-Greater Ice Tortoise Migration-
Halfway between Vimgalir and Ivorfall, a large game trail crosses over the main road. Very nearly all year this is not a problem, and most caravans, travelling in warmer months like smarter folks, will pass by this location without thought or incident. But the Menagerie finds their path blocked by a long, sloooow line of enormous ice-spiked tortoises on their way to their spring breeding grounds to the east.
Highlights:
-Swindle spends the afternoon asking them one or two at a time, to just please stop for a few minutes at most, and allow the caravan to pass by, before finally giving up and going to have a foxnap under a wagon. The tortoises all insist that they are in a hurry, and can pause for nothing. It takes all day.
-Amity tries to convince Katya to climb up on one of the tortoises.
-Maxwell finds the largest felled-log he can, and carves a quite passable wooden ice tortoise. It weighs 20 pounds.
-Variel and Ample Harvest use the extra time to cook up some experimental cuisine.
-Rhogkun has a nap and misses the entire thing.
-Birds-
Travelling deep in the wilderness between towns, Swindle spots a flock of birds rising up from an area near the mountains. They must be quite large, as they fly towards the caravan for quite awhile but never reach it, disappearing into the forest about halfway through the day. He is uneasy, keeping a sharp watch until the sun sets. The caravan camps, and guards are posted throughout the night, but nothing happens.
In the morning, when the Aurochs are being hitched to the wagons, a beautiful song begins to emanate from the forest, all around the caravan. Many people stop what they are doing, dropping weapons or tools, and just... listen...
When the harpies fly out of the trees on silent owl-like wings, heading straight for a pair of half-hitched aurochs, the entire group is surprised, and many people are simply standing still, doing nothing at all.