”

 Udakai chuckled, “Can I call you Maz?”

 Smiling, Mazdall nodded.

 After a moment of riding the wind together, Mazdall asked- “Anything I should be looking for?” To which he shrugged.

 “Same as before- it’s hard to miss anything from up here though.”

 Mazdall nodded along, but wasn’t sure she agreed. Though it would be hard to miss something as large as another Flocktic, something as small as an arrow would require immense attention to detail to notice.

 Aware of this, Mazdall started to scan the ground, flapping her wings periodically to keep her place in the sky. For as far as she could see, it was nothing but rivers, clusters of trees, and endless plains. Occasionally, she would spot a settlement in the distance, or perhaps a farm house and its wheat field. 

 As she scanned, her eyes traced up in the direction of Icora. Even from here, she could see the massive mountains towering- already coated with white powder. Mazdall herself had never even been near Icora, but the mountains were almost always in view. In her mind's eye, she tried to picture just how large they must be for her to see them from here. Turning her head, she swore she could see the thicket of Yimra as well- with its tall and dense forest and jungles. With a serene tilt of her head, she tried to picture how beautiful Yimra must look with the bright colours of autumn.

 Pulling her back to reality, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Though she wasn’t sure exactly what it was, it appeared to have been some sort of blurry white motion. As soon as she tilted her head to follow it, it was gone. For a moment, she wondered if she was just seeing things… However, she couldn’t just let it go.

 “Udakai, I think I saw something.”

 “You saw that white blur, too?”

 She nodded quickly.

 “Okay, let’s go check it out.”

 At once, the two of them tilted their bodies to rocket themselves down towards the ground. Trying to remain quiet, they caught themselves by their wings and softly landed on the ground. Udakai- with a serious stare- started to walk towards the trees where they had seen the blur.

 Mazdall followed closely behind, swiveling her head to look in all directions- suspicious. Though what they had seen wasn’t necessarily guaranteed to be anything dangerous, she couldn’t shake her anxiety, thus keeping her guard up.

 As they entered into the small forest, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was quiet, nothing but the rustle of leaves on the wind. Udakai stood in front of Mazdall, before turning his head to look at her.

 “Are you comfortable splitting up to search, Maz? If not, you can stay by me.”

 Mazdall shook her head, “No, that’s alright. I’ll be fine.”

 “Okay. You call out to me if anything seems weird though.”

 With a nod, she affirmed, “Yes. Promise.”

 Smiling, he directed her one way before taking off in the opposite direction. 

 Watching her steps closely, Mazdall began to scan the trees. Copying the patterns she had seen Udakai walk in, she made sure not to miss a single angle where something could hide. 

 The quiet that had before felt so calming suddenly felt eerie. However, so far nothing looked out of the ordinary. Stopping in place, she looked back and forth, huffing.

 Suddenly, she heard a loud crack. All her muscles tensed as she quickly looked down at her feet to make sure it wasn’t something she had stepped on. No- the sound was coming from somewhere else up ahead. It sounded like something breaking.

 Inching slowly towards the direction of the sound, she lowered down into a crouch as she prepared to investigate. As she approached the origin of the sound- just beyond a tree- she took a deep breath. Slowly, she peaked around the tree.

 Behind the tree, there was a boar. Chewing on a stick. After a second, it noticed her and turned around, running away and leaving the broken stick in its place.

 Mazdall released a sigh, relaxing her shoulders, internally chastising herself for getting so worked up.

 “..... y…u…. …n….d… …. …. m…r…. c…. ….”

 With a perk of her ears, Mazdall’s eyes widened. A voice. She wasn’t quite sure what it was saying, but she could hear where it was coming from- just in the distance. The voice sounded hushed, like an angry whisper. 

 Once again, all her muscles stiffened. She tilted her head to try to listen in the direction of the voice, her ear lifting subconsciously. 

 Suddenly, another voice. Perhaps different from the first, but it was impossible to tell.

 “I…. t…. …g….! … … Th…. ….n’t…. ….ct… … m…. ……s… h….d….t….”

 Still, she couldn’t make out what they were saying… 

 After a moment of contemplation, she elected to move towards the voices a bit. While a part of her wondered if she should get Udakai first, she wasn’t sure if that would alert whoever this was about their presence. In the end, she decided to investigate- just try to listen in, that’s all.

 With gritted teeth, she pressed forward, watching to make sure she didn’t step on anything particularly crunchy or loud.

 Slowly, as she crawled towards the sounds, they became more intelligible.

 “Ok…y w…ll, may…e we ne…d a new sp…t.”

 Finally, she heard a voice respond, loud and clear.

 “Are you joking?! And risk being discovered? No, we have to wait until nightfall.”

 “Shhh!” Another voice hushed. “K…p it d…wn!”

 Cautiously, Mazdall slowly crawled behind a small bush. Though the bush was dense, there were parts of it she could peak through. On the other side of the bush it looked like there were three Flocktics- all with bright white feathers. These did not appear to be common bandits- they all were dressed in high-quality, matching scout gear and heavy metal pauldrons. Their gear was accented with light blue fabric. The fabric bunched and met at a kind of medallion- which resembled some sort of familiar emblem…

 It clicked quickly for Mazdall when she saw those medallions. These appeared to be Icoran soldiers!

 Quickly, Mazdall covered her mouth as a gasp escaped. What were Icoran soldiers- gear and all- doing in Olzen? Even worse- they were sneaking around. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she wasn’t aware of the circumstance- maybe they weren’t hiding from the Olzish, but something else. Besides, she wasn’t sure about the rules- maybe they were allowed to be here. Even expected.

 Still, she watched cautiously, not too sure what to do. 

 One of the soldiers had a white cloak over one of her shoulders. With a loud, commanding presence- she looked to be their leader. She was young, but was staring at the other two with immense frustration. 

 “Both of you need to get it together. Keep quiet and do as I say.”

 “Yes, ma’am.” They replied in sync. 

 “I’m not babysitting, am I?”

 “No, ma’am.” They replied again.

 “Then quite acting like hatchlings.”

 Both of the others nodded sheepishly in compliance.

 The leader adjusted her stance, lowering her voice, “We still have a task to do. Anything that gets in our way, eradicate it- understand?”

 “Yes, Miss Ferron.”

 Hearing that, Mazdall decided it was time she took her leave. Slowly, she tried to back up away from the bush, careful not to disturb it. Steeling herself and leveling her breathing, she steadily backed away.

 CRACK. A small branch snapped under her foot. She cursed under her breath.

 “What was that?”

 “It was probably another boar, just leave it.”

 “We can’t be so careless as to ‘just leave it’.”

 “Stop being so paranoid.”

 As the other two bickered, Mazdall watched as the leader slowly swiveled her head around, scanning their surroundings. Her eyes landed on the bush that Mazdall was behind. Mazdall held her breath. For a moment, it looked as though she was going to start in Mazdall’s direction, before she suddenly sighed.

 “That’s enough. If our location has been compromised, we should just leave- not stay here and cower. We’ll check the perimeter and then find a new spot.” She said plainly.

 With a quiet sigh of relief, Mazdall watched as the leader led the other two in the opposite direction of her. Instantly, Mazdall took her leave, desperate to find Udakai without calling for him. 

 Her pace was steady, but disorganized, trying to avoid stepping on anything loud or breakable that littered the ground.

 Quickly, Mazdall tried to recall her placement in the forest relative to where Udakai must’ve been. Her head was whirring with anxiety- and suddenly a new fear came to her mind- what if they found Udakai before she did?

 Shaking her head, she reminded herself that Udakai was a Talon- a true Talon can do anything- she recited in her head. 

 Even while trying to reassure herself, she still found herself picking up the pace. Soon enough, she had progressed into a rapid sprint.

 In her panic, she was barely aware of her surroundings, and suddenly tripped on a large, fallen branch. As she started to fall to the ground, something grabbed her.

 “Woah!” A familiar voice said, “Maz, slow down- what’s gotten into you?”

 Udakai. Thank goodness.

 Without even stopping to thank Udakai, Mazdall righted herself and tried to explain, “Udakai! I-I think I saw- there are Flocktics here- they look like Icoran soldiers. Is that… normal?”

 “Wait- what makes you think they were Icoran soldiers?”

 “They were wearing what looked like Icoran armour- at least, it looked similar to what was described in my book. A-and they had these medallions- they looked like the symbol of Icora.”

 Udakai seemed to completely halt.

 “Wait.” He started, before holding a long pause. “Are you saying you think you saw Icoran scouts?”

 “Yes. I think, I guess I’m not totally sure.”

 With a worried hand, Udakai stroked his crest, releasing a breath of pure stress. “Okay. Wow. That’s a lot.”

 “Is that… bad?” Mazdall asked.

 “Well… I don’t know. They aren’t supposed to be here in gear without an escort- that’s against the winter alliance. Did you… talk to-”

 “No, they didn’t see me- but I heard them- they sound like they're sneaking around.”

 “Oh skies, that’s sketchy.” Udakai put a hand to his snout, pondering. “Yeah…” He said, “Yeah, we need to go report this to Jeyn.”

 “The Commander?”

 “Yes. We should go now. He’ll know if they are supposed to be here or not.”

 A shiver ran down Mazdall’s spine. By the sounds of it, this was much more concerning than she had originally thought- and she might’ve already tipped them off.